Popularity or Authority?

While discussing authority in class, I couldn’t help but
drift back to my past memories of high school.
Picture this—Nominees for prom queen and king line up. In our case, there is one representative from
each organization (one male, one female).
We have representatives from Student Council, Choir, Band, Theatre,
Sports…etc. Who will win? The contest is decided by popular vote;
therefore the most “popular” person will win.
In my high school, two people in band won, and the crowd was ecstatic,
except for the elite group who was sure that they were a shoe in for the crown. I would venture to say that this elite group
had influence and authority on a daily basis, but when the votes were tallied
up it became obvious that they were not the most popular people.
Now I would like to apply the same concept of popularity vs.
authority to blogging. While a
particular blogger might receiver a notable number of “hits” (views of their
blog by other people), they might not be an authority. Visa versa, a voice of authority might have a
blog that is popular. What does this
teach us about the measurement of popularity and authority in general? Both concepts are difficult ones to
measure. Popularity is not always
positively correlated with authoritativeness.