‘The Noise Here is Beginning to Get Comical’: An Exploratory Analysis of American Political Blog Communities on Election Day 2008

Abstract

Since their creation over a decade ago, blogs have become an important means of communication. Blogs focusing on politics have risen to prominence in the United States, especially during elections. Prior research into political blogs has focused on content and link analysis, but few studies have analyzed the comments left on political blogs by readers. The interactions between bloggers and readers in the comments of political blogs have created political communities. This study attempts to explore the blog communities created on Election Day 2008 through quantitative and qualitative analysis of the comments left by blog readers on five elite American political blogs. Quantitative results showed that a few commenters account for the majority of the comments posted. Qualitative analysis of one blog post and its associated comments revealed more vulgarity than deliberative debate between commenters. These conclusions are preliminary, but they demonstrate the necessity of further research into blog comments and blog communities.