Political Blogosphere Research Articles

BLEWS: Using Blogs to Provide Context for News Articles

An overwhelming number of news articles are available every day via the internet. Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to peruse more than a handful; furthermore it is difficult to ascertain an article's social context, i.e., is it popular, what sorts of people are reading it, etc. In this paper, we develop a system to address this problem in the restricted domain of political news by harnessing implicit and explicit contextual information from the blogosphere. Specifically, we track thousands of blogs and the news articles they cite, collapsing news articles that have highly overlapping content. We then tag each article with the number of blogs citing it, the political orientation of those blogs, and the level of emotional charge expressed in the blog posts that link to the news article. We summarize and present the results to the user via a novel visualization which displays this contextual information; the user can then find the most popular articles, the articles most cited by liberals, the articles most emotionally discussed in the political blogosphere, etc.

Impact and Diffusion of Sentiment in Political Communication – An Empirical Analysis of Political Weblogs

In this paper, we examine whether sentiment of political blog entries is associated with increased feedback in terms of the quantity of triggered comments and whether the diffusion of sentiment might take place in the political blogosphere. Based on a data set of approximately 17,000 blog entries from the 60 most important German political blogs, we find that blog entries with either more positive or more negative overall sentiment tend to receive significantly more comments compared to sentiment-neutral or mixed-sentiment entries. Furthermore, our results show that positive as well as negative emotions might diffuse in the subsequent comments to corresponding blog entries.

ИНТЕГРАТИВНЫЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ СОВРЕМЕННОГО ПРОТЕСТА (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ НЕМЕЦКОЯЗЫЧНОЙ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ БЛОГОСФЕРЫ)

Цель. Статья посвящена анализу характеристик немецкоязычной политической блогосферы на официальной платформе https://www.cision.de/top-10-blogs-politik/, определяющих пространственно-временное, предметное, коллективно-личностное системно-коммуникативные измерения протеста; актуальных выражений Net-мышления и электронной демократии как новых особенных форм современной политической коммуникации в исследуемых практиках протеста. Раскрывается комплексная сущность политических блогов, детерминируемая их полифункциональностью, дискурсивной гибридностью и стилистическим синкретизмом. Описывается совокупность компонентов, характеризующих политический блог как комплексный жанр онлайн-коммуникации; релевантные коммуникативные стратегии и тактики массового адресата, индивидуального адресанта и со-адресантов. Определяются параметры среды интернет-коммуникации, обусловливающие способ организации коммуникативного взаимодействия блогера и потенциального адресата и выбор языковых средств, необходимых для реализации интенциональности блогера. Основное внимание сосредоточено на совокупности классифицирующих признаков, которые находят свое проявление в стилистическом синкретизме политических блогов.Метод или методология проведения работы. Эмпирический материал был отобран методом сплошной выборки на официальной платформе https://www.cision.de/top-10-blogs-politik. Методы исследования включают в себя общенаучные методы анализа и синтеза, интерпретативный метод, контент-анализ, стилистический метод, применяемый для анализа фрагментов политических блогов.Результаты. Выделены проявления медиатизации как инструмента общественного взаимодействия в анализируемых протестных практиках, воздействующих на сознание и жизнедеятельность индивида. Результаты исследования позволяют по – новому переосмыслить взаимосвязь между сетевой коммуникацией и социокультурными изменениями.Область применения результатов. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы в базовом курсе прикладной лингвистики, лингвокультурологии и социолингвистике.

Social media and political communication

Abstract As the Internet has come to play a greater role in politics, there has been a growing scholarly interest in how digital and social media are changing politics. The competition between the innovation and normalization hypotheses has been at the center of the debate. This article sets out to identify evidence of innovation and normalization in terms of how politicians communicate in- and the level of influence they are attaining within the political blogosphere. The analyses conducted show paradoxical results as we find that those groups of politicians who are utilizing political communication in the blogosphere in more innovative and progressive ways – mirroring the hopes and expectations about how social media might influence politicians and political communication – have weaker positions within the blog network compared to other politicians.

Blogging Three Ways in Vietnam's Political Blogosphere

This article discusses the dynamism of Vietnam's social media landscape by identifying three kinds of blogging and the different political views espoused by Vietnamese bloggers. This classification is based on a thematic analysis of blog postings, media discussions and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2013–15. The author's mapping of Vietnam's blogosphere demonstrates four features: first, the growth of political blogs; second, how the blogosphere has become an arena for competing political ideologies; third, the utilization of blogs by various factions within the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) to serve their own interests; and fourth, blogs as an important source of independent news and information. Understanding political blogs in Vietnam today helps us understand how Vietnamese bloggers maximize online freedom of speech, the zigzagging attitude of the CPV in managing the Internet in an attempt to reinforce its legitimacy and the challenges blogs pose to the state-run media's monopoly in the digital age.

Racial Discourse Networks: Race Blogs, Media Influence & the Possibilities for Collective Action

In this paper I analyze the network structure of race blogs in relation to the broader political blogosphere and traditional media landscape. Findings show that race blogs exhibit a multi-level, homophilous link structure with respect to non-race blogs, and among race blogs. Race blogs also frame their content in racial terms, unlike their non-race blog counterparts. I argue that these differences set race blogs apart from political blogs and warrant using a different theoretical lens to understand their nature and role within the U.S. political and media landscape. Specifically, I argue that race blogs should be viewed not only through the theoretical lens of political and media influence, but also through the lens of collective action.

Лингвокультурные особенности российской политической блогосферы

Лингвокультурные особенности российской политической блогосферы

La blogosfera política española en las Elecciones Generales 2011. Una comparación entre blogs de candidatos, periodistas y ciudadanos

El presente estudio propone un análisis de la blogosfera política española durante la campaña electoral previa a las Elecciones Generales del 20 de noviembre de 2011, con el fin de identificar los principales temas de discusión que centraron el debate en tres tipos de bitácoras: seis blogs de candidatos políticos de las principales formaciones políticas españolas, cuatro a cargo de periodistas destacados de la esfera pública central y cuatro de ciudadanos anónimos. Se plantea un análisis de contenido fundamentado en 57 categorías temáticas para establecer la composición de las agendas de los catorce bloggers y realizar una comparación entre ellas. El análisis mostrará las líneas de fuerza de las agendas de los tres actores del proceso de comunicación política partidos políticos, medios de comunicación y ciudadanía–, así como las particularidades asociadas a los tres tipos de autoría.

Visualizing Computational Social Science

Parallel advances in communication and visualization technologies have enabled the study and visualization of human behavior at a scale and level of detail never before possible. Nowhere are these advances more evident than within the emerging field of computational social science. Using Adamic and Glance’s image of the political blogosphere as an example and social representations theory as a guiding framework, we explore how computational social science visualizations may aid and complicate public understanding of this new science. We conclude with a discussion of best practices for the production and reuse of computational social science images for public consumption.

The political blog space: A new arena for political representation?

While the academic interest in the political blogosphere has grown exponentially in recent years, existing research is predominantly dedicated to political campaigning. In view of the “diminishing prestige of the electoral process” and the “rise of new forms of legitimacy” a broader political analysis of blogs is called for. This article investigates whether the political blogosphere is an arena for political representation by asking (1) how representatives communicate with citizens through blogging in order to aid central functions of political representation, such as accountability, connectivity, and inquiry, and (2) what strategic, technological, and normative factors explain differences in representatives’ communication with citizens. The empirical analysis, based on a survey questionnaire targeting all Swedish blogging representatives, illuminates four different approaches to blogging, with different drivers and implications for the representative democracy.

The (non)regulation of the blogosphere: the ethics of online debate

New technologies have enabled innovative possibilities of communication, but have also imposed new upon matters of ethics, particularly in regards to platforms such as blogs. This article builds upon the reflections and experiences on this issue, in an attempt to map and analyse the ethical questions underlying the Portuguese blogosphere. In order to reflect on the possibility and opportunity to create a code of ethics for bloggers, attention is permanently paid to the political blogosphere.

The “Deliberative Digital Divide:” Opinion Leadership and Integrative Complexity in the U.S. Political Blogosphere

This study examined the association between political ideology and linguistic indicators of integrative complexity and opinion leadership in U.S. political blog posts (N = 519). Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) text analysis, we found that the posts of conservative bloggers were more integratively simple than those of liberal bloggers. Furthermore, in support of a proposed opinion leadership model of integrative complexity, the relationship between ideology and integrative complexity was mediated by psychological distancing (an indicator of a hierarchical communication style). These findings demonstrate an ideological divide in the extent to which the blogosphere reflects deliberative democratic ideals.

‘LiveJournal Libra!’: The political blogosphere and voting preferences in Russia in 2011–2012

This study explores relationship between the Internet and the Russian national election of 2011–2012. In contrast to other studies, we focus on the blogosphere as a political factor. Our conclusions are based on a study of the LiveJournal blogging platform represented by a sample of political posts from the top 2000 bloggers for 13-week-long periods. Sampling from the population of about 180,000 posts was performed automatically with a topic modelling algorithm, while the analysis of the resulting 3690 texts was carried out manually by five coders. We found that the most influential Russian blogs perform the role of a media ‘stronghold’ of the political opposition. Moreover, we established a relationship between the weekly pre-election ratings of the opposition parties and presidential candidates and the indicators of political activity in the blogosphere. Our results cautiously suggest that political activity on the Internet is not simply an online projection of offline political activity: it can itself provoke activity in offline political life.

Egyptian revolution 2.0: political blogging, civic engagement, and citizen journalism

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPREFACE 1: Blogging as Cyberactivism: Introductory Themes 2: Political Blogging: (Re)Envisioning Civic Engagement and Citizen Journalism 3: The Arab Political Blogosphere: The Case of Egypt 4: Blogging on Violations of Human Rights and Limitations on Freedom 5: Blogging on Governmental Corruption 6: The Future of Political Blogging in Egypt: Looking Ahead References

Blogs, artefactos y política

This article problematizes the acceptance of the public in the virtual space emerging in the Ecuadorian political blogosphere, in the context of the National Constitutional Assembly. Beginning with an analysis of the spread of politics to virtual spaces, the blogosphere is approached as a political project, and technology as ways of ordering the world that society stabilizes. The political blogosphere is taken to be a regulated public space with the ability to order and classify the virtual world by means of social, political and technological tools. Finally, the study of this new virtual public space from a techno-social focus is proposed, taking into account virtual surroundings as a space in which conducts are formed.

Interactions of News Frames and Incivility in the Political Blogosphere: Examining Perceptual Outcomes

The anonymity and flexibility of the online world allows the free expression of views. This same anonymity and unconstrained expression can initiate uncivil debate. The political blogosphere is thus replete with uncivil discussions and becomes an apt context to examine the influence of incivility on news frames. Moreover, although there is an increasingly growing literature on framing, few have examined framing effects in the contemporary media landscape. Thus, the present study brings in literature from incivility and framing effects to examine the influence of incivility on news frames for perceptual outcomes. The study uses an experiment embedded in a Web survey. Findings show that incivility increases the credibility of a news article while decreasing political trust and political efficacy. Further, results demonstrate the interactions of incivility and news frames. For instance, news credibility is increased only in the value framed condition. And a combination of strategic frames and incivility results in the least political trust and external efficacy. Implications are discussed. [Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resource(s): stimulus material for the experiment.]

Book Review: Making It in the Political Blogosphere, by Tanni Haas

Book Review: <i>Making It in the Political Blogosphere</i>, by Tanni Haas

Normalizing the Hyperlink

This study examines the formation of linking norms among political bloggers and professional journalists. Through in-depth interviews with Web editors, reporters, and bloggers within and outside professional newsrooms, it explores the institutional and cultural forces at work in determining whom blogs and news sites link to, and in what contexts. Drawing on the framework of institutionalism, this study aims to supplement research on journalistic normalization and hyperlink patterns by providing a fuller understanding of the processes by which professional journalism and the political blogosphere mutually adapt toward new norms. It finds a significant role for blogging’s cultural values in establishing the importance of linking within professional newsrooms, but also a heavy influence on journalists’ linking practices from bureaucratic processes within those newsrooms.

Jointly they edit: examining the impact of community identification on political interaction in Wikipedia.

BackgroundIn their 2005 study, Adamic and Glance coined the memorable phrase ‘divided they blog’, referring to a trend of cyberbalkanization in the political blogosphere, with liberal and conservative blogs tending to link to other blogs with a similar political slant, and not to one another. As political discussion and activity increasingly moves online, the power of framing political discourses is shifting from mass media to social media.Methodology/Principal FindingsContinued examination of political interactions online is critical, and we extend this line of research by examining the activities of political users within the Wikipedia community. First, we examined how users in Wikipedia choose to display their political affiliation. Next, we analyzed the patterns of cross-party interaction and community participation among those users proclaiming a political affiliation. In contrast to previous analyses of other social media, we did not find strong trends indicating a preference to interact with members of the same political party within the Wikipedia community.Conclusions/SignificanceOur results indicate that users who proclaim their political affiliation within the community tend to proclaim their identity as a ‘Wikipedian’ even more loudly. It seems that the shared identity of ‘being Wikipedian’ may be strong enough to triumph over other potentially divisive facets of personal identity, such as political affiliation.

Creating, Perpetuating, or Negating a Fabricated Controversy: Tracking Flows of Influence between Traditional Media and the Political Blogosphere

On August 4, 1961, Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. However, a sizable portion of voting-age Americans adhere to the belief that Obama was born outside the U.S. According to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll on the “birther controversy,” since the release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate, the number of polled Americans who doubt his birthplace declined but remains notable at 17%.This content analysis examined coverage of the birther controversy to determine the role different media have played in perpetuating, sustaining, or dispelling its claims. Based conceptually in the realm of intermedia agenda setting, this study tracked trends in the amount and type of coverage this issue received from five conservative blogs, five mainstream news blogs, and seven outlets representative of traditional mainstream news media.A total of 427 stories were coded from a four-year period. Significant positive correlations were found between the amount of coverage of the issue in conservative blogs and the traditional mainstream media (rs=.764, pThe substantial correlations found in this study between conservative blogs, mainstream media blogs, and traditional mainstream media indicate the potential for echo chambers to exist across ideologically dissimilar media. The various outlets showed similar agendas regarding the birther issue, and, in large part, coverage of the issue rose and fell together across all three media sources.