Cascades and the political blogosphere (original) (raw)
Fifteen Minutes of Fame: The Power of Blogs in the Lifecycle of Viral Political Information
Policy & Internet, 2011
This empirical study addresses dynamics of viral information in the blogosphere, presenting a new methodology which enables the capture of dynamism and the time-factor of information diffusion in networks. Data was gathered on nearly 10,000 blogs and 13,000 blog posts, linking to 65 of the top U.S. presidential election videos that became viral on the Internet between March 2007 and June 2009. The article argues that the blogosphere is not monolithic and illuminates the role of four important blog types: elite, top-political, top-general and tail blogs. It creates a map of the 'life cycle' of blogs posting links to viral information. It shows that elite and top-general blogs ignite the virality process, which means that they get the chance to frame messages and influence agenda setting while top-political and tail blogs act as followers in the process.
Fifteen Minutes of Fame: The Place of Blogs in the Life Cycle of Viral Political Information
This empirical study addresses dynamics of viral information in the blogosphere and aims to fill gaps in the literature. In this study, we present a new methodology which enables us to capture the dynamism and the time-factor of information diffusion in networks. Moreover, we argue that the blogosphere is not monolithic and illuminate the role of four important blog types: elite, toppolitical, top-general and tail blogs. We also create a map of the ‗life cycle‘ of blogs posting links to viral information, specifically viral videos at the 2008 US presidential election. Finally, we show that elite and top-general blogs ignite the virality process, which means that they get the chance to frame messages and influence agenda setting, while, top-political and tail blogs act as followers in the process. To accomplish this, we gathered data on blogs (n=9,765) and their posts (n=13,173) linking to 65 of the top US presidential election videos that became viral on the Internet during the period between March 2007 and June 2009.
Blogs: Spinning a Web of Virality
Proceedings of the 2011 …, 2011
The aim of this study is to understand the role of bloggers in driving viral information. More specifically, we develop a new methodology that creates a map of the "life cycle" of blogs posting links to viral information. Our dataset focuses blogs linking to the most significant viral videos of the 2008 US presidential election. To do so, we gathered data on all blogs (n=9,765) and their posts (n=13,173) linking to 65 of the top US presidential election videos that went viral on the Internet during the period between March 2007 and June 2009. Among other things, our findings illuminate the importance of different types of blogs: elite, top-political, topgeneral and tail blogs. We also found that while elite and topgeneral blogs create political information, they drive and sustain the viral process, whereas top-political and tail blogs act as followers in the process.
Social Epistemology , 2012
This article discusses the current epistemological status of the political blogosphere, in light both of the concerns raised by Alvin Goldman in his 2008 paper “The Social Epistemology of Blogging” and the recent drastic changes in the structure of the blogosphere. I argue that the political blogosphere replicates epistemically beneficial functions of the mainstream media for the functioning of democracy, and defend this claim from objections to the blogosphere that have been levelled by Goldman and Richard Posner. I then provide an expanded defence of the political blogosphere in response to these particular objections.
Do Blogs Matter? Weblogs in American Politics
This study investigates whether average political bloggers engage in four distinct activities: informing readers, checking the media, engaging in political advocacy, and gathering money for charitable causes. Findings show that most bloggers inform their readers about articles in the media or to draw attention to key posts on other blogs. Somewhat less frequently, most bloggers write posts that detect errors or biases in the media. Bloggers use their blogs to pursue activist and philanthropist activities even less often. Ideology and traffic levels slightly affect the content and purpose of blog posts.
Article Bloggers ’ Community Characteristics and Influence within Greek Political Blogosphere
2012
This paper investigates the properties of central or core political blogs. They can be located as clusters of blogs whose members have many incoming links. Other blogs form clouds around them in the sense that they link the core blogs. A case study records Greek political blogs and their incoming links reported through their blogrolls. The adjacency matrix from the blogs' social network is analyzed and clusters are located. Three of them, those with the larger numbers of incoming links, may be considered to be central. Next, four measures of influence are used to test the influence of the central blogs. The findings suggest that there are many kinds of central blogs, influential and non-influential, and high influence does not always involve high hyperlinking.
Reconceptualizing Political Blogs as Part of Elite Political Media
Despite a literature on blogs that dates back nearly a decade, scholars have yet to reach a consensus conceptual definition for the blog as an object or as a medium. Most research on blogs relies on a broad, shallow structural definition of blogs as sites that display frequently updated posts in reverse-chronological order. However, when blogs or blogging is operationalized, this definition is often disregarded in favor of a third-party tool such as the use of blog index sites (e.g., Technorati, BlogPulse) or reliance on survey respondents to decide what they think "blog" refers to.
Bloggers' community characteristics and influence within greek political blogosphere
academia.edu, 2012
This paper investigates the properties of central or core political blogs. They can be located as clusters of blogs whose members have many incoming links. Other blogs form clouds around them in the sense that they link the core blogs. A case study records Greek political blogs and their incoming links reported through their blogrolls. The adjacency matrix from the blogs' social network is analyzed and clusters are located. Three of them, those with the larger numbers of incoming links, may be considered to be central. Next, four measures of influence are used to test the influence of the central blogs. The findings suggest that there are many kinds of central blogs, influential and non-influential, and high influence does not always involve high hyperlinking.