Political Blogs and the Bloggers Who Blog Them - School of ...
Political Blogs and the Bloggers Who Blog Them - School of ...
Political Blogs and the Bloggers Who Blog Them - School of ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>Political</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>gers</strong> <strong>Who</strong> <strong>Blog</strong> <strong>Them</strong>:<br />
Is <strong>the</strong> <strong>Political</strong> <strong>Blog</strong>osphere <strong>and</strong> Echo Chamber?<br />
by Kevin Wallsten<br />
Department <strong>of</strong> <strong>Political</strong> Science<br />
University <strong>of</strong> California, Berkeley<br />
Paper Presented at <strong>the</strong> American <strong>Political</strong> Science Association Annual Meeting<br />
Washington, D.C.<br />
September 1-4, 2005<br />
Abstract<br />
Most studies <strong>of</strong> political blogging have focused exclusively on <strong>the</strong> so-called “A-list” political<br />
blogs. While <strong>the</strong>se studies have provided important insights into <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> A-list political<br />
blogs (Adamic <strong>and</strong> Glance, 2005), how A-list political blogs influence media coverage (Drezner<br />
<strong>and</strong> Farrell, 2004) <strong>and</strong> who A-list political bloggers are (McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole, 2004), <strong>the</strong>y have<br />
largely ignored <strong>the</strong> thous<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> less read political blogs that are written by average citizens<br />
every day. As a result, relatively little is known about political blogging “by <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> us”<br />
(Schiano et al., 2004). Perhaps most surprising in this regard is <strong>the</strong> fact that while <strong>the</strong>re has been<br />
much debate over whe<strong>the</strong>r political blogging is a form <strong>of</strong> political participation (McKenna <strong>and</strong><br />
Pole, 2004), <strong>the</strong>re has been no systematic research into how ordinary people are using blogs as a<br />
form <strong>of</strong> political expression. In this paper, I will address this oversight by using a computer<br />
assisted, quantitative content analysis <strong>of</strong> 25 r<strong>and</strong>omly selected, non-A-list political blogs over <strong>the</strong><br />
six month period from July to November 2004 in order to determine <strong>the</strong> relationship between<br />
mainstream media coverage <strong>and</strong> political blog discussion. The results <strong>of</strong> this study will help shed<br />
light on whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere is a merely an “echo chamber” for <strong>the</strong> messages <strong>of</strong><br />
political elites as reported in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media.<br />
1
Introduction<br />
Although <strong>the</strong> term “blog” (which refers to a regularly updated personal web site with<br />
posts appearing in reverse chronological order) 1 has been around since 1997, political blogging<br />
seems to be a more recent phenomenon. According to most accounts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> history <strong>of</strong> blogging, 2<br />
politically oriented blogs first emerged after <strong>the</strong> events <strong>of</strong> September 11, 2001 – as people turned<br />
to blogs to both express <strong>the</strong>ir feelings about <strong>the</strong> terrorist attacks on America <strong>and</strong> to locate<br />
information not available in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media (Scott, 2004). In 2002, many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> bloggers<br />
who were turned on to blogging as a result <strong>of</strong> September 11 th began blogging about <strong>the</strong> potential<br />
for a war with Iraq. Some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se political bloggers, such as Instapundit, Daily Kos, <strong>and</strong><br />
AndrewSullivan.com, began to attract wide readerships as a result <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir discussions <strong>of</strong><br />
American domestic <strong>and</strong> foreign policy. In fact, some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se so-called “A-list” blogs (i.e. blogs<br />
that receive a high number <strong>of</strong> “hits” <strong>and</strong> incoming links) became so popular that many political<br />
elites <strong>and</strong> traditional media institutions began to adopt <strong>the</strong> form <strong>the</strong>mselves. In fact, by 2004<br />
blogging had become so mainstream that all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> major presidential c<strong>and</strong>idates – ranging from<br />
Howard Dean to George Bush – had started <strong>the</strong>ir own blogs <strong>and</strong> both <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> major political<br />
parties had granted press credentials to political bloggers to cover <strong>the</strong>ir conventions. 3 Some<br />
evidence suggests that <strong>the</strong> mass public has been taken in by all <strong>of</strong> this high pr<strong>of</strong>ile blogging.<br />
According to a recent study by <strong>the</strong> Pew Internet & American Life Project, 4 for example, 32<br />
1 There are countless definitions <strong>of</strong> what a blog is. According to Drezner <strong>and</strong> Farrell (2004), for example, a blog is<br />
“a web page with minimal to no external editing, providing on-line commentary, periodically updated <strong>and</strong> presented<br />
in reverse chronological order, with hyperlinks to o<strong>the</strong>r online sources.” According to Mortensen <strong>and</strong> Walker (2002)<br />
blogs are “frequently updated websites, usually personal, with commentary <strong>and</strong> links.” On her blog, “The<br />
Pr<strong>of</strong>essional-Lurker,” Lois Ann Scheidt defines a blog as, “A weblog is a frequently modified website that allows<br />
updating with items that are grouped primarily by <strong>the</strong> time <strong>and</strong>/or date <strong>of</strong> posting. Entries usually appear in reverse<br />
chronological order. Contents <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> weblog may be available publicly or through restricted access. Weblogs may<br />
also utilize special s<strong>of</strong>tware designed for this implementation.” McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole (2004) define blogs as "web<br />
pages that are regularly updated, operated by one person or a small group <strong>of</strong> people <strong>and</strong> developed for little to no<br />
cost. Individual entries or posts are chronologically updated like a diary with <strong>the</strong> most recent posts viewed first."<br />
2<br />
For a good history <strong>of</strong> weblogs see Blood (2000) <strong>and</strong> Blood (2003).<br />
3<br />
The credentialed bloggers posted <strong>the</strong>ir entries at www.conventionbloggers.com for <strong>the</strong> Republican National<br />
Convention <strong>and</strong> at www.cyberjournalist.net for <strong>the</strong> Democratic National Convention.<br />
4 For more details on this study see http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP blogging data.pdf.<br />
2
million U.S. citizens now regularly turn to weblogs for information <strong>and</strong> 9% <strong>of</strong> Internet users said<br />
<strong>the</strong>y read political blogs “frequently” or “sometimes” during <strong>the</strong> 2004 presidential campaign. 5<br />
This explosion in <strong>the</strong> popularity <strong>of</strong> blogging has been accompanied by a surge in <strong>the</strong><br />
number <strong>of</strong> academic studies focusing on blogs. Drezner <strong>and</strong> Farrell (2004), for example, have<br />
found that journalists are increasingly likely to refer to “A-list” political blogs as part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
news ga<strong>the</strong>ring routines <strong>and</strong> that <strong>the</strong>se “A-list” blogs receive a disproportionate number <strong>of</strong> links<br />
from o<strong>the</strong>r blogs. In a somewhat different vein, McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole (2004) surveyed <strong>the</strong> authors<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most “popular” political blogs in order to determine who blogs, how popular bloggers use<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir blogs <strong>and</strong> what impact political blogging has on traditional forms <strong>of</strong> political participation. 6<br />
More recently, Cornfield et al (2005) have attempted to link <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> “A-list” political<br />
blogs to mass media coverage by tracking <strong>the</strong> discussion <strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> high pr<strong>of</strong>ile political<br />
issues during one month <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2004 election campaign <strong>and</strong> Adamic <strong>and</strong> Glance (2005) have<br />
analyzed <strong>the</strong> posts <strong>of</strong> 40 “A-list” political blogs during <strong>the</strong> two months prior to <strong>the</strong> 2004<br />
Presidential election in order to determine which issues <strong>and</strong> actors were most frequently<br />
discussed. In short, <strong>the</strong>re has been no dearth <strong>of</strong> studies focusing on political blogs.<br />
While all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se studies about political blogs have provided important insights into <strong>the</strong><br />
dynamics <strong>and</strong> consequences <strong>of</strong> “A-list” blogs, <strong>the</strong>y have largely ignored <strong>the</strong> thous<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> less<br />
read political blogs that are written by average citizens every day. As a result, relatively little is<br />
known about political blogging “by <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> us” (Schiano et al., 2004). Perhaps most surprising<br />
in this regard is <strong>the</strong> fact that while <strong>the</strong>re has been much debate over whe<strong>the</strong>r political blogging is<br />
5 There is also indirect evidence that Americans turned to political blogs with increasing frequency during <strong>the</strong> 2004<br />
Presidential campaign. For instance, <strong>the</strong> most popular political blogs, such as DailyKos, Wonkette <strong>and</strong> Instapundit,<br />
received dramatic increases in <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> “traffic” in <strong>the</strong> months leading up to <strong>the</strong> 2004 Presidential election. See<br />
http://techcentralstation.com/011105B.html.<br />
6<br />
Popular here refers to how widely read <strong>the</strong> blogger’s blog is. In order to determine who <strong>the</strong> popular bloggers were,<br />
McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole selected <strong>the</strong> top 125 political weblogs using <strong>the</strong> rankings from four websites that rank <strong>the</strong><br />
popularity <strong>of</strong> blogs: <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong>treet, <strong>the</strong> Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, Technorati’s Top 100 <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Truth Laid Bear. Each<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se sites has slightly different ways to measure popularity – ranging from <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> incoming links to <strong>the</strong><br />
number <strong>of</strong> unique “hits.” In order to account for <strong>the</strong>se differences, McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole decided to include only those<br />
weblogs that appeared on at least two <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> four top rankings.<br />
3
a form <strong>of</strong> political participation, <strong>the</strong>re has been no systematic research into how ordinary people<br />
are using blogs as a form <strong>of</strong> political expression. In this paper, I will address this oversight by<br />
using a computer assisted, quantitative content analysis <strong>of</strong> 25 r<strong>and</strong>omly selected, non-A-list<br />
political blogs over <strong>the</strong> six month period from July to November 2004 in order to determine <strong>the</strong><br />
relationship between mainstream media coverage <strong>and</strong> political blog discussion during a period <strong>of</strong><br />
high political engagement – <strong>the</strong> presidential election campaign. More specifically, this paper will<br />
test <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis that <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere is no more than an “echo chamber” for <strong>the</strong><br />
messages <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mainstream media.<br />
<strong>Political</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong>: Participation or Expression?<br />
With so much political blogging going on, <strong>the</strong>re has been a rush to determine where<br />
political blogging fits into traditional classifications <strong>of</strong> political activity. In particular, <strong>the</strong>re has<br />
been a great deal <strong>of</strong> debate over whe<strong>the</strong>r political blogging constitutes a new <strong>and</strong> unique form <strong>of</strong><br />
political participation. 7 Whe<strong>the</strong>r political blogging is, in fact, a form <strong>of</strong> political participation, <strong>of</strong><br />
course, depends primarily on <strong>the</strong> definition <strong>of</strong> political participation that one is working with. In<br />
<strong>the</strong> political science literature, political participation is usually defined as “action directed<br />
explicitly toward influencing <strong>the</strong> distribution <strong>of</strong> social goods <strong>and</strong> social values” (Rosenstone <strong>and</strong><br />
Hansen, 1993). Unlike <strong>the</strong> definitions used by practitioners in o<strong>the</strong>r fields, this definition points<br />
to <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> individual’s motives in engaging in a particular activity. 8 If <strong>the</strong><br />
individual is motivated by a desire to influence <strong>the</strong> distribution <strong>of</strong> goods <strong>and</strong> values, <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong><br />
activity is participation. Similarly, if <strong>the</strong>y are motivated by some o<strong>the</strong>r goal – such as <strong>the</strong> desire<br />
for self expression – <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> activity is not political participation.<br />
In order to know whe<strong>the</strong>r political blogging is political participation, <strong>the</strong>refore, it is first<br />
7<br />
For a good example <strong>of</strong> this discussion see McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole (2004).<br />
8 In <strong>the</strong>ir analysis <strong>of</strong> political blogging, for example, McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole (2004) argue that <strong>the</strong> act <strong>of</strong> writing <strong>and</strong><br />
thinking about politics <strong>and</strong> sharing one’s views with o<strong>the</strong>rs constitutes political participation. As a result, <strong>the</strong>y claim<br />
that blogging needs to be included among o<strong>the</strong>r more traditional forms <strong>of</strong> participation, such as voting, attending<br />
rallies <strong>and</strong> signing petitions.<br />
4
necessary to know what <strong>the</strong> motivations <strong>of</strong> political bloggers are <strong>and</strong> how <strong>the</strong>y use <strong>the</strong>ir blogs.<br />
Indeed, if bloggers use <strong>the</strong>ir blogs to run political advertisements, encourage <strong>the</strong>ir readers to sign<br />
on-line petitions or mobilize <strong>the</strong>ir readers to vote, <strong>the</strong>n political blogging is probably best<br />
understood as a form <strong>of</strong> political participation. If, however, bloggers are using <strong>the</strong>ir blogs as<br />
nothing more than technological “soapboxes” from which to spout <strong>the</strong>ir opinions into <strong>the</strong> vast<br />
expanse <strong>of</strong> cyberspace, an alternative definition <strong>of</strong> political blogging may be required. Of course,<br />
<strong>the</strong> appropriate way to uncover <strong>the</strong> motivations <strong>of</strong> political bloggers <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir uses <strong>of</strong> blogs is<br />
through a combination <strong>of</strong> survey data <strong>and</strong> content analysis. In short, <strong>the</strong> question <strong>of</strong> whe<strong>the</strong>r<br />
political blogging is, in fact, political participation is an empirical question that, unfortunately,<br />
has not yet been adequately addressed in <strong>the</strong> literature. 9<br />
More important for my argument in this paper than whe<strong>the</strong>r political blogging is a form<br />
<strong>of</strong> political participation, however, is <strong>the</strong> recognition that political blogging is, at its core, an<br />
action designed to allow individuals to express <strong>the</strong>ir opinions on political issues. Put differently,<br />
regardless <strong>of</strong> whe<strong>the</strong>r political blogging is a form <strong>of</strong> political participation, political blogging<br />
may be best defined as a novel form <strong>of</strong> political expression. The argument to define political<br />
blogs as political expression ra<strong>the</strong>r than political participation has more than semantic<br />
consequences. Indeed, defining political blogging as a form <strong>of</strong> political expression is significant<br />
because it raises a fundamentally different set <strong>of</strong> questions than defining political blogging as a<br />
form <strong>of</strong> political participation. If political blogging is defined as political participation, for<br />
example, questions such as “who blogs,” “why do people blog,” <strong>and</strong> “what impact does blogging<br />
have” take center stage. By contrast, when political blogging is defined as a form <strong>of</strong> political<br />
expression questions such as “what is <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political expression found on political<br />
blogs,” “what impact do political events have on <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political expression found on<br />
9<br />
The exception to this, <strong>of</strong> course, is McKenna <strong>and</strong> Pole’s study. Unfortunately, <strong>the</strong>ir study is limited to A-list<br />
bloggers. For a discussion <strong>of</strong> this question as it relates to ordinary political bloggers see Wallsten (forthcoming).<br />
5
political blogs” <strong>and</strong> “how does <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political expression found on political blogs<br />
change over time?” In this paper, I will attempt to answer this latter set <strong>of</strong> questions by analyzing<br />
<strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political expression found in ordinary political blogs.<br />
Is <strong>the</strong> <strong>Political</strong> <strong>Blog</strong>osphere an “Echo Chamber?”<br />
For those who have at least a passing familiarity with <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere, <strong>the</strong> claim<br />
that political blogs can be understood primarily as forms <strong>of</strong> political expression is probably<br />
unsurprising. Indeed, as <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> political bloggers has grown <strong>and</strong> a collective sense <strong>of</strong><br />
self-awareness has emerged within <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere, political bloggers <strong>and</strong> academics<br />
alike have begun to ask questions about both <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political expression found in<br />
political blogs <strong>and</strong> about <strong>the</strong> external factors that influence that content. In addition to <strong>the</strong><br />
emergence <strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> internet sites devoted exclusively to measuring <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> blogs –<br />
such as Daypop, <strong>Blog</strong>Pulse <strong>and</strong> BuzzMetrics – a number <strong>of</strong> recent studies have focused<br />
exclusively on describing <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political expression found on political blogs. In a<br />
study by Adamic <strong>and</strong> Glance (2005), for example, <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> times specific political actors<br />
<strong>and</strong> news stories were mentioned by political bloggers was counted over <strong>the</strong> course <strong>of</strong> a day <strong>and</strong><br />
comparisons were made between liberal <strong>and</strong> conservative bloggers. Similarly, a new Pew study<br />
conducted by Cornfield et al. (2005) attempted to link discussion by A-list political bloggers to<br />
media coverage by tracking <strong>the</strong> discussion <strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> high pr<strong>of</strong>ile political issues during one<br />
month <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> election season.<br />
One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most popular topics in this recent wave <strong>of</strong> concern over <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> political<br />
blogs has been <strong>the</strong> question <strong>of</strong> whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere constitutes an “echo chamber.”<br />
What does it mean to call <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere an echo chamber? The idea that <strong>the</strong> political<br />
blogosphere is an “echo chamber” is <strong>the</strong> fairly straightforward notion that <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> political<br />
blogs does little more than “echo” <strong>the</strong> messages <strong>of</strong> put forth by political elites in <strong>the</strong> mainstream<br />
6
media. Although few have spelled it out in precisely this way, <strong>the</strong> idea that <strong>the</strong> political<br />
blogosphere is an echo chamber is really made up <strong>of</strong> three separate ideas: (1) that <strong>the</strong> issues<br />
discussed in political blogs will closely mimic <strong>the</strong> issues discussed in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media<br />
(such that more media coverage on an issue leads to more discussion <strong>of</strong> that issue in <strong>the</strong> political<br />
blogosphere); (2) that <strong>the</strong> positions taken by political bloggers on political issues greatly<br />
resemble <strong>the</strong> positions taken by <strong>the</strong> blogger’s own party leaders <strong>and</strong> publicized in <strong>the</strong> mainstream<br />
media; (3) <strong>the</strong> frames <strong>and</strong> justifications employed by political bloggers are <strong>the</strong> same as <strong>the</strong><br />
frames <strong>and</strong> justifications <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogger’s party leaders as publicized in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media. In<br />
short, calling <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere an echo chamber suggests that <strong>the</strong> political expression<br />
found on political blogs is closely related to, if not entirely derivative <strong>of</strong>, <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong><br />
mainstream media coverage.<br />
Although <strong>the</strong>re have been no systematic studies <strong>of</strong> any <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se three dimensions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis, <strong>the</strong>re are good <strong>the</strong>oretical reasons to expect that political blogs should<br />
act as echo chambers for <strong>the</strong> messages presented in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media. Starting with <strong>the</strong><br />
work <strong>of</strong> V.O. Key <strong>and</strong> continuing through present day research, <strong>the</strong> belief that individual<br />
political attitudes are responsive to elite messages presented by <strong>the</strong> mass media is widely<br />
accepted by political scientists. Iyengar <strong>and</strong> Kinder (1984), for example, have found that <strong>the</strong><br />
level <strong>of</strong> importance people attach to an issue is a direct function <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> media coverage<br />
that issue receives. In a somewhat different vein, Zaller (1992) has argued that <strong>the</strong> actions <strong>and</strong><br />
statements <strong>of</strong> political elites, as reported in <strong>the</strong> mass media, exert a strong, if not total, influence<br />
on mass public opinion – with party loyalists adopting not only <strong>the</strong> policy positions but also <strong>the</strong><br />
frames <strong>and</strong> arguments <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir respective party leaders once <strong>the</strong> appropriate cues are sent out<br />
through <strong>the</strong> mass media. To <strong>the</strong> extent that active forms <strong>of</strong> political expression, such as political<br />
blogging, follow <strong>the</strong> same dynamics as <strong>the</strong> passive expressions that generated <strong>the</strong>se studies <strong>of</strong><br />
7
public opinion (i.e. responding to public opinion surveys), <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis that <strong>the</strong> political<br />
blogosphere is an echo chamber has a great deal <strong>of</strong> evidence to support it.<br />
So is <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere an echo chamber? Although answering this question in its<br />
entirety would require assessing <strong>the</strong> relationship between blog content <strong>and</strong> media coverage on<br />
each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> three dimensions discussed above <strong>and</strong> is, <strong>the</strong>refore, well beyond <strong>the</strong> scope <strong>of</strong> this<br />
paper, I will address one dimension <strong>of</strong> this question here: what is <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong><br />
amount <strong>of</strong> coverage an issue receives in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> discussion <strong>the</strong><br />
issue receives in <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere?<br />
The Predictions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Echo Chamber Hypo<strong>the</strong>sis<br />
According to <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis, <strong>the</strong>re should be a strong relationship between<br />
<strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> media coverage an issue receives <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> discussion on that issue that<br />
takes place in <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere. To be more precise, <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis makes<br />
four predictions. First, more mainstream media coverage <strong>of</strong> an issue should lead to more posts on<br />
that issue <strong>and</strong> less media coverage should lead to fewer posts on that issue. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, <strong>the</strong>re<br />
should be a positive relationship between <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> media coverage on an issue <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
number <strong>of</strong> posts on that issue – meaning both <strong>the</strong> correlation coefficient (r) <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> slope<br />
coefficient <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> regression line (b) should be positive. Second, increases <strong>and</strong> decreases in media<br />
coverage on an issue should have a fairly direct <strong>and</strong> large impact on <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> posts. Indeed,<br />
according to <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis, political bloggers should blog about what <strong>the</strong>y see<br />
when <strong>the</strong>y see it so <strong>the</strong>re should be a fairly strong relationship between <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> stories on<br />
an issue <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blog posts mentioning that issue. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, in regression<br />
analysis, <strong>the</strong> slope coefficients (b) for media stories should be closer to 1 than to 0 – meaning<br />
that one story on an issue in <strong>the</strong> media should produce about one post in a political blog. Third,<br />
<strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis says that political blogs will not discuss issues that are not covered<br />
8
in <strong>the</strong> media <strong>and</strong>, fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, political blogs will not ignore issues that are discussed in <strong>the</strong><br />
media. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, <strong>the</strong>re should be a tight relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog<br />
discussion – meaning that that <strong>the</strong> correlation coefficient (r) <strong>and</strong>, <strong>the</strong>refore, R² are high. Finally,<br />
<strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis predicts that political bloggers will rely primarily on mainstream<br />
media sources for <strong>the</strong>ir information. As a result, <strong>the</strong> primary source <strong>of</strong> external links should be to<br />
<strong>the</strong> mainstream media <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> mainstream media links should remain fairly constant<br />
over time (because <strong>the</strong> influence <strong>of</strong> media does not change). To summarize <strong>the</strong> predictions <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis:<br />
P1: The correlation coefficient (r) <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> slope coefficient (b) between <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong><br />
media coverage on an issue <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> posts on that issue should be<br />
positive.<br />
P2: The slope coefficients (b) for media coverage on an issue should be closer to 1<br />
than to 0.<br />
P3: The correlation coefficient (r) <strong>and</strong> R² between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts<br />
should be high (i.e. closer to 1 than to 0).<br />
P4: The majority <strong>of</strong> external links should be to mainstream media sources <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
number <strong>of</strong> links to media sources should remain fairly constant over time.<br />
It is worth mentioning here that <strong>the</strong> predictions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis could be<br />
correct at <strong>the</strong> aggregate level even if political blogs are acting as media watchdogs instead <strong>of</strong><br />
echo chambers. Indeed, if a significant number <strong>of</strong> political bloggers carefully followed media<br />
coverage on a number <strong>of</strong> high pr<strong>of</strong>ile issues <strong>and</strong> frequently criticized <strong>the</strong> shortcomings <strong>of</strong> this<br />
coverage, <strong>the</strong> predictions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis – a positive relationship between<br />
media coverage <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> posts, a slope coefficient near 1 <strong>and</strong> a high R² - would hold.<br />
In this case, however, it would clearly be a mistake to call <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere an echo<br />
chamber because media messages are being consistently criticized ra<strong>the</strong>r than echoed. It is for<br />
this reason that a more detailed content analysis – one that looks not only at <strong>the</strong> correlation<br />
between <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> media coverage <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blog posts but also at how media<br />
9
messages are discussed by political bloggers – is required. Unfortunately, this type <strong>of</strong> analysis is<br />
also beyond <strong>the</strong> scope <strong>of</strong> this paper. As a result, I will not be able to determine in this paper if a<br />
high R² <strong>and</strong> a positive relationship are evidence in favor <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis or just<br />
evidence <strong>of</strong> political blogs acting as media watchdogs. 10<br />
Why Study Ordinary <strong>Political</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong>?<br />
Before analyzing <strong>the</strong> relationship between mainstream media messages <strong>and</strong> ordinary<br />
political blog content it is worth saying a few words about why ordinary political blogs should be<br />
studied at all. Although most studies <strong>of</strong> political blogs are justified on <strong>the</strong> basis that <strong>the</strong> blogs<br />
under study influence some important macrolevel outcomes, such as media coverage or<br />
international politics (Drezner <strong>and</strong> Farrell, 2004), <strong>the</strong>se studies, as suggested above, focus only<br />
on <strong>the</strong> most widely read <strong>and</strong> influential political blogs. The ordinary political blogs that form <strong>the</strong><br />
subject matter <strong>of</strong> this paper, however, are, by definition, likely to be hidden in <strong>the</strong> vast expanse<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> internet <strong>and</strong> have an audience size that is asymptotically close to zero. If we are to care<br />
about studying ordinary political blogs, <strong>the</strong>refore, we must find some justification o<strong>the</strong>r than<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir potential impact on <strong>the</strong> external world.<br />
In fact, <strong>the</strong>re are a number <strong>of</strong> good reasons to study ordinary political blogs even if <strong>the</strong>y<br />
pose no threat <strong>of</strong> influencing <strong>the</strong> environment in which <strong>the</strong>y operate. In <strong>the</strong> interest <strong>of</strong> brevity, I<br />
will mention only one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se reasons here. As suggested above, ordinary citizens are<br />
increasingly using political blogs as a form <strong>of</strong> political expression <strong>and</strong> – possibly – a form <strong>of</strong><br />
political participation. As such, research into who blogs, what is blogged about <strong>and</strong> how blogs<br />
interact with <strong>the</strong> world around <strong>the</strong>m is needed to answer questions such as: “Does political<br />
10<br />
Consistent with this idea, some have labeled <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere a “fifth estate” – separate from <strong>the</strong> “political<br />
nobility,” “<strong>the</strong> knowledge clergy,” <strong>the</strong> citizenry <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> press (Cornfield et al., 2005). Although labeling bloggers a<br />
“fifth estate” may be a somewhat gr<strong>and</strong>iose label for such a nascent phenomenon, <strong>the</strong> title is meant to suggest that<br />
political bloggers use <strong>the</strong>ir blogs to ei<strong>the</strong>r discuss issues that have not been covered by <strong>the</strong> mainstream media or to<br />
discuss issues that have been covered in what <strong>the</strong>y perceive to be a biased fashion. <strong>Political</strong> bloggers, for example,<br />
take credit for drawing attention to issues that were initially ignored by <strong>the</strong> mainstream media – such as Trent Lott’s<br />
comments at Strom Thurmond’s birthday celebration <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> au<strong>the</strong>nticity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> National Guard documents<br />
presented by CBS News.<br />
10
logging make people more engaged in <strong>and</strong> informed about politics?”; “Does political blogging<br />
intensify differences in opinion on political issues or diminish <strong>the</strong>m?”; <strong>and</strong>, “What kinds <strong>of</strong><br />
events motivate ordinary people to make active expressions <strong>of</strong> opinion on political issues?”<br />
Studies that focus exclusively on A-list political bloggers are unlikely to provide meaningful<br />
answers to <strong>the</strong>se questions because A-list political bloggers are likely to be pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
journalists, political activists or some o<strong>the</strong>r kind <strong>of</strong> unique <strong>and</strong> exceptional individual (McKenna<br />
<strong>and</strong> Pole, 2004). Indeed, studying only A-list bloggers is likely to lead us to draw some very<br />
faulty conclusions about <strong>the</strong> who’s, what’s <strong>and</strong> why’s <strong>of</strong> this emerging form <strong>of</strong> political activity.<br />
As a result, more studies <strong>of</strong> ordinary political blogs are needed.<br />
Methodology<br />
Sampling Ordinary <strong>Political</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong><br />
One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most serious obstacles to drawing valid conclusions about <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong><br />
ordinary political blogs stems from <strong>the</strong> fact that no single population list <strong>of</strong> political blogs exists<br />
<strong>and</strong>, as a result, <strong>the</strong>re is no way to generate a truly representative sample <strong>of</strong> political blogs. 11<br />
Indeed, <strong>the</strong> very idea <strong>of</strong> a “political blog” is troubling because <strong>the</strong>re is no consensus on what<br />
distinguishes political blogs from non-political blogs.<br />
There have been two main suggestions for how to separate political blogs out from <strong>the</strong><br />
more numerous non-political blogs. First, some have suggested that a blog can be defined as<br />
political if <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> political discussion exceeds some (as <strong>of</strong> yet unspecified) percentage <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> overall content. Although this method has <strong>the</strong> virtue <strong>of</strong> drawing clear lines between political<br />
11<br />
Similarly, <strong>the</strong>re are no population lists for <strong>the</strong> blogosphere on <strong>the</strong> whole. If <strong>the</strong>re were, one method for generating<br />
a r<strong>and</strong>om sample <strong>of</strong> political blogs would be to use <strong>the</strong>se population lists to generate a r<strong>and</strong>om sample <strong>of</strong> general<br />
blogs. Each blog could <strong>the</strong>n be checked for whe<strong>the</strong>r it was political or not <strong>and</strong> ei<strong>the</strong>r throwing <strong>the</strong> sampled blog out<br />
or including it in <strong>the</strong> study. This process could be repeated until <strong>the</strong> desired sample size was reached. This method <strong>of</strong><br />
generating a sample is excellent from both a practical <strong>and</strong> methodological perspective not only because it samples<br />
from <strong>the</strong> nearly complete population lists <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> above mentioned sites but also, <strong>and</strong> more importantly, because <strong>the</strong><br />
researcher does not have to generate <strong>the</strong>se population lists on his or her own. Unfortunately, <strong>the</strong> two sites that had<br />
provided extensive – though not complete – lists <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogs currently on <strong>the</strong> internet: www.blo.gs or <strong>the</strong> NITLE<br />
<strong>Blog</strong> Census (www.blogcensus.net) were no longer working at <strong>the</strong> time <strong>of</strong> this paper.<br />
11
<strong>and</strong> non-political blogs, it is also has <strong>the</strong> drawback <strong>of</strong> requiring a tremendous amount <strong>of</strong> effort<br />
simply to determine which blogs should be included in <strong>the</strong> research. As a result, this method may<br />
be better for determining <strong>the</strong> overall level <strong>of</strong> political blogging relative to o<strong>the</strong>r types <strong>of</strong> blogging<br />
than for answering more detailed questions about <strong>the</strong> specifics <strong>of</strong> political blogs such as <strong>the</strong> one<br />
that occupies my attention here.<br />
Second, some have suggested that <strong>the</strong> best method for determining whe<strong>the</strong>r a blog is<br />
political or not is simply to trust <strong>the</strong> blogger’s own assessment <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir blog. There are two<br />
different ways to employ this method: keywords <strong>and</strong> interviews. The keywords approach to<br />
defining a political blog relies on <strong>the</strong> fact that many bloggers list <strong>the</strong>ir blogs on blog directories<br />
<strong>and</strong>, more importantly, <strong>the</strong>se blog directories allow bloggers to categorize <strong>the</strong>ir blogs using a<br />
number <strong>of</strong> different keywords. Since <strong>the</strong>se blog directories usually allow for searches based on<br />
<strong>the</strong>se keywords, it can be relatively easy to locate <strong>the</strong> blogs that are political. By contrast, <strong>the</strong><br />
interview method requires contacting bloggers via email <strong>and</strong> asking <strong>the</strong>m whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y think<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir blogs are political. Much like <strong>the</strong> content approach discussed above, this method would<br />
have <strong>the</strong> disadvantage <strong>of</strong> requiring a large sample <strong>of</strong> bloggers just to find <strong>the</strong> small number <strong>of</strong><br />
blogs that are political. It seems, <strong>the</strong>refore, that this method would probably be better employed<br />
as an additional check once a blog had been defined as political by one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r methods<br />
discussed above. Indeed, given that <strong>the</strong> goal <strong>of</strong> this paper is to assess <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> political<br />
blogs <strong>and</strong> not to determine <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> political discussion in <strong>the</strong> blogosphere on <strong>the</strong> whole, it<br />
seems that <strong>the</strong> keyword approach provides <strong>the</strong> best method for defining a political blog. 12<br />
While <strong>the</strong> keyword method might be <strong>the</strong> most appropriate way to generate a sample given<br />
my goals in this paper, it is not without its drawbacks. In addition to <strong>the</strong> fact that this method<br />
requires a great deal <strong>of</strong> work <strong>the</strong> part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> researcher to create <strong>the</strong> population list, it is also<br />
12<br />
This is <strong>the</strong> approach used by Adamic <strong>and</strong> Glance (2005). In <strong>the</strong>ir article <strong>the</strong>y create a sample <strong>of</strong> 1000 political<br />
blogs by downloading <strong>the</strong> listings <strong>of</strong> political blogs from several online weblog directories, including eTalkingHead,<br />
<strong>Blog</strong>Catalog, CampaignLine, <strong>and</strong> <strong>Blog</strong>arama.<br />
12
unattractive because <strong>the</strong> directories provide information about an unrepresentative subset <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
blog population on <strong>the</strong> whole. Indeed, <strong>the</strong> blog directories used to generate <strong>the</strong> population lists<br />
include only those blogs that have been submitted for inclusion by <strong>the</strong> authors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogs<br />
<strong>the</strong>mselves <strong>and</strong>, as a result, cannot produce anything like a true or complete list <strong>of</strong> political blogs<br />
from which to sample. Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, many bloggers may ei<strong>the</strong>r intentionally (in order to increase<br />
readership) or unintentionally miscategorize <strong>the</strong>ir blogs as political when, in fact, political issues<br />
are rarely or never discussed.<br />
Despite <strong>the</strong>se weaknesses, I relied on twelve <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most well known blog directories<br />
(<strong>Blog</strong>wise, <strong>Blog</strong>arama, <strong>Blog</strong>Catalog, <strong>Blog</strong>Universe, <strong>Blog</strong>SearchEngine, <strong>Blog</strong>Street,<br />
CampaignLine, ETalkingHead, Get<strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong>, EatonwebPortal, Globe <strong>of</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong> <strong>and</strong> Yahoo’s<br />
directory <strong>of</strong> blogs) to generate a population list <strong>of</strong> 10,732 unique political blogs. From this list, I<br />
r<strong>and</strong>omly sampled each political blog, checked if <strong>the</strong> blog was active during <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
study (June to November 2004) <strong>and</strong> ei<strong>the</strong>r included in <strong>the</strong> sample or threw it out. 13 In all, 83<br />
political blogs were sampled in order to arrive at <strong>the</strong> final sample <strong>of</strong> 25 political blogs. Overall,<br />
<strong>the</strong>se 25 political blogs contained 3,763 unique posts over <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study. The final list<br />
<strong>of</strong> blogs included in this study is listed in Table 1. Although <strong>the</strong> fact that blog directories include<br />
only those blogs that have been submitted for inclusion by <strong>the</strong> authors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogs <strong>the</strong>mselves<br />
<strong>and</strong>, as a result, cannot produce anything like a true representative sample <strong>of</strong> political blogs, this<br />
is <strong>the</strong> best (if not only) method <strong>of</strong> generating a sample given <strong>the</strong> goals <strong>of</strong> this paper.<br />
Content Analysis<br />
For my analysis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog content, I chose to<br />
focus on 25 high pr<strong>of</strong>ile political issues. These 25 issues were selected not only to capture a<br />
broad array <strong>of</strong> policy concerns – ranging from domestic politics to international politics – but<br />
also, <strong>and</strong> more importantly, to represent <strong>the</strong> key political issues being debated during <strong>the</strong> period<br />
13<br />
<strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong> were also checked to determine if <strong>the</strong>y were American.<br />
13
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study. Although <strong>the</strong> 25 issues did not capture <strong>the</strong> total range <strong>of</strong> issues discussed in political<br />
blogs or in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media, <strong>the</strong>y did seem to constitute <strong>the</strong> majority <strong>of</strong> blog discussion <strong>and</strong><br />
media coverage from June to November 2004. A list <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se issues <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> keywords used to<br />
identify <strong>the</strong>m can be found in <strong>the</strong> Appendix.<br />
Using <strong>the</strong> list <strong>of</strong> issue keywords presented in <strong>the</strong> Appendix, a “keyword in context”<br />
(KWIC) content analysis program was used to code each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 3,763 political blog posts in <strong>the</strong><br />
sample. Posts were coded for each issue as ei<strong>the</strong>r having mentioned <strong>the</strong> issue (i.e. <strong>the</strong> issue<br />
keyword was used) or not having mentioned <strong>the</strong> issue (i.e. <strong>the</strong> issue keyword was not used).<br />
Each mention <strong>of</strong> an issue keyword was coded for every post <strong>and</strong>, as a result, many posts are<br />
recorded as mentioning multiple issues. In addition to coding for issues, <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> links to<br />
academic, governmental, mainstream media, partisan media, A-list blogs <strong>and</strong> liberal <strong>and</strong><br />
conservative non-governmental organizations was recorded for each post. Finally, each political<br />
blog was categorized according to <strong>the</strong> partisanship <strong>of</strong> its author. 14<br />
In order to measure <strong>the</strong> independent variable for this study – mainstream media coverage<br />
– I used Lexis-Nexis to search <strong>the</strong> New York Times over <strong>the</strong> period from June 1, 2004 to<br />
November 30, 2004. I searched <strong>the</strong> “headlines, lead paragraphs <strong>and</strong> terms” section <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Lexis-<br />
Nexis archives using all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> issue keywords listed in <strong>the</strong> Appendix. Every article that<br />
mentioned <strong>the</strong> keyword in <strong>the</strong> headline, lead paragraph or terms section was counted for each<br />
day during <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study. Editorials <strong>and</strong> letters to <strong>the</strong> editor were excluded from <strong>the</strong><br />
final counts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> stories.<br />
Results<br />
14 In order to code for <strong>the</strong> partisanship <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blog, three steps were taken. First, <strong>the</strong> title <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blog was checked for<br />
references to partisanship because many political blogs include some reference to <strong>the</strong>ir partisanship in <strong>the</strong>ir blog<br />
title. Only if this was inconclusive were fur<strong>the</strong>r steps taken to code <strong>the</strong> blogger’s partisanship. The second step that<br />
was taken to determine <strong>the</strong> partisanship <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogger was to look for partisan references in <strong>the</strong> blogger’s<br />
description <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blog. The third <strong>and</strong> final step that was taken was to analyze <strong>the</strong> content <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blog itself. If a blog<br />
made an outright statement about <strong>the</strong> outcome <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> election such as “Please let Bush win,” “Please defeat Bush” or<br />
“Vote against Bush,” <strong>the</strong> blog was coded for <strong>the</strong> direction <strong>of</strong> that statement.<br />
14
Before turning to a discussion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> media coverage<br />
an issue receives <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blog posts on that issue, it is worth saying a few words about<br />
<strong>the</strong> political blogs that are included in my sample. First, <strong>the</strong> sample included more Democratic<br />
political bloggers than Republican political bloggers. More specifically, my sample included<br />
fourteen Democratic bloggers, eight Republican bloggers, one independent blogger, one<br />
libertarian blogger <strong>and</strong> one blogger whose partisanship could not be determined. Although it<br />
might appear that, given my sample, Democrats are over represented in <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere,<br />
a note <strong>of</strong> caution is in order. As stated above, this paper looked only at political blogs that were<br />
active from June to November <strong>of</strong> 2004. It is possible that Democratic bloggers were ei<strong>the</strong>r more<br />
likely to start <strong>the</strong>ir political blogs earlier (making <strong>the</strong>m more likely to be active since June 2004)<br />
or that Democratic bloggers were more likely to continue <strong>the</strong>ir blogging through <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong><br />
November 2004. Indeed, if Republican political bloggers were relatively late arrivals on <strong>the</strong><br />
political blogging scene (meaning <strong>the</strong>y started <strong>the</strong>ir blogs after June 1, 2004) or were more likely<br />
to leave <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere after <strong>the</strong> election (meaning <strong>the</strong>y stopped blogging sometime<br />
before November 30, 2004), Democrats would be overrepresented in my sample.<br />
In order to determine if Democrats were overrepresented in my final sample, I coded<br />
each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political blogs that were excluded from my sample for <strong>the</strong>ir partisanship. Once non-<br />
English, non-American <strong>and</strong> non-blogs were eliminated from <strong>the</strong> excluded set I was left with a<br />
total <strong>of</strong> 30 American political blogs (not active during <strong>the</strong> period from June to November 2004)<br />
to code for partisanship. 15 In this set <strong>of</strong> political blogs, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by a<br />
margin <strong>of</strong> 14 to 10 (with 3 Independents <strong>and</strong> 3 unknowns). It does appear, <strong>the</strong>refore, that<br />
15<br />
Overall, <strong>the</strong>refore, 25 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 83 blogs sampled were written in English, American <strong>and</strong> active from June to<br />
November 2004 while 30 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 83 were written in English, American <strong>and</strong> not active from June to November 2004.<br />
The remaining 28 blogs were ei<strong>the</strong>r not written in English, not American, did not meet <strong>the</strong> definition <strong>of</strong> a blog or did<br />
not work.<br />
15
Democrats are slightly overrepresented in my sample because Democrats appear to have been<br />
more likely to maintain an active political blog during <strong>the</strong> time period I am studying.<br />
Second, <strong>the</strong> political blogs contained in my sample varied widely in <strong>the</strong> overall amount <strong>of</strong><br />
activity during <strong>the</strong> time period I am studying. Indeed, while some made as many as 15 posts to<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir blogs every day, o<strong>the</strong>rs updated <strong>the</strong>ir blogs only a few times a month. To be more precise,<br />
<strong>the</strong> average number <strong>of</strong> posts per day was 1.1 but <strong>the</strong> st<strong>and</strong>ard deviation in <strong>the</strong> sample was 1.8. It<br />
appears, <strong>the</strong>refore, that some bloggers are more committed to <strong>and</strong> invest more time in <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
political blogs than o<strong>the</strong>rs.<br />
Third, <strong>the</strong> political blogs in my sample varied widely in <strong>the</strong>ir overall level <strong>of</strong> political<br />
discussion. Some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political blogs in <strong>the</strong> final sample were exclusively political <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong>fered<br />
almost no details on <strong>the</strong> personal life <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogger while o<strong>the</strong>r political blogs in <strong>the</strong> sample<br />
seem to double as personal blogs – with stories <strong>and</strong> anecdotes about <strong>the</strong> blogger’s personal life<br />
filling a large portion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blog. This variation in <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> political discussion is <strong>the</strong><br />
inevitable product <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fact that blogs allow authors to discuss any topic <strong>the</strong>y want <strong>and</strong> that <strong>the</strong><br />
blog directories from which <strong>the</strong> political blogs in this paper were sampled impose no restrictions<br />
on what keywords can be used to describe one’s blog. As a result, many bloggers may list <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
blog as political even if <strong>the</strong>y never discuss political issues at all. 16<br />
So how tight is <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> media coverage an issue receives<br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> posts on that issue in <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere? In order to fully answer this<br />
question <strong>and</strong>, in doing so, determine whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis is accurate, it is useful<br />
to look at <strong>the</strong> relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts in three different ways: in <strong>the</strong><br />
overall sample, for Democrats <strong>and</strong> Republicans <strong>and</strong> for individual political blogs. Analyzing <strong>the</strong><br />
strength <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship in <strong>the</strong> overall population is <strong>the</strong> perhaps <strong>the</strong> best test for <strong>the</strong> echo<br />
16<br />
Future studies may correct for this by using <strong>the</strong> content approach as a fur<strong>the</strong>r filter for <strong>the</strong> blogs sampled from <strong>the</strong><br />
blog directories.<br />
16
chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis as I have spelled it out because it primarily makes claims about <strong>the</strong> political<br />
blogosphere on <strong>the</strong> whole <strong>and</strong> not about small subsets <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogosphere or individual<br />
differences between political bloggers. By looking only at <strong>the</strong> overall sample, however,<br />
important differences between political partisans <strong>and</strong> individuals may be missed. More<br />
specifically, <strong>the</strong> idea that Democrats <strong>and</strong> Republicans will respond differently to media coverage<br />
on different issues cannot be tested <strong>and</strong> it will be unclear whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>re are some political<br />
bloggers who have assumed <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> echo chamber more than o<strong>the</strong>rs. In <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong><br />
partisanship, this oversight can be particularly troublesome because, if Democrats <strong>and</strong><br />
Republicans are acting as echo chambers for an entirely different set <strong>of</strong> issues, <strong>the</strong> overall<br />
correlation between media coverage <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>se issues will appear small – <strong>the</strong>reby discounting <strong>the</strong><br />
echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis – even though <strong>the</strong>re is a significant amount <strong>of</strong> echoing going on. As a<br />
result <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se considerations, I will analyze <strong>the</strong> relationship between issue coverage <strong>and</strong> blog<br />
posts in <strong>the</strong> overall sample, in partisan groups <strong>and</strong> for each individual political blogger.<br />
The findings for <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> media coverage <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number<br />
<strong>of</strong> blog posts in <strong>the</strong> overall sample are presented in Table 2. As Table 2 clearly shows, <strong>the</strong>re is no<br />
clear overall relationship between <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> media coverage <strong>of</strong> an issue <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong><br />
political blog posts that mention that issue. Indeed, for some issues <strong>the</strong>re is a significant<br />
relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts while for o<strong>the</strong>rs <strong>the</strong>re is no relationship<br />
whatsoever. On <strong>the</strong> one h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>the</strong> relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts is strong,<br />
positive <strong>and</strong> statistically significant for 8 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 25 issues studied: Iraq (r = .25), abortion (r =<br />
.22), prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib (r = .26), Osama bin Laden (r = .22), <strong>the</strong> military draft (r =<br />
.21), <strong>the</strong> crisis in <strong>the</strong> Sudan (r = .21), moral values (r = .44) <strong>and</strong> stem cell research (r = .31).<br />
Particularly striking is <strong>the</strong> relationship between media coverage <strong>of</strong> moral values <strong>and</strong> political<br />
blog discussion <strong>of</strong> moral values. Each additional story on moral values in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media<br />
17
was predicted to produce an additional .4 blog posts on moral values <strong>and</strong>, even more impressive,<br />
media coverage <strong>of</strong> moral values explains nearly 20% <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> variance in blogging activity on<br />
moral values. For some issues, <strong>the</strong>refore, media coverage does seem to exert a strong influence<br />
on blog content.<br />
On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>the</strong>re was no statistically significant correlation between media<br />
coverage <strong>and</strong> political blog posts for 17 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 25 political issues included in this study. For 8 <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong>se 17 issues (North Korea, immigration, Afghanistan, affirmative action, terrorism, No Child<br />
Left Behind, welfare <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> forged documents controversy involving Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r), <strong>the</strong> amount<br />
<strong>of</strong> media coverage explained none <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> variance in <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> political blog postings.<br />
Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, <strong>the</strong> slope coefficients <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> regression analysis for 16 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se 17 issues were all<br />
small <strong>and</strong> statistically insignificant. The one exception was media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog postings on<br />
Iran – where approximately 17 stories are predicted to produce one additional political blog post.<br />
For <strong>the</strong> majority <strong>of</strong> issues, however, it appears that <strong>the</strong>re is little relationship between <strong>the</strong> amount<br />
<strong>of</strong> media coverage <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> political blog posts.<br />
In order to explore <strong>the</strong> possibility that <strong>the</strong> overall findings obscure important differences<br />
in how partisans respond to mainstream media messages, I also analyzed <strong>the</strong> relationship<br />
between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts for Democrats <strong>and</strong> Republicans. The results <strong>of</strong> this<br />
analysis are presented in Table 3. As Table 3 clearly displays, <strong>the</strong>re are striking differences<br />
between <strong>the</strong> strength <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship between issue coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts for Democrats<br />
<strong>and</strong> Republicans. While <strong>the</strong>re is, for example, a significant correlation, between media coverage<br />
<strong>and</strong> blog posts for Democrats on Iraq, <strong>the</strong> prisoner abuse sc<strong>and</strong>al at Abu Ghraib, gay marriage<br />
<strong>and</strong> weapons <strong>of</strong> mass destruction, <strong>the</strong>re is no significant correlation between media coverage <strong>and</strong><br />
blog posts for <strong>the</strong>se issues for Republicans. Similarly, while Republicans exhibit a significant<br />
correlation between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts on abortion, Osama bin Laden, <strong>the</strong> military<br />
18
draft <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> crisis in <strong>the</strong> Sudan, <strong>the</strong>re is no such correlation on <strong>the</strong>se issues for Democrats. In<br />
fact, <strong>the</strong> only issues that show a statistically significant correlation for both Democrats <strong>and</strong><br />
Republicans are moral values <strong>and</strong> stem cell research.<br />
To put <strong>the</strong> differences between Democrats <strong>and</strong> Republicans into even starker view, it is<br />
worth considering <strong>the</strong> differences in <strong>the</strong> slope coefficients for some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se issues. For<br />
Republicans, for example, each additional story on <strong>the</strong> military draft is predicted to produce a .24<br />
increase in <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blog posts on <strong>the</strong> military draft <strong>and</strong> media coverage on this issue<br />
explains 10% <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> overall variation in blog posts. For Democrats, however, <strong>the</strong> slope<br />
coefficient for <strong>the</strong> military draft is a statistically insignificant -.03 <strong>and</strong> media coverage explains<br />
none <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> variation in <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blog posts. On <strong>the</strong> issue <strong>of</strong> weapons <strong>of</strong> mass destruction a<br />
similar divide emerges: eight new stories on weapons <strong>of</strong> mass destruction in <strong>the</strong> mainstream<br />
media are predicted to produce one new blog post for Democrats (b = .13) but no new blog posts<br />
for Republicans (b = 0). In short, Republicans <strong>and</strong> Democrats respond in very different ways to<br />
mainstream media coverage based on <strong>the</strong> issue being covered.<br />
In addition to differences in how partisans respond to mainstream media coverage, <strong>the</strong>re<br />
may be important differences in <strong>the</strong> strength <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong><br />
blog posts across individuals. In order to explore <strong>the</strong> possibility that certain individuals are likely<br />
to fit <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis better than o<strong>the</strong>r individuals, I analyzed <strong>the</strong> relationship<br />
between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts separately for each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 25 political blogs in my<br />
sample. The results <strong>of</strong> this analysis are presented in Table 4. Analyzing <strong>the</strong> strength <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts for each individual blogger reveals that<br />
<strong>the</strong>re are, in fact, important differences between bloggers. More specifically, it seems possible to<br />
identify at least three different kinds <strong>of</strong> political bloggers based on how responsive <strong>the</strong> blogger is<br />
to media coverage. First, some political bloggers post in ways that have no relationship<br />
19
whatsoever to mainstream media coverage (meaning that <strong>the</strong>re is no correlation between media<br />
coverage <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir blog posts on any issues). In my sample, 11 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 25 political blogs fell into<br />
this category. As a general rule, it appears that <strong>the</strong>se political bloggers tend to be less prolific in<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir posting <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>se blogs tend to include a significant amount <strong>of</strong> discussion about <strong>the</strong><br />
bloggers personal life in addition to discussion about political issues. Indeed, <strong>the</strong>se political<br />
bloggers posted an average <strong>of</strong> only .5 posts per day (compared with 1.5 posts per day in <strong>the</strong> rest<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sample) <strong>and</strong> were less likely than <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r blogs to mention almost every political issue<br />
keyword.<br />
Second, some political bloggers seem to be responsive to mainstream media coverage<br />
only on one or two issues. To be more precise, seven <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 25 bloggers in my sample displayed<br />
a significant relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts on one issue <strong>and</strong> three <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 25<br />
bloggers displayed a significant relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts on two<br />
issues. In general, <strong>the</strong>se political blogs tend to be updated with greater frequency than <strong>the</strong><br />
political blogs that showed no significant correlation between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts<br />
(with an average <strong>of</strong> 1.3 posts per day) <strong>and</strong> are significantly more likely to include mention issue<br />
keywords in <strong>the</strong>ir posts.<br />
Finally, a few political blogs showed a strong relationship with media coverage on a<br />
number <strong>of</strong> different issues. Four <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political blogs in my sample (“2 nd Battalion 94 th<br />
Artillery,” “Anti-Climacus,” “Buffalo Pundit” <strong>and</strong> “George in Denver”), displayed significant<br />
correlations between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts on three or more <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> political issues<br />
measured in this study. These political blogs tended to have <strong>the</strong> highest levels <strong>of</strong> activity (an<br />
average <strong>of</strong> 2 posts per day) <strong>and</strong> were among <strong>the</strong> highest in <strong>the</strong> overall percentage <strong>of</strong> posts<br />
mentioning one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> issue keywords.<br />
20
One final piece <strong>of</strong> evidence that can be brought to bear on <strong>the</strong> question <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship<br />
between mainstream media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts comes from <strong>the</strong> links that political bloggers<br />
use in <strong>the</strong>ir blogs. According to <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis, mainstream media sources should<br />
be <strong>the</strong> primary source <strong>of</strong> political information for political bloggers <strong>and</strong>, as a result, links to<br />
mainstream media sources should be relatively frequent when compared to o<strong>the</strong>r sources (such<br />
as o<strong>the</strong>r political blogs, non-governmental organizations or partisan publications) <strong>and</strong> relatively<br />
constant over time. In order to determine which sources are important to political bloggers, I<br />
counted <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> times each political blog linked to academic (.edu domain names),<br />
governmental (.gov domain names), mainstream media, 17 partisan media, 18 liberal <strong>and</strong><br />
conservative “A-list” blogs 19 <strong>and</strong> liberal <strong>and</strong> conservative organizations. 20<br />
Perhaps unsurprisingly, mainstream media sites were by far <strong>the</strong> most common sources<br />
linked to by political bloggers in my sample. On average, a political blog linked to a mainstream<br />
media source once every five posts whereas an A-list political blog was linked to only once<br />
every 25 posts, a partisan media outlet linked to only once every 50 posts <strong>and</strong> a partisan<br />
17<br />
I defined <strong>the</strong> mainstream media as <strong>the</strong> following organizations: USA Today, <strong>the</strong> New York Times, Yahoo News,<br />
<strong>the</strong> BBC, <strong>the</strong> New York Daily News, NBC, <strong>the</strong> Financial Times, <strong>the</strong> Associated Press, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, <strong>the</strong><br />
New York Post, Reuters, <strong>the</strong> Washington Post, Fox News, <strong>the</strong> Washington Times, <strong>the</strong> Christian Science Monitor,<br />
<strong>the</strong> San Jose Mercury News, <strong>the</strong> Sacramento Bee, CNN, <strong>the</strong> Boston Herald, <strong>the</strong> Los Angeles Times, <strong>the</strong> Chicago<br />
Tribune, <strong>the</strong> Chicago Sun Times, <strong>the</strong> San Francisco Chronicle, <strong>the</strong> Seattle Times, <strong>the</strong> Denver Post, Boston.com,<br />
NJ.com <strong>and</strong> Ohio.com.<br />
18<br />
Links to five conservative <strong>and</strong> five liberal media sites were measured. The liberal sites were:<br />
AirAmericaRadio.com, Michealmoore.com, Mo<strong>the</strong>rjones.com, Salon.com <strong>and</strong> TheNation.com. The conservative<br />
sites were: DrudgeReport.com, NationalReview.com, OpinionJournal.com, TownHall.com <strong>and</strong><br />
WeeklySt<strong>and</strong>ard.com.<br />
19 Links to <strong>the</strong> top 20 liberal <strong>and</strong> top 20 conservative blogs as listed in Adamic <strong>and</strong> Glance (2005) were counted.<br />
Conservative A-list political blogs included: Allahpundit.com, Andrewsullivan.com, Belmontclub.blogspot.com,<br />
<strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong>forbush.com, Captainsquartersblog.com, Deanesmay.com, Hughhewitt.com, Indcjournal.com,<br />
Instapundit.com, Littlegreenfootballs.com, Michellemalkin.com, Mypetjawa.mu.nu, Powerlineblog.com,<br />
Realclearpolitics.com, Rogerlsimon.com, Timblair.spleenville.com, Vodkapundit.com, Volokh.com,<br />
Winds<strong>of</strong>change.net <strong>and</strong> Wizbangblog.com. Liberal A-list political blogs included: Americablog.blogspot.com,<br />
Atrios.blogspot.com, <strong>Blog</strong>.johnkerry.com, Crookedtimber.org, Dailykos.com, Digsbysblog.blogspot.com, j-<br />
bradford-delong.net, jameswolcott.com, juancole.com, mydd.com, oliverwillis.com, p<strong>and</strong>agon.net,<br />
politicalwire.com, prospect.org/weblog, talkingpointsmemo.com, talkleft.com, <strong>the</strong>leftcoaster.com,<br />
washingtonmonthly.com, wonkette.com <strong>and</strong> yglesias.typepad.com.<br />
20<br />
The liberal organizations were: Aarp.org, Aclu.org, Acorn.org, Aflcio.org, Foe.org, Graypan<strong>the</strong>rs.org,<br />
Greenpeaceusa.org, Lwv.org, Moveon.org, Naral.org, Nature.org, Ngltf.org, Now.org, Plannedparenthood.org,<br />
Rainbowpush.org <strong>and</strong> Sierraclub.org. The conservative organizations were: Aim.org, Cato.org, cc.org, frc.org,<br />
heritage.org, jbs.org, nra.org <strong>and</strong> nrlc.org.<br />
21
organization linked to only once every 350 posts. It is important to note, however, that, despite<br />
<strong>the</strong> relative frequency <strong>of</strong> mainstream media links, only one in five political blog posts on average<br />
actually linked to a media source <strong>and</strong> that, when taken toge<strong>the</strong>r, links to alternative sources <strong>of</strong><br />
information comprise a considerable percentage <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> overall links provided by political<br />
bloggers. Overall, <strong>the</strong>refore, mainstream media sources are not an entirely dominant influence in<br />
<strong>the</strong> political blogosphere.<br />
In addition to not being a dominant influence in <strong>the</strong> aggregate, it appears that <strong>the</strong><br />
influence that mainstream media sources have over <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere ebbs <strong>and</strong> flows over<br />
time. Indeed, as Figure 1 clearly shows, <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> links to mainstream media sources is not<br />
consistent over time – with daily links to media sources ranging between 15 <strong>and</strong> 0. A closer look<br />
at <strong>the</strong> data reveals that <strong>the</strong> largest spikes in media links occur in late August <strong>and</strong> in mid<br />
November. Although a definitive conclusion about <strong>the</strong> causes <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> increases <strong>and</strong> decreases in<br />
<strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> media links is beyond <strong>the</strong> scope <strong>of</strong> this paper, it can be safely concluded that<br />
mainstream media sources do not attract <strong>the</strong> attention <strong>of</strong> ordinary political bloggers in <strong>the</strong> same<br />
way at all times.<br />
Discussion<br />
So what do <strong>the</strong>se findings suggest about <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis? According to <strong>the</strong><br />
echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis, <strong>the</strong> relationship between media coverage on an issue <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number<br />
<strong>of</strong> blog posts should be positive (r > 0), strong (b closer to 1 than to 0) <strong>and</strong> tight (a high R²). The<br />
data presented here suggest that <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis is accurate for some issues but not<br />
for o<strong>the</strong>rs <strong>and</strong>, more importantly, that <strong>the</strong>re is considerable variation in <strong>the</strong> propensity <strong>of</strong><br />
individual political bloggers to act as echo chambers on certain issues. With this conclusion in<br />
mind, what kinds <strong>of</strong> generalizations might be drawn about <strong>the</strong> kinds <strong>of</strong> issues <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> kinds <strong>of</strong><br />
bloggers that fit <strong>the</strong> predictions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis?<br />
22
With respect to <strong>the</strong> kinds <strong>of</strong> issues that are likely to exhibit an echo chamber effect, <strong>the</strong>re<br />
appears to be no greater correspondence between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts on domestic<br />
versus foreign policy issues. Indeed, in <strong>the</strong> overall sample, significant relationships between<br />
media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts were uncovered on four domestic policy issues – abortion, <strong>the</strong><br />
military draft, moral values <strong>and</strong> stem cell research – <strong>and</strong> four foreign policy issues – Iraq,<br />
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, <strong>the</strong> crisis in <strong>the</strong> Sudan <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> hunt for Osama bin Laden. The<br />
distribution <strong>of</strong> significant relationships was roughly similar even within partisan groups.<br />
Republicans displayed significant relationships on four domestic policy issues – abortion, <strong>the</strong><br />
military draft, moral values <strong>and</strong> stem cell research – <strong>and</strong> two foreign policy issues – <strong>the</strong> crisis in<br />
<strong>the</strong> Sudan <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> hunt for Osama bin Laden – while Democrats displayed significant<br />
relationships for three domestic policy issues – same-sex marriage, moral values <strong>and</strong> stem cell<br />
research – <strong>and</strong> three foreign policy issues – Iraq, <strong>the</strong> prisoner abuse sc<strong>and</strong>al at Abu Ghraib <strong>and</strong><br />
curtailing access to weapons <strong>of</strong> mass destruction. Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, in addition to <strong>the</strong> issues that did<br />
display significant relationships, foreign policy issues were not more likely than domestic policy<br />
issues to display no significant relationship. More precisely, five <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> eleven foreign policy<br />
issues in this study (Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, <strong>the</strong> war on terrorism <strong>and</strong> Al Qaeda)<br />
displayed no significant correlation between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blogs posts <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> eight <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> fourteen domestic policy issues (immigration, affirmative action, welfare, No Child Left<br />
Behind, homel<strong>and</strong> security, <strong>the</strong> advertising campaign by <strong>the</strong> Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, <strong>the</strong><br />
forged documents controversy involving Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r <strong>and</strong> Micheal Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11)<br />
showed no relationship. Overall, <strong>the</strong>refore, political bloggers do not appear to be more<br />
responsive to <strong>the</strong> messages <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mainstream media on foreign policy issues.<br />
Although political bloggers are not more likely to echo <strong>the</strong> messages <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mainstream<br />
media on foreign policy issues in general, <strong>the</strong>re is one subset <strong>of</strong> domestic policy issues that<br />
23
political bloggers are particularly unlikely to display an echo chamber effect on: issues relating<br />
to <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> presidential campaign. To put it simply, <strong>the</strong> data presented in this<br />
study show no relationship whatsoever between mainstream media coverage <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong><br />
blog posts on any <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> events – such as <strong>the</strong> advertising campaign by <strong>the</strong> Swift Boat Veterans<br />
for Truth, <strong>the</strong> forged documents controversy involving Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r <strong>and</strong> Micheal Moore’s<br />
blockbuster Fahrenheit 9/11 – that were widely claimed to have a dramatic impact on both<br />
public opinion <strong>and</strong> on <strong>the</strong> dynamics campaign strategy. In fact, <strong>the</strong>re was no significant<br />
relationship between media coverage on <strong>the</strong>se issues <strong>and</strong> political blogs in a single one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 25<br />
political blogs included in this study. These findings are particularly surprising given that one<br />
recent study by Cornfield et al. (2005) has found that A-list political blogs did respond in<br />
significant ways to media coverage on campaign developments such as <strong>the</strong> Osama bin Laden<br />
tape, Kerry’s mention <strong>of</strong> March Cheney <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Sinclair Broadcast Group’s decision to air an<br />
anti-Kerry documentary. Ordinary political bloggers, it appears, seem more likely to echo media<br />
messages when <strong>the</strong>y relate to <strong>the</strong> substance <strong>of</strong> politics ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> developments <strong>of</strong> political<br />
campaigns.<br />
Making generalizations about <strong>the</strong> kinds <strong>of</strong> issues that Democratic <strong>and</strong> Republican<br />
political bloggers are responsive to is difficult. As suggested above, Democrats <strong>and</strong> Republicans<br />
are equally responsive to media coverage on foreign policy <strong>and</strong> domestic policy issues.<br />
Interestingly, however, <strong>the</strong> specific foreign <strong>and</strong> domestic policy issues that <strong>the</strong>y respond to are<br />
very different. Democrats, for example, show a significant relationship between media coverage<br />
<strong>and</strong> blog posts on Iraq, Abu Ghraib, same-sex marriage, weapons <strong>of</strong> mass destruction, moral<br />
values <strong>and</strong> stem cell research whereas Republicans show a significant relationship on abortion,<br />
Osama bin Laden, <strong>the</strong> military draft, <strong>the</strong> Sudan, moral values <strong>and</strong> stem cell research. One<br />
possible explanation for <strong>the</strong>se partisan differences is that o<strong>the</strong>r, more partisan channels <strong>of</strong><br />
24
communication – such as A-list political blogs, messages from <strong>the</strong> political parties <strong>and</strong> opinionbased<br />
publications – were reinforcing <strong>the</strong> mainstream media’s coverage <strong>of</strong> certain issues <strong>and</strong>, as<br />
a result, partisan bloggers were more likely to blog on <strong>the</strong>se issues. Unfortunately, <strong>the</strong> data<br />
presented here cannot be used to assess this hypo<strong>the</strong>sis. Ultimately, content analysis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r channels <strong>of</strong> communication will have to be conducted in order to determine why<br />
Democrats <strong>and</strong> Republicans differ so dramatically in <strong>the</strong> issues <strong>the</strong>y are likely to echo.<br />
With respect to <strong>the</strong> kinds <strong>of</strong> political blogs that are likely to echo <strong>the</strong> messages <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
mainstream media, <strong>the</strong> conclusions are more obvious. To state it simply, political blogs that are<br />
more active (i.e. have a higher average number <strong>of</strong> posts per day) are more likely to display an<br />
echo chamber effect on all issues than political blogs that are less active. The reasons for this are<br />
probably straightforward: those who blog about political issues more <strong>of</strong>ten are probably more<br />
likely to pay care about politics more <strong>and</strong>, as a result more likely to follow news coverage<br />
closely <strong>and</strong> those who blog about political issues more <strong>of</strong>ten are probably in greater need <strong>of</strong><br />
material to blog about <strong>and</strong>, <strong>the</strong>refore, more likely to respond to media coverage <strong>of</strong> political<br />
issues.<br />
Conclusion<br />
I began this paper by arguing that political blogs are best understood as a new form <strong>of</strong><br />
political expression. Although this claim may appear somewhat innocuous on its face, I have<br />
argued here that it is crucial to directing our attention towards a number <strong>of</strong> important questions.<br />
In this paper, I have tried to answer one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se questions – whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere is<br />
an “echo chamber” for mainstream media messages? The data presented here suggest that<br />
ordinary political blogs do sometimes act like echo chambers for mainstream media messages<br />
<strong>and</strong> sometimes do not. More specifically, this paper has shown that <strong>the</strong>re are significant<br />
differences between <strong>the</strong> issues that Republicans <strong>and</strong> Democrats echo <strong>and</strong> that prolific political<br />
25
loggers are more likely than unprolific political bloggers to follow media coverage on political<br />
issues.<br />
The findings <strong>of</strong> this paper suggest a number <strong>of</strong> directions for future research. First, future<br />
research into <strong>the</strong> existence <strong>of</strong> an echo chamber effect in <strong>the</strong> political blogosphere should extend<br />
<strong>the</strong> analysis presented here by incorporating more mainstream media sources than I have used<br />
here. To state <strong>the</strong> matter simply, my measure <strong>of</strong> mainstream media coverage – <strong>the</strong> New York<br />
Times – may be a poor measure <strong>and</strong>, as a result, <strong>the</strong> results <strong>of</strong> my analysis could be misleading.<br />
Indeed, if <strong>the</strong> coverage presented in <strong>the</strong> New York Times is significantly different from <strong>the</strong><br />
coverage <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r mainstream media outlets <strong>and</strong> political bloggers are more likely to turn to <strong>the</strong>se<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r mainstream media outlets for <strong>the</strong>ir news, <strong>the</strong> findings presented here may be biased in<br />
favor <strong>of</strong> or in opposition to <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis. In order to avoid this problem, future<br />
research should follow <strong>the</strong> lead <strong>of</strong> Cornfield et al (2005) <strong>and</strong> conduct content analysis on a wide<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> mainstream media sources – ranging from newspapers to cable news broadcasts.<br />
Second, in addition to including more mainstream media sources in <strong>the</strong> analysis, future<br />
work should look beyond <strong>the</strong> mainstream media <strong>and</strong> investigate <strong>the</strong> possibility <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r kinds <strong>of</strong><br />
echo chamber effects. More precisely, <strong>the</strong> possibility that ordinary political blogs are echo<br />
chambers for <strong>the</strong> messages <strong>of</strong> A-list political blogs, partisan newsletters, c<strong>and</strong>idate speeches or<br />
opinion journals needs to be tested alongside <strong>the</strong> hypo<strong>the</strong>sis that ordinary political bloggers echo<br />
<strong>the</strong> messages <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mainstream media. Given that some have suggested that political bloggers<br />
are individuals who distrust mainstream media coverage <strong>and</strong>, <strong>the</strong>refore, are less likely to echo<br />
mainstream media messages, testing for an echo chamber effect with <strong>the</strong>se alternative channels<br />
<strong>of</strong> communication is even more important. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, political blogs may be an echo<br />
chamber for some sources o<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> mainstream media. 21<br />
21 Cornfield et al (2005) have taken an initial step in this direction by measuring campaign messages along with<br />
mainstream media coverage but <strong>the</strong>ir analysis focuses only on A-list political blogs <strong>and</strong> not on <strong>the</strong> more numerous<br />
ordinary political blogs.<br />
26
Finally, in addition to testing <strong>the</strong> claim that <strong>the</strong> ideas discussed by political bloggers are<br />
<strong>the</strong> same as <strong>the</strong> issues covered in <strong>the</strong> mainstream media, future work on political blogs also<br />
needs to analyze <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r two dimensions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> echo chamber hypo<strong>the</strong>sis: that <strong>the</strong> positions<br />
taken by political bloggers on political issues greatly resemble <strong>the</strong> positions taken by <strong>the</strong><br />
blogger’s own party leaders <strong>and</strong> that <strong>the</strong> frames <strong>and</strong> justifications employed by political bloggers<br />
are <strong>the</strong> same as <strong>the</strong> frames <strong>and</strong> justifications <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> blogger’s party leaders. This paper’s data<br />
measures only <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> discussion on certain political issues <strong>and</strong> not <strong>the</strong> character <strong>of</strong> it. As<br />
a result, it is unclear whe<strong>the</strong>r media messages are being criticized, supported or juxtaposed with<br />
messages from o<strong>the</strong>r sources. Saying that Republicans are more responsive to media messages<br />
on abortion, for example, cannot tell us whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y are responding by repeating <strong>the</strong> frames <strong>and</strong><br />
justifications <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir party leaders or by criticizing <strong>the</strong>m. A more detailed content analysis that<br />
takes <strong>the</strong> issue mention as <strong>the</strong> unit <strong>of</strong> analysis ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> blog post as <strong>the</strong> unit <strong>of</strong> analysis<br />
would provide <strong>the</strong> type <strong>of</strong> data to explore <strong>the</strong>se o<strong>the</strong>r components <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> echo chamber<br />
hypo<strong>the</strong>sis.<br />
27
Appendix: Issue Keywords<br />
The issue to be measured is listed in bold. The keywords that counted as a mention <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> issue<br />
are listed below.<br />
Abortion<br />
Abortion<br />
Pro-choice<br />
Right to choose<br />
Right to Life<br />
Pro-life<br />
Abu Ghraib<br />
Abu Ghraib<br />
Prisoner abuse<br />
Affirmative Action<br />
Affirmative action<br />
Reverse discrimination<br />
Afghanistan<br />
Afghanistan<br />
Al Qaeda<br />
Al Qaeda<br />
Bin Laden<br />
Bin Laden<br />
Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
Draft<br />
Draft<br />
Fahrenheit 9/11<br />
Fahrenheit 9/11<br />
Gay Marriage<br />
Gay marriage<br />
Same-sex marriage<br />
Homosexual marriage<br />
Homel<strong>and</strong> Security<br />
Homel<strong>and</strong> Security<br />
Immigration<br />
Immigrants<br />
Immigration<br />
Illegal aliens<br />
Iran<br />
Iran<br />
Iraq<br />
Iraq<br />
Iraqi<br />
Moral Values<br />
Moral values<br />
No Child Left Behind<br />
No Child Left Behind<br />
28
North Korea<br />
North Korea<br />
Patriot Act<br />
Patriot Act<br />
Social Security<br />
Social Security<br />
Stem Cell<br />
Stem cell<br />
Sudan<br />
Sudan<br />
Swift boat veterans<br />
Swift boat veterans<br />
Terror<br />
Terror<br />
Terrorist<br />
Terrorism<br />
Weapons <strong>of</strong> Mass Destruction<br />
WMD<br />
Weapons <strong>of</strong> Mass Destruction<br />
Welfare<br />
Welfare<br />
29
Bibliography<br />
Adamic, Lala <strong>and</strong> Natalie Glance. 2005. “The <strong>Political</strong> <strong>Blog</strong>osphere <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> 2004 Presidential<br />
Election.” Available at: http://www.blogpulse.com.<br />
Blood, Rebecca. 2000. “Weblogs: A history <strong>and</strong> perspective.” rebecca's pocket. Retrieved from<br />
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html.<br />
Blood, Rebecca. 2002. We've Got <strong>Blog</strong>: How Weblogs are Changing Our Culture. Cambridge<br />
MA: Perseus Publishing.<br />
Bloom, Joel. 2003. “The <strong>Blog</strong>osphere: How a Once Humble Medium Came to Drive Elite<br />
Politics.” Paper presented at <strong>the</strong> annual meeting <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> American <strong>Political</strong> Science<br />
Association Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Philadelphia, PA.<br />
Business Wire. 2003. “The <strong>Blog</strong>ging Iceburg: <strong>of</strong> 4.12 Million Weblogs, Most Little Seen <strong>and</strong><br />
Quickly Ab<strong>and</strong>oned, According to Perseus Survey.” Business Wire. Cambridge, Mass.<br />
Drezner, Daniel <strong>and</strong> Henry Farrell. 2004. “The Power <strong>and</strong> Politics <strong>of</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong>.” Paper presented at<br />
<strong>the</strong> annual meeting <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> American <strong>Political</strong> Science Association.<br />
Lenhart, Am<strong>and</strong>a, Horrigan, John B., <strong>and</strong> Fallows, Deborah. 2004. “Content Creation Online.”<br />
PEW Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved Aug. 30, 2004 from<br />
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Content_Creation_Report.pdf.<br />
McKenna, Laura <strong>and</strong> Pole.Antoinette. 2004. “Do <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong> Matter? Weblogs in American Politics.”<br />
Paper presented at <strong>the</strong> annual meeting <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> American <strong>Political</strong> Science Association.<br />
Mortensen, Torrill <strong>and</strong> Jill Walker. 2002. “<strong>Blog</strong>ging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online<br />
Research Tool,” in Andrew Morrison, ed., Researching ICTs in Context. Oslo:<br />
Intermedia.<br />
Schiano, Diane, Bonnie Nardi, Michelle Gumbrecht <strong>and</strong> Luke Swartz. 2004. “<strong>Blog</strong>ging by <strong>the</strong><br />
Rest <strong>of</strong> Us.” Retrieved August 25, 2005 from<br />
http://home.comcast.net/~diane.schiano/CHIO4.blog.pdf.<br />
Scott, Es<strong>the</strong>r. 2004. “’Big Media’” Meets <strong>the</strong> ‘<strong><strong>Blog</strong>gers</strong>’: Coverage <strong>of</strong> Trent Lott’s Remarks at<br />
Strom Thurmond’s Birthday Party.” John F. Kennedy <strong>School</strong> <strong>of</strong> Government, Harvard<br />
University.<br />
Sunstein, Cass. 2001. Republic.com. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.<br />
Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature <strong>and</strong> Origins <strong>of</strong> Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge<br />
University Press.<br />
30
Figure 1 – Links to Mainstream Media Sources<br />
Figure 1: Links to Mainstream Media Sources<br />
16<br />
14<br />
12<br />
10<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
0<br />
7/1/2004<br />
7/11/2004<br />
7/21/2004<br />
7/31/2004<br />
8/10/2004<br />
8/20/2004<br />
8/30/2004<br />
9/9/2004<br />
9/19/2004<br />
9/29/2004<br />
10/9/2004<br />
10/19/2004<br />
10/29/2004<br />
11/8/2004<br />
11/18/2004<br />
11/28/2004<br />
31
Table 1 – Final Sample <strong>of</strong> <strong>Political</strong> <strong><strong>Blog</strong>s</strong><br />
<strong>Blog</strong> Title<br />
2nd Battalion 94th Artillery<br />
AgnostoLibertarianTechnoGee<br />
k<br />
An e<strong>the</strong>realgirl's adventure<br />
Anti-Climacus<br />
Buffalo Pundit<br />
Cabin Fever Online<br />
Caveat Aranea<br />
EricRosenfield.com<br />
George In Denver<br />
Justin Blanton<br />
Mir<strong>and</strong>a's Window Dressing<br />
Neoconservadroid<br />
Occasional <strong>Blog</strong><br />
Odious Woman<br />
Patriot <strong>Blog</strong><br />
Roblog<br />
S<strong>and</strong>castles <strong>and</strong> Cubicles<br />
Shepherd's Pie, Web Edition<br />
Stephanie Chu<br />
The Doctor's Log<br />
The Patriette<br />
The Turnspit Daily<br />
The Weekly Subversive<br />
The World According to Nick<br />
Vulgar Boatman<br />
Address<br />
http://294fa.blogspot.com/<br />
http://ddhead.blogspot.com/<br />
http://e<strong>the</strong>realgirl.blogspot.com<br />
http://troester.blogspot.com/<br />
http://wny4clark.blogspot.com/<br />
http://www.cabinfever.modblog.com<br />
http://caveataranea.blogspot.com<br />
http://ericrosenfield.com<br />
http://georgeindenver.blogspot.com<br />
http://justinblanton.com<br />
http://mir<strong>and</strong>aswindowdressing.blogspot.com<br />
http://neoconservadroid.blogspot.com/<br />
http://occasionalblog.blogspot.com<br />
http://odiouswoman.blogspot.com<br />
http://patriotblog.com<br />
http://www.roblogpolitics.blogspot.com/<br />
http://s<strong>and</strong>castles<strong>and</strong>cubicles.blogspot.com<br />
http://kenshepherd.blogspot.com<br />
http://www.stephaniechu.com/<br />
http://masterdev.dyndns.dk/drslog<br />
http://<strong>the</strong>patriette.com/<br />
http://www.turnspit.com<br />
http://weeklysubversive.blogspot.com/<br />
http://schweitn.blogspot.com/<br />
http://vulgarboatman.blogspot.com<br />
32
Table 2 – Relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts in <strong>the</strong> overall sample<br />
Issue R R² B<br />
Abortion .22*** .05 .16**<br />
Abu Ghraib .26*** .07 .09***<br />
Affirmative Action -.07 .00 .00<br />
Afghanistan .00 .00 .00<br />
Al Qaeda .12 .01 .03<br />
Bin Laden .22*** .05 .18**<br />
Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r -.01 .00 .00<br />
Draft .21*** .05 .21**<br />
Fahrenheit 9/11 -.11 .01 .00<br />
Gay Marriage .13 .02 .18*<br />
Homel<strong>and</strong> Security -.08 .01 .00<br />
Immigration .03 .00 .00<br />
Iran .15 .02 .06*<br />
Iraq .25*** .06 .13**<br />
Moral Values .44*** .19 .40***<br />
No Child Left Behind -.04 .00 .00<br />
North Korea -.02 .00 .00<br />
Stem Cell .31*** .10 .13***<br />
Sudan .21** .04 .06<br />
Swift Boat -.09 .01 -.03<br />
Terrorism -.07 .00 -.01<br />
Welfare -.04 .00 .00<br />
WMD .16 .02 .12*<br />
Entries for B are unst<strong>and</strong>ardized regression coefficients.<br />
*** p < .01 ** p < .05 * p < .10<br />
33
Table 3 – Relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts by partisanship<br />
Democrats<br />
Republicans<br />
Issue r R² B R R² B<br />
Abortion .10 .01 .05 .24*** .06 .08**<br />
Abu Ghraib .31*** .10 .09*** -.02 .00 .00<br />
Affirmative Action -.06 .00 -.02 -.05 .00 -.01<br />
Afghanistan .09 .01 .02 .01 .00 .00<br />
Al Qaeda .01 .00 0 .14 .02 .03<br />
Bin Laden .11 .01 .06 .22*** .05 .10**<br />
Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r -.02 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00<br />
Draft -.05 .00 -.03 .31*** .10 .24***<br />
Fahrenheit 9/11 -.11 .01 .00 -.04 .00 .00<br />
Gay Marriage .22*** .05 .23** -.03 .00 -.02<br />
Homel<strong>and</strong> Security -.07 .00 .00 -.04 .00 .00<br />
Immigration .02 .00 .00 .01 .00 .00<br />
Iran .11 .01 .03 .11 .01 .03<br />
Iraq .22*** .05 .08** .10 .01 .03<br />
Moral Values .46*** .21 .33*** .18** .03 .08**<br />
No Child Left Behind -.02 .00 .00 -.04 .00 .00<br />
North Korea -.11 .01 -.01 .06 .00 .01<br />
Stem Cell .30*** .09 .09*** .16** .03 .04**<br />
Sudan .09 .01 .01 .21*** .04 .04**<br />
Swift Boat -.06 .00 .00 -.10 .01 -.02<br />
Terrorism -.10 .01 -.02 .01 .00 .00<br />
Welfare -.01 .00 .00 -.05 .00 .00<br />
WMD .19** .03 .13** .01 .00 .00<br />
Entries for B are unst<strong>and</strong>ardized regression coefficients.<br />
*** p < .01 ** p < .05 * p < .10<br />
34
Table 4 – Relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts by individual blog<br />
2nd Battalion<br />
According to Nick<br />
AgnostoLibertarian<br />
Anti-Climacus<br />
Buffalo Pundit<br />
Abortion .11 .15 -.05 .27*** .20** .16** † † † .20** † † .03<br />
Abu Ghraib -.02 † † † .13 † † † † † † † .00<br />
Affirmative Action -.04 -.04 † † -.04 † † † † † † † †<br />
Afghanistan -.14 .05 † -.20** .11 † † † † -.04 † † .10<br />
Al Qaeda -.02 † .15 -.02 .01 † † † † -.04 † † .09<br />
Bin Laden .35*** -.08 † .12 .06 † † † † -.06 † † -.03<br />
Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r -.03 .11 † -.03 -.03 .00 † † † † † † †<br />
Draft .24*** -.04 † -.03 .01 † † † -.03 † † † †<br />
Fahrenheit 9/11 -.07 .05 † † † † † † † † † † †<br />
Gay Marriage † -.03 -.05 -.09 .07 .09 † † † .22*** † † .09<br />
Homel<strong>and</strong> Security -.02 .00 † † -.03 .00 † † † -.02 † -.02 †<br />
Immigration -.07 .00 .05 † .05 -.07 † † .00 † † -.03 †<br />
Iran .18** -.09 † -.02 -.06 † † † † .19** † -.03 .07<br />
Iraq -.02 .05 .11 .20** .20** .14 † .01 .11 .07 † .07 .04<br />
Moral Values † .20** -.02 -.02 .43*** .20** † † † .29*** † † .41***<br />
No Child Left Behind † † † † -.01 † † † .01 † † † †<br />
North Korea .06 .09 † -.11 -.05 .09 † † † .00 † † -.02<br />
Patriot Act .01 † † † .07 † † † † .10 † † †<br />
Social Security † .11 † † .10 .11 .02 † † .08 † † †<br />
Sudan † † † .07 † † † † † † † † †<br />
Stem Cell † .08 † † † † † † † .45*** † .12 †<br />
Swift Boat -.08 -.02 † † -.05 † † † -.02 † † † †<br />
Terrorism .03 -.05 .02 -.10 -.05 -.10 .01 † -.04 -.03 † † -.08<br />
Welfare -.03 -.03 -.02 -.01 -.05 † † † † † † † †<br />
WMD .02 .04 † -.04 .20** .04 † † † .13 † † -.10<br />
*** p < .01 ** p < .05 * p < .10<br />
† No posts on this issue.<br />
Table 4 (continued) – Relationship between media coverage <strong>and</strong> blog posts by individual blog<br />
Caveat Aranea<br />
Cabin Fever Online<br />
Eric Rosenfield<br />
E<strong>the</strong>real Girl<br />
George in Denver<br />
Justin Blanton<br />
Mir<strong>and</strong>a's Window<br />
Neoconservadroid<br />
35
Occasional <strong>Blog</strong><br />
Odious Woman<br />
Patriot <strong>Blog</strong><br />
Roblog<br />
S<strong>and</strong>castles<br />
Abortion .03 † -.01 -.07 .15 .13 † .11 † -.09 .21** †<br />
Abu Ghraib † † † † -.04 .04 † .64*** † .07 .06 †<br />
Affirmative Action -.04 † † † † † † † † -.04 † †<br />
Afghanistan .02 † -.01 † .11 .10 † .01 -.10 .09 -.11 †<br />
Al Qaeda † † .00 † .42*** -.07 † † † -.02 -.04 †<br />
Bin Laden .00 -.06 -.08 † .00 -.03 † † † .12 .10 †<br />
Dan Ra<strong>the</strong>r † † .00 .00 .00 -.04 † † † † † †<br />
Draft † † .23*** † .23*** -.03 † -.03 † -.05 -.03 †<br />
Fahrenheit 9/11 † † -.09 † .08 -.02 † † † -.09 -.10 -.10<br />
Gay Marriage .12 † -.07 † .03 .00 † † † .09 .11 †<br />
Homel<strong>and</strong> Security -.04 † -.03 † -.02 -.02 † -.02 † -.03 -.02 †<br />
Immigration † † .00 † .04 .09 † † † .02 † †<br />
Iran † .04 .09 † .02 .04 † † † .09 -.05 †<br />
Iraq -.06 .11 .01 -.02 .06 .13 † -.01 .05 .16** .04 -.12<br />
Moral Values † † † † -.02 -.02 † † † -.02 † †<br />
No Child Left Behind † † -.02 † -.02 -.02 † † -.02 -.02 † †<br />
North Korea † † † † -.02 .08 † † † -.12 -.02 †<br />
Patriot Act † † † † .02 † † † † † † †<br />
Social Security † † † † .06 .03 † † † † .02 †<br />
Sudan † † † † .04 .28*** † † † .09 † †<br />
Stem Cell † † .20** † † .03 † † † .07 † †<br />
Swift Boat † † -.03 -.02 -.04 -.04 † † -.03 -.03 -.03 †<br />
Terrorism -.08 -.04 -.01 .09 .13 -.08 † -.13 -.05 -.01 .00 -.04<br />
Welfare † † † .01 -.04 † † -.03 † .07 -.03 †<br />
WMD † .14 -.06 † -.11 .09 † † † .06 -.08 .23***<br />
*** p < .01 ** p < .05 * p < .10<br />
† No posts on this issue.<br />
Shepherd's Pie<br />
Stephanie Chu<br />
The Doctor's Log<br />
The Patriette<br />
The Turnspit Daily<br />
Vulgar Boatman<br />
Weekly Subversive<br />
36