Political Blogs and the Bloggers Who Blog Them - School of ...

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a form of political participation, there has been no systematic research into how ordinary people are using blogs as a form of political expression. In this paper, I will address this oversight by using a computer assisted, quantitative content analysis of 25 randomly selected, non-A-list political blogs over the six month period from July to November 2004 in order to determine the relationship between mainstream media coverage and political blog discussion during a period of high political engagement – the presidential election campaign. More specifically, this paper will test the hypothesis that the political blogosphere is no more than an “echo chamber” for the messages of the mainstream media. Political Blogs: Participation or Expression? With so much political blogging going on, there has been a rush to determine where political blogging fits into traditional classifications of political activity. In particular, there has been a great deal of debate over whether political blogging constitutes a new and unique form of political participation. 7 Whether political blogging is, in fact, a form of political participation, of course, depends primarily on the definition of political participation that one is working with. In the political science literature, political participation is usually defined as “action directed explicitly toward influencing the distribution of social goods and social values” (Rosenstone and Hansen, 1993). Unlike the definitions used by practitioners in other fields, this definition points to the importance of the individual’s motives in engaging in a particular activity. 8 If the individual is motivated by a desire to influence the distribution of goods and values, then the activity is participation. Similarly, if they are motivated by some other goal – such as the desire for self expression – then the activity is not political participation. In order to know whether political blogging is political participation, therefore, it is first 7 For a good example of this discussion see McKenna and Pole (2004). 8 In their analysis of political blogging, for example, McKenna and Pole (2004) argue that the act of writing and thinking about politics and sharing one’s views with others constitutes political participation. As a result, they claim that blogging needs to be included among other more traditional forms of participation, such as voting, attending rallies and signing petitions. 4
necessary to know what the motivations of political bloggers are and how they use their blogs. Indeed, if bloggers use their blogs to run political advertisements, encourage their readers to sign on-line petitions or mobilize their readers to vote, then political blogging is probably best understood as a form of political participation. If, however, bloggers are using their blogs as nothing more than technological “soapboxes” from which to spout their opinions into the vast expanse of cyberspace, an alternative definition of political blogging may be required. Of course, the appropriate way to uncover the motivations of political bloggers and their uses of blogs is through a combination of survey data and content analysis. In short, the question of whether political blogging is, in fact, political participation is an empirical question that, unfortunately, has not yet been adequately addressed in the literature. 9 More important for my argument in this paper than whether political blogging is a form of political participation, however, is the recognition that political blogging is, at its core, an action designed to allow individuals to express their opinions on political issues. Put differently, regardless of whether political blogging is a form of political participation, political blogging may be best defined as a novel form of political expression. The argument to define political blogs as political expression rather than political participation has more than semantic consequences. Indeed, defining political blogging as a form of political expression is significant because it raises a fundamentally different set of questions than defining political blogging as a form of political participation. If political blogging is defined as political participation, for example, questions such as “who blogs,” “why do people blog,” and “what impact does blogging have” take center stage. By contrast, when political blogging is defined as a form of political expression questions such as “what is the content of the political expression found on political blogs,” “what impact do political events have on the content of the political expression found on 9 The exception to this, of course, is McKenna and Pole’s study. Unfortunately, their study is limited to A-list bloggers. For a discussion of this question as it relates to ordinary political bloggers see Wallsten (forthcoming). 5
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Political Blogs and the Bloggers Who Blog Them - School of ...

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