Mapping the Blogosphere

1) Research topic and researchers: Mapping the blogoshpere: Professional and citizen-based media in the global news arena, by Stephen Reese, Lou Rutigliano, Kideuk Hyun, and Jaekwan Jeong, in Journalism 8 (3), 2007, pp. 235-261. Retrieved from Communication and Mass Media Complete, on February 23, 2008.

2) Rationale of the study:
Blogs are a relatively new feature in the field of media. They are usually much more interactive than traditional news sources and give non-professional citizens the chance to voice their opinions. The researchers of this study wanted to better understand the relationship between blogs and traditional news media. They focused on how the two interact through links on the blogs themselves and discovered that they are rather deeply intertwined. A major facet of their research was political affiliations and how the affiliation of a blog affected what news links were displayed.

Specifically, the researchers studied six of the most popular blogs and asked four research questions. 1) To what extent do blogs link to the professional news media, and how are those references characterized? 2) How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to professional news media? 3) How is political affiliation of blogs related to the affiliation of their linking choices? 4) How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to international sites and authors.

3) Literature Review:
· The internet has increased the speed in which news is readily available as well as its speed and how much is covered.
· It is easier for people across borders and seas to receive news they would not normally have access to. The study cites Giddens (2000) on page 237, “the intrinsically open framework of globalization has a natural relationship with democracy, leading many to attach great hopes to the internet’s potential for advancing more engaged and active citizenship around the world.”
· …sources and perspectives permitted by professional news gatekeepers establishes the limits of the public sphere they manage…we may conceptualize the blogosphere as a conversation distributed more broadly across citizens and journalists (p.237).
· …globalization and technology have produced a broader and more fluid journalistic conversation, a new global public sphere (Habermas, 1992).
· “…our research questions are related to three particular boundaries: professional, political and geographic…(p.238).
· The most important concept is between ‘professional’ and informal citizen-based non-traditional forms (p.238).
· Professional is defined as those trained in the field of journalism, are paid through a news organization and have access to events as ‘the press’. Walls surround the conduct of these professionals.
· Citizen-based media is defined as media that originates from anyone who wants to express ideas or positions. Any motivated individual can take part and need not follow any code of journalistic integrity.
· Blogs display an unprecedented level of interactivity for citizens. Blogs and news outlets can be viewed as complementary.
· Bloggers receive most of their news information from traditional sources. “50 of the top blogs account for 50% of the links (Shirky, 2003).”

4) Research Method:
The researchers focused their effort on news and politics. They selected blogs that mainly are associated with either liberal or conservative views, three from each side of the political spectrum. In doing so, they picked only the most popular ones as rated by Technorati ratings. They wanted to figure out on what level are the blogs linking to other sources of media, what types of media they are linking to, and where the media is that is linked. In order to classify this information they devised a system. The original blog would be classified as level 1; the second, two sites or posts represented by posts referred to in the first. The third level was those sites or posts referred to in the second. They took the findings and classified them along the lines of their research questions i.e. wider connectivity to other media, political affiliation, and geographic zones. The time period was a week selected on the basis that there were no major news stories ongoing at the time. An example of a major news story would be 9/11 and would undoubtedly dominate discussion on most any blog.

5) Research Finding:
The researchers totaled 410 posts in all; each blog had significant numbers of links to other sites. 154 or 38% had two or more links which supports their hypothesis that blogs are a gateway to a larger cyber network (p. 247). Most of the bloggers garner their information from other sources they briefly mention (38.5%), or analyze other news stories and make comments on them (60.5%). On scene observation was low at around one percent. It was found that most of the references on the blogs studied were to professional media sources (47.6%) and only 38.5 percent was to other blogs. This finding serves to confirm that professional media is complemented by blogs, and not hindered as some previously believed. Professional news is typically taken at face value, used often and used to articulate larger points by that of the author of the blog. Of the blogs studied, about the same number of authors would be considered as citizen as those who could be classified under professional news media.
The researchers did find echo-chamber type results as they expected with political affiliation. The conservative bloggers led predominantly to conservative voices, while the liberal bloggers lead predominantly along the lines of their political views. However, given this find, a large number of sites that were linked on the blogs could be considered as having no political affiliation at all (60%). As to the geographical evidence, 92.7% of the links were to those in the U.S. as well as the location of the authors who 92% of the time, were presumed located in the U.S. However the location of the authors could be a little skewed because they could be posting in a different country, and because the server is in the U.S., the location comes up as such.
It was found that the blogs promote circulation and ground themselves to traditional news media. It is obvious to see that the two forms complement each other. There is a wide representation of non-partisan elements within the network, a sign that may predict a less politically polarized future.

6) My Position:
The article’s authors did well to convey clearly exactly what they aimed to accomplish through their research. However, I thought their selection of the time period may have been detrimental to their findings. They took careful consideration to not have the week in question coincide with any major news stories, yet they selected on in which one of the major bloggers was on “partial hiatus.” This may have skewed their results somewhat. I liked that they choose to tally the number of links and classify them under what category they were. It was a good way to quantify results and ultimately answer their questions.
There are many different types of blogs out there so it is smart that they focused on those political and some of the most popular. The coding of only linked information was a drawback to the research because it did not consider cited sources on the blog itself. Future studies may focus specifically on the writings and cited sources of the blogs; in turn, determining how the bloggers are putting to use the discourse from traditional media. One major problem with the study was that half of the bloggers could be considered professional journalists. I think the researchers should have studied those less trained in traditional media. However, this may have lead to a study of less popular blogs. The study of bloggers in different occupations is crucial to future research undertakings. The possibilities and permutations of blog research are positively limitless and it will be interesting to see new developments and findings on the subject.