In November 2006, we invited bloggers from the top 154 political blogs (by rankings from Technorati and BlogPulse) to participate in a two-part survey of the political blogosphere. The survey was designed to link responses from bloggers with responses from their readers. 66 bloggers from 58 blogs participated in the survey, and 40 of them recruited readers for the second half of the project. Responses were collected from a total of 3,909 political blog readers.
This unique dataset has allowed us to examine many interesting facets of the blogger-reader relationship. By analyzing the blogger data as contextual-level variables in the reader dataset, we have been found a variety of interesting relationships between bloggers’ and readers’ actions, attitudes and motivations. Some of this research has examined the role of blogger motivations in the development of blog readers’ political interest and the extent to which bloggers can lead their reader communities in political participation. Other analyses have looked the roles of media use and political discussion in blog readers’ political participation and expression behaviors, and the impact of blog diet homogeneity on participation and deliberation. We have also used this data to examine the use of blogs as an alternate news channel as a result of hostile media perception and have delved into the changing motivations of bloggers over time as they find their place in the broader discourse changing and becoming more influential. [PDF]
Civility/Structure Experiment - 2007
In Spring and Summer 2007, we conducted a series of online survey experiments concerning online incivility and formal features of political blogs to understand how these factors influence perceptions and judgments. Experiments were conducted using student samples as well as a sample of political blog readers recruited from those who responded to our earlier survey. The experimental datasets provided insight into the micro-processes of blog readership. Studies using this data have explored context effects on evaluations of news stories embedded in blogs, examined the impact of blog structural features on information processing, and have begun to untangle the effects of incivility on emotional responses and deliberative attitudes.
Our experimental design allowed us to test the effects of blogger civility, blog post structure and blogger ideology on evaluations of news relayed via blog, emotional responses to news and the blogger, and information-processing techniques, among other outcomes. Additionally, our blog reader dataset allows us to use many variables from the survey as moderators. [PDF]
Upcoming Panel Surveys - 2008
In 2008, we are collecting panel data – both from a random sample of American adults and from the readership of top political blogs – to look at change over time in the links between new media use and various forms of engagement with the election. Along with researchers at several other institutions, we are participating in the Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project, which will provide us with detailed survey panel data from three points in the campaign. This data will assess not just blog use, but many online media and social behaviors, offline forms of media use, political attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, we will field a similar two-wave panel survey of political blog readers to focus in on the potential for change in some of the models we developed in our previous survey.