Friday, April 30, 2010
From readership participation to fundraising, political blogs vary markedly between liberals and conservatives. Researchers at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society studied more than 150 blogs during a two-week span of the 2008 presidential election and noticed numerous differences between those on the left and the right.
Left-leaning blogs tend to be set up so multiple authors, including guests and readers, can post items on the front page. Right-leaning bloggers, however, are more likely to limit participation to single authors and relegate readers’ comments to less visible sections of the site. The researchers observed that blogs on the right typically link to external stories rather than “engaging in discussion or commentary.”
The review of blogs during the campaign also revealed that left-wing blogs were more likely to solicit contributions than right-wing blogs.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
New Study: Liberals More Open Than Conservatives Online (by Ari Melber, The Nation)
A Tale of Two Blogospheres: Discursive Practices on the Left and Right (by Yochai Benkler, Aaron Shaw, Victoria Stodden, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University) (pdf)
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