This title introduces readers to 20 of the world's top political bloggers, providing those bloggers with the opportunity to explain in their own words what they have done to become so successful while offering readers advice about what they can do to emulate the contributors' success. Each chapter begins with a brief profile of a blogger and their blog, followed by my interview with him or her.
In an era of depressed civic engagement, where access to the media by common citizens is limited, blogs have the power to change the political landscape. This bookcatalogs the individuals engaged in political blogging, explains why they started blogging, and examines what they hope to gain from it.
Examining the web logs, or blogs, of individuals from a variety of continents and cultures, this book highlights the nature of 'blogosphere, ' the virtual public arena of the early 21st century, which alters the traditional world of media and politics. It characterizes this new arena by the unique combination of a fresh voice of emancipation and a deep sense of melancholy and isolationism. This journey through blogosphere highlights major forces operating in today's politics: apathy toward political affairs, resistance to globalization, a quest for redemption through religious fundamentalism and terrorism. Michael Keren compares bloggers to terrorists, arguing that while the methods advocated by the two groups are obviously very different, they both represent a similar trend, one of diversion by respected but disenchanted citizens from the norms of civil society to a fantasy world in which the excessive use of words_or bombs_would make everybody listen
ABSTRACT: This is a baseline examination of political bloggers, it profiles who they are, discovers how they view the blogosphere, explores their motivations for blogging, and researches their influence on the media agenda via the two-step flow hypothesis. Key political organizations were asked which blogs they read to create a census of influential political blogs. The respondents of these blogs hailed from across the country and the political spectrum. Data was collected via a SurveyPro online questionnaire and tabulated with SPSS. The data revealed that bloggers tend to be married, educated, white males in their 40's. They are concerned about their reputation as contributors of an online rumor mill. Most do not blog professionally and are not making money from their blogs. The data also showed a digital divide between minorities and the poor and a gender gap among political bloggers.
Political blogs have grown astronomically in the last half-decade. In just one month in 2005, for example, popular blog DailyKos received more unique visitors than the population of Iowa and New Hampshire combined. But how much political impact do bloggers really have? In Blogwars, David D. Perlmutter examines this rapidly burgeoning phenomenon, exploring the degree to which blogs influence--or fail to influence--American political life. Challenging the hype, Perlmutter points out that blogs are not that powerful by traditional political measures: while bloggers can offer cogent and convincing arguments and bring before their readers information not readily available elsewhere, they have no financial, moral, social, or cultural leverage to compel readers to engage in any particular political behavior. Indeed, blogs have scored mixed results in their past political crusades. But in the end, Perlmutter argues that blogs, in their wide dissemination of information and opinions, actually serve to improve democracy and enrich political culture. He highlights a number of the particularly noteworthy blogs from the specialty to the superblog-including popular sites such as Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Powerlineblog, Instapundit, and Talking Points Memo--and shows how blogs are becoming part of the tool kit of political professionals, from presidential candidates to advertising consultants. While the political future may be uncertain, it will not be unblogged. For many Internet users, blogs are the news and editorial sites of record, replacing traditional newspapers, magazines, and television news programs. Blogwars offers the first full examination of this new and controversial force on America's political landscape.
- Articles by thirty leading bloggers and commentators - Profiles of more than fifty leading blogs - A directory of 1,200 political blogs - The best 500 political blogs in the UK - The best 100 Conservative, Labour and LibDem blogs
Bloggers around the world produce material for local, national and international audiences, yet they are developing in ways that are distinct from the U.S. model. Through case studies of blogs written in English, Chinese, Arab, French, Russian, and Hebrew, this book explores the way blogging is being conceptualized in different cultural contexts. The authors move beyond the most highly trafficked sites to shed light on larger developments taking place online, calling into question assumptions that form the foundation of much of what we read on blogging and, by extension, on global amateur or do-it-yourself media. This book suggests a more nuanced approach to understanding how blogospheres serve communication needs, how they exist in relation to one another, where they exist apart as well as where they overlap, and how they interact with other forms of communication in the larger media landscape.
The book celebrates political blogging in America. It is also a beginner's guide to the blogosphere and provides samples of blogging across the political spectrum.
New media technology has brought heated debate about its power to transform existing structures and relations in national and international communications. It is expected to either democratize or reproduce current political communication processes. At the same time, new media technology raises concerns that it may promote a global convergence of communication cultures to the American model. Political blogging, online personal publishing of observations and comments about news and politics with frequent links to other Web sources, provides a useful ground to test these competing theses since political blogging emerged as a citizen-based, alternative media in the U.S. and has subsequently been diffused internationally. This dissertation compares political blogs in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany to investigate how national political systems and communication cultures shape the structures and practices of political blogging across the three countries. Based on the media's relative power in the public sphere and communication processes, political communication culture is distinguished as a mediatized culture in the U.S., a politicized culture in Germany, and a culture-in-between in the U.K. Different systems and cultures are predicted not only to foster political blogging to varying degrees but also to shape different fabrics of relations among political bloggers and other participants in political communication in each country. Using the rankings of political blogs in the three countries, the 106 top political blogospheres and linking patterns of individual political blogs to various websites in the countries. Findings from this dissertation reveal both cross-national commonalities rooted in general human tendencies and national particularities emerging from different structural factors internal to the three countries. Across the three countries, bloggers make more communicative ties to politically like-minded blogs and websites than to those with opposing perspectives. Blogging networks of the three countries represent very unequal spaces, with a few blogs having a disproportional number of incoming links. Also, blogs are highly insulated geographically with bloggers making links mostly to other bloggers and sites within their own countries. There are also notable cross-national differences in network structures and linking patterns. The U.S. blogging network has more dense interconnections among its members compared with British and German networks. Also, America's mediatized culture increases the probability that political blogs choose to link more to news media sites compared to British and German bloggers. On the other hand, British and German blogs in politicized cultures make links to government websites more frequently than do American blogs. Additionally, the U.S. political blogosphere shows greater segregation between blogs of competing political perspectives, compared with U.K. and German blogospheres. Findings are discussed in light of two key questions about the nature of political blogging (1) as a new technology-enabled medium facilitating cross-national convergence in communication practice, and (2) as a revolutionary venue revitalizing the public sphere and democracy.
The number of people reading and writing political blogs in the UK continues to grow, just as political bloggers grow in influence and authority. Now in its sixth year, the Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging comprises contributions from leading media commentators and bloggers analysing the state of the blogosphere and predicting where it might move next, as well as chronicling the pitfalls to avoid. The guide also contains blogging league tables, as voted for by Total Politics readers, which charts which blogs are the most influential in their field.
