A new study by Benkler, Shaw, and Stodden finds that there are big differences in how the left and the right blogosphere. The Nation has a long article about the study and provides a .PDF of the study.  Previous studies found that conservative blogs were slightly more likely to link to blogs of the opposite political persuasion than liberal blogs. In contrast, these authors found that liberal blogs had bigger discussion sections, were more likely to mobilize their readers, and had higher tech websites.

Sites on the left adopt more participatory technical platforms; are
comprised of significantly fewer sole-authored sites; include user
blogs; maintain more fluid boundaries between secondary and primary
content; include longer narrative and discussion posts; and (among the
top half of the blogs in our sample) more often use blogs as platforms
for mobilization as well as discursive production.

Several years ago, my colleague, Antoinette Pole, and I did a study of political bloggers, which resulted in somewhat different findings. (Download McKennaPole) We surveyed a sample of 141 randomly chosen political blogs about their political ideology and their blogging practices.

Continue reading “The Left and the Right in the Blogosphere” →