Australia's Political Blogosphere in the Aftermath of the 2007 Federal Election (AoIR 2008)

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Australia’s Political Blogosphere in theAftermath of the 2007 Federal Election

Dr Axel Bruns, Dr Jason Wilson, Barry SaundersCreative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

a.bruns, j5.wilson, b.saunders @ qut.edu.au

Lars Kirchhoff, Thomas NicolaiInstitute for Media and Communication Management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

lars.kirchhoff, thomas.nicolai @ unisg.ch



The 2007 Australian Election‒ (Some) analogies with 2004 U.S. election:

• substantial use of online media ∘ by established parties (YouTube clips, Kevin 07 and LaborFirst sites, …) ∘ and media organisations (ABC Online, News.com.au blogs, …)

• news blogs and citizen journalism recognised as important• some persistent belligerence between citizen and industrial journalists

• but also key differences due to political cultures (compulsory vs. voluntary voting, Westminster vs. presidential system, …)

‒ Building on developed and maturing blogosphere:• clear structure, established opinion leaders• more or less clear distinction from mainstream media ‘commentariat’• but also some commercial support for blogs and bloggers

∘ e.g. Crikey, Blogocracy, newspaper/magazine opinion columns by bloggers

need to develop more detailed, evidence-based picture of the Australian blogosphere



US political blogs (Dean et al. 2004)

Iranian political bloggers (Kelly & Etling 2005)

the blogosphere (Hurst 2006)

US political bloggers (Adamic & Glance 2005)

Mapping Blogs



Looking More Closely

‒ Standard methodology:• find blogs (search, Technorati, specific blog platform, etc.)• identify links (on current page) crawl to linked pages repeat• capture (scrape) text and other details (not always included)• plot link network structure, correlate with blog content patterns

‒ Problems in blog mapping:• defining and identifying the population to be mapped• determining which links are relevant• method of plotting links, identifying blog clusters, etc.• correlating link network structure and blog themes• tracking changes over time



Key Problems‒ Technology limitations:

• crawlers and scrapers often lack sophistication

• need to distinguish: ∘ posts – comments – ancillary / functional texts∘ discursive links – blogroll links – functional links

• want to slice data in different ways:∘ select blog activity for specific days, weeks, months∘ select blog content and links for specific blogs or blog clusters

‒ Analytical limitations:• patterns of interlinkage tell only part of the story

• maps provide only a temporary snapshot

• want to understand:∘ what clusters have in common∘ and how they change over time



Towards a New Approach‒ Process stages (Australian political blogs as test case):

• data gathering and processing∘ track large number of (broadly) political Australian blogs through RSS feeds∘ scrape blog content for newly posted entries∘ separate blog post content from ancillary materials / separate discursive links from other link types∘ (grow master list of blogs as required)

• content analysis∘ combine extracted blog post content (per blog, per cluster, per timeframe, …) ∘ automated analysis to identify key themes and keywords ∘ currently using Leximancer

• network analysis∘ combine extracted link information (overall, per timeframe, per cluster, …)∘ automated network mapping to identify lead blogs and clusters∘ currently using VOSON, Pajek, and UCINet

• combined analysis∘ e.g. comparative content analysis for lead blogs and clusters in the link network∘ e.g. correlation of blogosphere patterns with external factors (parallel themes in mainstream media,

etc.)

(First iteration operated November 2007 to January 2008, tracking 300-400 blogs)



Early Results

‒ Proof-of-concept study of selected lead blogs (11/2007-1/2008):The Other Cheek (political gossip) vs. Club Troppo (policy analysis)

The Other Cheek Club Troppo

Concept Absolute Count Relative Count Concept Absolute Count Relative Count

LaborLiberalOCpoliticalelectiongovernmentcampaignpeoplepatriotseatRuddcandidatestateGreenspublicfederalleftworkGameAge

14514514310487837665626256565049484242383838

100%100%98.6%71.7%60%57.2%52.4%44.8%42.7%42.7%38.6%38.6%34.4%33.7%33.1%28.9%28.9%26.2%26.2%26.2%

nationalgovernmentyearseconomicpolicypeopleHowardelectionLaborworldcountriespoliticsproblempublicissueworkRuddchangetaxprice

26324122820420219415413312412211410910591919086848478

100%91.6%86.6%77.5%76.8%73.7%58.5%50.5%47.1%46.3%43.3%41.4%39.9%34.6%34.6%34.2%32.6%31.9%31.9%29.6%



The Other Cheek



Club Troppo



Next Steps

‒ Further analysis:• more comprehensive study of existing dataset• identification of key opinion leaders and discussion topics• week-by-week network and issue mapping • identification of discussion clusters around sites and topics

‒ New data gathering phase:• next iteration of content scraping process• extended / revised list of sites to be included• up-to-date (real-time?) identification of key topics and leading sites• correlation of blogosphere data with mainstream media patterns• focus on key issues and events (elections, national debates, etc.)



Further Information‒ Continued coverage of the project:

• Gatewatching.org (Wilson, Saunders, Bruns)

‒ Discussion paper:• “Network and Concept Maps for the Blogosphere”

(Bruns, Kirchhoff, Nicolai, Wilson, Saunders, Highfield, 2008)

‒ Full AoIR paper:• “Australia’s Political Blogosphere in the Aftermath of the 2007 Federal Election”

(Bruns, Wilson, Saunders, Kirchhoff, Nicolai, 2008)

‒ Detailed discussion of The Other Cheek, Club Troppo, and Larvatus Prodeo:• Concept Maps for Selected Australian Political Blogs, Part I (Bruns 2008)

• Concept Maps for Selected Australian Political Blogs, Part II (Bruns 2008)

Australia's Political Blogosphere in the Aftermath of the 2007 Federal Election (AoIR 2008)

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