Article Critique #1

Brent Reykdal

Article Critique

October 4, 2007

1) Research topic and researchers:

Mapping the blogosphere: Professional and citizen-based media in the global news arena, by Stephen D. Reese, Lou Rutigliano, Kideuk Hyun, and Jaekwan Keong, in Journalism, 8 (3) 2007, pp. 235-261. Retrieved from Communication Studies; A SAGE production on October 4, 2007.

2) Rationale of the study:

This study was to analyze weblogs in the new weblog are, particularly in the area of news and political debate. The study examined the relationship between citizens based and more traditional based journalists. They focused their attention to high trafficked blogs. The study traced the sites these blogs linked to, such as other blogs or more traditional news sources. The study was also interested in the international and ideological pattern of linking. They also focused on if blogs crossed the political lines.

3) Literature Review:

It has become evident that people are looking for news and information beyond the traditional sources. Such as people looking online, the internet has increased the speed, reach and comprehensiveness of journalism available to the public. The blogs have allowed people to become journalists at a much lower cost. This has also broken down the geographic limitations people prior had encountered. Some people feel that the internet has the potential to foster more engaged and active citizenship around the world. People are now organizing themselves around personal views as opposed to geographic locations.

Journalism is thought to be the driving force that helps encourage and amplify the conversation of the public. Thus prior to blogs the news was always verified by the news gatekeepers who limited what we the people were viewing. Now with blogs this has allowed citizens to have conversations about what they believe and others can view that. Prior to this the news was reflecting what they thought the public was feeling; now it is in the hands of the bloggers. This is changing how traditional news is formed.

We understand that technology has allowed us to do some amazing things (such as how a computer crashes and I loose this paper two different times), but more directly journalism has been disrupted and interlinked more fluidly with citizen communication. In the end blogospheres provide citizens the ability to different views, opinions and perspectives respectively bringing forth different conversations.

When we look at professional journalism vs. citizen media we must understand one of the barriers to people being able to view professional journalism is how it is normally a pay for service. This enables them to have greater control over the online content with less reader submitted content. Now news providers which might have blocked their information are making more summaries and blogs that point to it. They also now have sections where people can respond in close to real time; thus allowing for high interactivity while working online.

While blogospheres are often cast as a competitor to the traditional news media it can now be views as complimentary. Connecting news from the professional journalist to the more citizen based journalist. We also must remember the ease of connecting online which would allow a broader audience. Also the ease of use of weblogs, low barriers for creation and maintenance, the dynamic quality, easy interactivity and potential for wide distribution distinguish weblogs from other online citizen based media such as traditional media.

In the end bloggers aren’t destroying the professionals but they are redeploying it to a broader area. This allows mainstream news to be challenged and not only by the professionals. Citizens can blog about whatever they want, questioning ones beliefs or reaffirming their beliefs.

Blogs have also allowed people to view only what they want to view. Such as a blogroll which is a set of links to recommended sites for a person to view. This allows a citizen who is blogging to say for more like stories go here. Such as how Iraq bloggers 40 percent of the time linked to other Iraq bloggers. This is allowing people to view things with like beliefs.

We understand that the internet is the World Wide Web. Thus allowing someone to be able to not be bound by there geographic location. We must understand that blogs can be viewed by anybody and this would allow worldly people to log on at any time.

4) Research method:

I would say that this was a case study.

5) Subject of the study:

The subjects were 6 well known and high trafficked bloggers in the area of news and politics. There were 3 conservative bloggers and 3 liberal bloggers. These blogs were only associated with individual or small groups rather than a group of community blog.

They identified the content from the first full week of February 6 to the 13^th 2005 for coding. They selected this week because it was roughly comparable from one blog to another.

6) Research findings:

Let me first explain the questions they were trying to answer. The first question was “To what extent to blogs make reference to the traditional news media, and how are those references characterized?”

Question 2 “How is political affiliation of blogs related to their reference to traditional news media?”

They found a total of 410 posts across the six bloggers. The blogs had a significant number of links to other sites with 38% of them having two or more links. This supported their statement that blogs were a gateway to larger cybernetworks. Much of the links were in the form of for more information go here. There was also the thought that most of these blogs aren’t true information. Most of the blogs either assemble material from elsewhere with only general comments 38.5 percent or conduct some analysis on the material which was 60.5%, there were only a handful of times when it was on the scene reporting.

The study found that 33.5% of blogs are referenced to other blogs and that 47.6% are referenced to professional news media; with most of them going to news and editorial sites which was 38.6% of them. They found that political affiliation did not affect the amount of linking. While they did find that conservatives did link to other blogs more than liberal blogs.

They also found that contrary to popular belief traditional news media and professional journalist play an important role within the network of blogs. This is because of the amount of times they are linked in their blogs. With 28.8% of blogs linking directly to news stories.

They also focused on how these blogs linked to other sites. The main style was to simply reference the link. Such as making a statement and then following it up with a cut clip from that news story. This was found in 84% of the cases. This was found across all six blogs and in another case they would blatantly point out to the reader to not miss this important information. So they found that professional news is often referenced and it is taken at face value to make a larger point.

They next focused on who is speaking within the sites. Such as how some professionals have their own blogs. They found that almost half are citizens and the other half are connected with some sort of professional news media.

Question 3 “How is political affiliation of blogs related to the affiliation of their linking choices?”

Question 4 “How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to international sites and authors.

They wanted to see if blogs open up the space between political boundaries along with geographical boundaries. They found that liberal blogs tend to link to liberal sites; while conservative blogs tend to link to conservative voices. Although they classified almost half of the sites led to non-partisan (non political) sources.

The final thought was whether the blogs open up the geographic boundaries. They found that 92.9% of the sites linked to US sites. They found the similar pattern when they were looking at the authors of these blogs. They believed that liberals would link to offshore sites and conservatives here in the US but they found no correlation. They pointed out that one conservative site had the least amount of links to the US and the same was with the authors not being from the US.

7) My position on this scholarly article:

I found this article very interesting. I knew that most blogs were personal opinion I thought most blogs would be bashing the news sources and political sources. To my surprise they were found to be more supportive and opened people’s eyes to the professional media.

I would be curious to see a study on smaller blogs. Blogs that are so high trafficked because I would think that you would find stronger view points there and people outright bashing what the professional media is saying.

All in all this article was interesting to read and puts a new spin on how I view online blogs.