Future of Journalism Conference 2013Cardiff, September 12th 2013

FOLLOW-UP COMMUNICATION IN THE BLOGOSPHERE

A comparative study of bloggers linking to professional and participatory media

Dr. Christian Nuernbergk

Analysis of structural constraints to the public sphere under the conditions of new media enabling “self-government”

The “networked public sphere” Benkler (2006): Network structures on the Internet exhibit an

ordered system of filtering, intake and synthesis Critiques about democratising effects and openness remain:

fragmentation (Sunstein, 2007) vs. concentration (Hindman, 2009)

New emerging news production models and opportunities for user contributions Professional and participatory media; complementarity rather

than competition (Neuberger & Nuernbergk, 2010) public follow-up communication: “networked conversation“?

Cooperative mode and decentralised peer-review?

► Follow-up Communication on the Internet Traditional concept: interpersonal communication which relies on

mass media content, therefore making mass communication a primary subject in discussions (Sommer, 2010; Eble, 2012).

Network-based media allows follow-up communication to become publicly mediated; “public mode of interpersonal communication“ (Haas/Brosius, 2011)

(More) transparency regarding user’s preferences and contents: abilities to connect and to contribute combined with observability, searchability, and replicability of social media postings

Collaborative filtering as a result of networked content (Benkler, 2006; Schmidt 2011)- Selectivity and content diversity of public follow-up

communication: Adding, or reinterpreting information? (Reese et al. 2007; Xenos 2008)

- Openness of follow-up communication structures: Dynamics in the contributors’ network? (Nahon, 2011)

An approach for empirically testing differences and similarities by comparing media coverage and related communication in network-based citizen media:

Transparency: Which actors and issues are made visible in professional mainstream media and in network-based citizen media?

Validation: Do discourses correspond among professional media and network-based citizen media? Which differences can be found regarding specific issues (evaluation of sources, attributions, framing)?

Social navigation: How interconnected are professional media and citizen media through linking patterns and other marked referrals to each other (e. g. citing sources or other contributors’ views)?

Identity formation: What kind of collective identity formation can be observed? How do contributors in network-based media express and communicate differences to professional media in their coverage?

► Dimensions for an examination of filter mechanisms in the networked public-sphere:

Research Questions: “Follow-up Communication in the Blogosphere”

RQ1: What kind of network structure describes the follow-up communication induced by professional and participatory news media in the blogosphere?

 RQ2: What kind of bloggers select, comment and link to professional

and participatory content?

► G8-Summit Heiligendamm 2007

Selected Issue: G8-Summit Heiligendamm Contested political occasion (“counter-issue“ with several

demonstrations); high relevance and newsworthiness (main media event)

Clear time frames and good searchability

Increase of media-related participation and resonance in the social web discussing this issue

Method: combining content analysis and network analysis:

In focus: Online press coverage, which induces follow-up communication in

the blogosphere

Selected time period: two weeks around the summit (May 28th to June 10th,

2007)

A related study researching print media (Rucht & Teune, 2008) offers

possibilities to compare online and offline differences

► Internal and external networks of follow-up communication

IndymediaSpiegel Online

(external) network border

Blogs

Determination of relevant units through a hybrid selection process Keyword: „Heiligendamm“ (issue-centred selection)

Identification of relevant articles in the archives of Spiegel Online and Indymedia (media-centred selection)

Creating a archive-based list with specific URLs to each article

Collection and saving of all articles with LexiURL Linklist Analyser (Wolverhampton Cybermetrics Group, Mike Thelwall)

Transformation of all URLs into automated search requests by using LexiURL and the blog search engine Technorati (see Thelwall &

Hasler 2007; Bruns 2007; Erlhofer 2010)

Open identification of follow-up communication for each URL; reflection of search behaviour

All result lists generated by Technoraty were archived with LexiURL

Crawling of outlinks on these lists (= results referring to blog posts) and final collection of all relevant 423 postings for content analysis procedures.

► Findings (RQ1)Blog Postings per Day (in percent, shares for each network cluster‘s follow-up communication identified in the time period from 28th May to 29th 2007, content analysis 2007)

28/05/2007

30/05/2007

01/06/2007

03/06/2007

05/06/2007

07/06/2007

09/06/2007

11/06/2007

13/06/2007

15/06/2007

17/06/2007

19/06/2007

21/06/2007

23/06/2007

25/06/2007

27/06/2007

29/06/2007

01/07/2007

03/07/2007

05/07/2007

07/07/2007

09/07/2007

11/07/2007

13/07/2007

15/07/2007

17/07/2007

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

nur Spiegel Online-Anschlusskomm. (n=247)

nur Indymedia-Anschlusskomm. (n=104)

gemeinsame Anschlusskomm. (Spiegel On-line und Indymedia verlinkt) (n=70)

Only reactions to Spiegel Online-articles (n=247)

Only reactions to Indymedia-articles (n=104)

Shared reactions (blog postings linking to articles of Spiegel Online as well as Indymedia) (n=70)

Phasis of late-following reactions in blogposts after 11th June

Time periodNumber of

nodes

Share in

% (n=323)

Growth

in %*

Number of

edges

Share in

% (n=115)

Growth

in %*

28.05.-29.05.2007 13 4,0 4,0 0 0 0

30.05.-31.05.2007 35 10,9 6,9 2 1,7 1,7

01.06.-02.06.2007 71 22,0 11,1 7 6,1 4,4

03.06.-04.06.2007 130 40,3 18,3 21 18,3 12,2

05.06.-06.06.2007 199 61,6 21,3 68 59,1 40,8

# 1125.01.2012 # 1125.01.2012

Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medien-forschung

Forschungs- und Lehrbereich Neuberger

Network of all identified and analysed blogs which link to relevant articles of Spiegel Online or Indymedia (325 nodes, 477 edges)

Three clustersgreen: only reactions to Indymediared: only reactions to Spiegel Onlineblue: shared reactions

„Networked conversation?“

► Findings (RQ1) Network of Follow-up Communication

► Findings (RQ1) Network of Follow-up Communication (only Reactions)

anablog.wordpress.com

asynchron.blogspot.com

blog.fefe.de

blog.pantoffelpunk.de

blog.till-westermayer.de

blog.zeit.de/zitat-des-tages/

blogdoch.net

daslebenistanderswo.de

deine-stimme-gegen-armut.de

derwesten.de

elementarteile.de

finanzblog.kaywa.com

frederic.gameports.net gipfelblog.de

gonorrea.ch

graubrot.blogspot.com

hboeck.de

hebig.com

i-tend-to-be.blog.de

konsumblog.de

korrupt.biz

lawblog.de

litart.twoday.net

metronaut.de

oeffingerfreidenker.blogspot.com

personalblog.kaywa.de

politblog.blog.de

provinzkritik.blogsport.de

readers-edition.de

redblog.twoday.net

sbp.twoday.net

schwerin.blogsport.de

spiegelfechter.com

spiegelkritik.de

spreeblick.com

stefan-niggemeier.de

tobiaspflueger.twoday.net

wbk.in-berlin.de/wp_nuss

yigg.de

zakk.de/blog

Identified link connections among contributing blogs (323, nodes, 115 edges)

Three clustersgreen: only reactions to Indymediared: only reactions to Spiegel Onlineblue: shared reactions

Coverage Follow-up Communication

Main topic of article/posting Spiegel Online (n=184)

Indymedia (n=265)

Spiegel Online- only

(n=246)

Indymedia-only

(n=104)

Shared reactions

(n=70)Total

(n=420)

Protest (in general) 33 61 23 54 24 31

Security measures/Police violence at protests 14 22 21 25 37 25

G8-summit happenings (in general) 11 1 12 5 0 8

Government’s arguments 7 0 3 0 0 2

Protestors’ arguments 7 2 1 0 1 1

Globalisation (in focus) 4 0 2 0 1 1

Climate change (in focus) 13 0 5 0 1 3Media coverage about event or related protests 4 6 25 14 30 23

Other focus 8 8 9 2 4 6

Cramer’s-V= .357, p< .001

►Results (RQ 1): Main topics in the coverage of Indymedia, Spiegel Online and in the sample of their follow-up communication in blogs (in %)

Type of external link destination Spiegel Online- only (n=972)

Indymedia-only(n=415)

Shared reactions (n=540)

Total(n=1927)

Professional-edited news sites (in affiliation with traditional media) 38,6 29,2 34,6 35,4

Professional-edited news sites (Internet-only) 3,6 4,1 6,9 4,6

Community-edited news sites 1,5 0,7 0,9 1,2

Weblogs (external), Twitter (linked accounts) 17,2 18,6 23,5 19,3

Protest websites 13,9 24,3 15,4 16,6

Governmental websites, political parties, public administration and police websites 3,4 4,1 3,5 3,6

Justice (court websites) 0,7 0,7 0,6 0,7

Associations, unions 1,1 0,0 1,3 0,9

Main Internet portals, search engines 11,8 13,3 9,1 11,4

Other websites 8,1 5,1 4,3 6,4

Manual calculation. n-values comprise all external links (including multiple relations if more than one posting from an analysed blog linked to same external destination)

►Results (RQ 1): Outgoing links: share of external destination types resulting from network clusters in the follow-up communication (in %)

►Results (RQ 1): Popular links in the follow-up communication blog network(sorted by Indegree, network analysis)

de.wikipedia.org g8-tv.org

heise.de/tp welt.de

jungewelt.despiegelfechter.com

sueddeutsche.dendr.de

tagesschau.deyoutube.com

spreeblick.compolitblog.net

netzeitung.destern.de taz.de

stefan-niggemeier.depolizei.mvnet.de

zeit.de bild.t-online.de

g-8.de zdf.de

heise.de citronengras.de

faz.net focus.de

freie-radios.netgipfelsoli.org

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

64

34

34

27

26

25

24

19

19

17

16

16

15

15

15

13

13

13

12

12

11

10

9

9

9

9

9

Only nodes with indegree ≤ 2: 144 of 757 nodes, 233 of 1505 edgesnode colour: red (activist sites, protest against g8), blue (external weblogs, main Internet portals), yellow (professional-edited news media), black (blogs in the follow-up communication promoting links; non-classified sites).

The follow-up communication in blogs is mainly focused on selected media items and articles

- Contributions of Spiegel Online as well as Indymedia disparately provoked follow-up communication in the blogosphere

Moderately connected clusters of blogs which bridge reactions to Indymedia as well as Spiegel Online

- Functional filtering based on a common and small selection of blog postings which receive attention regarding a specific topic (center-periphery pattern)

- Most blog reactions remain isolated in the blogosphere. This indicates that public follow-up communication does not necessarily switch into an interactive mode of “networked conversation” (also few reciprocal ties)

- The contributors’ network leads to similarities regarding the distribution of received comments (indicates filter-effectivity)

Topical patterns in the media are only partially reflected in the related follow-up communication: blogs link more often to articles with criticism on the media’s conduct and highlight aspects which were less covered.

► Summary (RQ 1)

Most investigated blogs are published by independent single authors (77%, n=239). Author collectives (16%) as well as blogs provided by political organisations (4%) are less common [2010]

Low level of gender equality: 6% women‘s share (n=96) Low level of direct activism: 8% participated in a G8-protest rally Signs of political partisanship: Positioning on a „left-right

continuum” difficult in most of the cases; leftists’ share (20%, n=261) „A-List“: 3% (n=323) belong to the German Top100 blogs Visibility: 23% (n=261) don‘t show any incoming links according to

Google Activity level: 35% (n=255) were updated at least five times in the

last 30 days [2010] A minority of blogs exhibits signs for a journalistic affiliation of

their author or publisher (9%, n=258) [2010]

► Results (RQ 2)Who participated? Characteristics of contributing bloggers

► Outlook Issue-specific filter mechanisms in participatory, network-based

media demand a comparative design- Identification of similar patterns regarding link formation,

networking and re-communication of content for examination of filter effectivity (homophily, polarisation, centralisation)

- Additional analysis of comments attached to blog postings Study revealed that networking is rather not indicating endorsement

- Future research should also focus on context of links Further research is needed to examine the diffusion of news in

network-based media and specific processes of amplification in issue-related social networks- Considering external factors in the diffusion of social news

(Transparency regarding algorithms and code)- Temporal analysis: Filter dynamics

Thank you!

Dr. Christian NuernbergkDepartment of Communication Science and Media Research (IfKW)Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Münchennuernbergk@ifkw.lmu.detwitter.com/nuernbergkfb.com/pages/Lehrstuhl-Prof-Neuberger