Poignancy in the US political blogsphere

Abstract

Purpose

To suggest methods and approaches to the study of relationships between the blogsphere and news, and to show, through a preliminary study, how the blogsphere makes particular political contributions through the manner in which social issues are discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

The article provides a set of research questions as well as general methodological approaches to undertake empirical, comparative analysis of the blogsphere and news. It reports on a preliminary study of the contribution of the blogsphere to politics using semantic analysis. Hyperlink analysis of the right‐of‐center US political blogsphere is also provided in a figure.

Findings

It was found that the contribution of the blogsphere to political issue formation is distinctive from that of the news, for the blogsphere provides to issues a poignancy not found in the news.

Research limitations/implications

The reported study is suggestive of a particular contribution the blogsphere may make to issue formation.

Practical implications

The article outlines a research agenda.

Originality/value

The article seeks to reorient the study of the blogsphere.

Citation

Rogers, R. (2005), "Poignancy in the US political blogsphere", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 57 No. 4, pp. 356-368. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012530510612086