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This document summarizes research on the social network dynamics of blogs (the blogosphere) over time. The researchers took random samples of blogs and their links in April, August, and December 2004. They found that the core network of highly linked blogs became tighter and more focused on religion and politics over time, while the peripheral blogs fragmented. The network showed increasing polarization around conservative and religious viewpoints.
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- 1. Social Network Dynamics in the Blogosphere The Blog Research on Genre (BROG) Project School of Library and Information Science Indiana University Bloomington
- 2. BROG project members Susan Herring Inna Kouper Sarah Mercure John Paolillo Lois Ann Scheidt Peter Welsch Elijah Wright
- 3. The Blogosphere The collective term encompassing all weblogs (cf. blog biosphere or ecosystem) The “intellectual cyberspace” inhabited by bloggers (Wm. Quick, 2001) “ Blogs as a community; blogs as a social network” ( www. samizdata .net )
- 4. Previous research One-third of blogs have no hyperlinks Small part of the blogosphere is densely interlinked ‘ A-list’ blogs are central in network Cliques exist ‘ Conversation’ between blogs is sporadic over time (Efimova & de Moor, 2005; Herring et al., 2004, 2005; Kumar et al., 2003) BUT: No previous research on change over time in blog networks
- 5. Research question How do networks of links among blogs change over time? How quickly? To what extent? In what ways?
- 6. Sampling method Random sample of 4 blogs followed by snowball sample out 3 levels from random blogs 3 samples at 4-month intervals April, August, December 2004 samples 2 and 3 automated 5387, 4900, 4367 unique URLS per sample (~10,000 total unique URLs)
- 7. Source blogs pencilinyourhand . blogspot .com www. danm .us/ blog www. mysocalledblog .com orangetang .org/ erica / blogger .html
- 8. Analytical methods Content analysis 300 random, 150 core blogs (17+ in-links) Themes : current events, politics, religion, technology, etc. Blog type : personal journal, filter, k-log, mixed, other Gender of blog author Results compared for three samples
- 9. Analytical methods (cont.) Social network analysis (Degenne & Forsé, 1999) based on links in sidebars (‘blogrolls’) Centrality Reciprocity Visualization of network core blogs with 10+ in-links Kamada-Kawai layout in R Results compared for three samples
- 10. Content analysis: Random subsample Themes Personal > current events/politics > technology > religion Blog type Filter - avg. 42%, increasing over time Personal journal - avg. 38%, decreasing over time Gender of blog author Male - avg. 65%, increasing over time Cf. Herring et al. (2004) 70% of blogs are personal journals;13% are filters 50% of blog authors are female
- 11. Content analysis: Core sample Themes Religion > current events/politics > personal > technology Blog type Filter - avg. 49%, increasing over time personal journal - avg. 15.6%, decreasing over time Gender of blog author Male - avg. 66% Core: blogs with 17+ in-links
- 12. Content analysis: Comparison Random subsample few in-links (peripheral to network) diverse content high turn-over of individual blogs 13% shared across 3 samples Core sample many in-links focused on religion, politics, morality, education stable membership over time 75% shared across 3 samples
- 13. Social network analysis: Centrality ‘ A-list’ blogs are central All four source blogs lead to 25/37 A-list blogs Avg. 3 degrees of separation from any source blog to any A-list blog (range 1.8 - 4.7 degrees) tendency to increase in closeness over time Catholic blogs are ‘core of the core’ pattern like A-list
- 14. Social network analysis: Reciprocity A-list blogs attract more links Tend to be found in reciprocal relations with other A-list blogs Non-A-list blogs link preferentially to A-list blogs, but low rate of reciprocation Change over time Increase in reciprocal linking of A-list blogs (p = .001) Decrease in reciprocal linking of non-A-list blogs (p = .001) Catholic blogs pattern like A-list
- 15. Visualization Cut-off at 10 in-degrees (350 blogs) Three thematic clusters emerge: Catholicism ( red ) Politics/current events ( green ) Homeschooling ( blue ) Catholic (and some political) blogs consolidate over time Other clusters fragment or disperse
- 16. Sample 1 (April 2004)
- 17. Sample 2 (August 2004)
- 18. Sample 3 (December 2004)
- 19. Animation
- 20. Study limitations Only four random sources, three of them filter blogs, one Catholic Filters more likely to have links (Blood, 2002) Catholic blogs more likely to link to each other? Snowball sampling creates bias towards connectivity Overestimates overall connectivity First sample was collected manually, second and third samples via automated crawl May not be strictly comparable
- 21. How does the network change? Core gets tighter religious, politically conservative blogs Periphery gets looser thematically-diverse, albeit disproportionately filter-type, male blogs Change is evident at 4-month intervals
- 22. Possible explanations Political/religious discourses increasingly polarized US 2004 presidential campaign Tendency for cliques to become more cliquish If so, should be demonstrable for other cliques in the blogosphere
- 23. Future directions Conduct longitudinal network analysis starting from other source blogs, e.g. Politically liberal Non-filter types Female authors Sample at shorter intervals Track network evolution over long time spans