The Political Blogosphere

The Political Blogosphere
Scott Robertson – Drexel University

Political blogs fall into 3 types:
Quasi journalistic editorial gossip style
Official
Personal

Blogs are large – but not as a percentage of electorate
People in a study tended to look at the candidates web site, less blogs and wiki’s

His research is around political decision making and the use of logs.
Broke research out into voting, decision making, information gathering, culture and belief

Voting systems should not be designed like ballots.
Voting systems should be designed within the context of existing political systems.
Developing a Political Portal that would survive between elections – his studies show people have no interest in between elections, but this might generate this interest.

Political blogs become part of online deliberation that leads to decision making
They have a “bursty” traffic pattern
Tend to be slanted to particular types
Very partisian
Can be personal
Within ideology
Increases in-group engagement
Neutral on out-group engagement
Personal and confrontational

Would want to design portal to increase social engagement
Increase participation
Embed the voting act in a context of political discourse