Schmidt Jan How Do Blogs Comment On Msm

How do Blogs comment on Mainstream Media Content?

Results from a link analysis

Dr. Jan Schmidt

Senior Researcher for digital interactive media

and political communication

Vienna, 08.04.2009

Blogs and MSM Seite 2 von 19

Agenda

1. Background: Blogs and Mainstream Media

2. Findings from an empirical study

3. Conclusions and future research questions


Blogs and Mainstream Media

• Both research and public debate about blogs is focussing on the relationship between this new format of online-based communication and established journalistic practices

• Some voices claim that blogs will overthrow mainstream media and revolutionize the way news and public affairs will be presented (e.g. Hewitt 2005)

• However, empirical studies point out that blogs do not directly compete with, but rather complement the activities of professional journalists (see Neuberger/Nürnbergk/Rischke 2007; Schmidt 2007)

– Professional Journalists and MSM use blogs as channels themselves

– Bloggers follow different routines for selecting and presenting information

1. Selection of topics: personal relevance rather than universal/societal relevance

2. Presentation of topics: personal authenticity and subjectivity rather than objectivity


Recent Findings

• Recent research is focussing on the relation and interdependence of journalistic publics and the blogosphere

• Reese et al. (2007)– analysis of the linking patterns of six top-ranking american blogs

“The blogosphere relies heavily on professional news reports”

• Messner/DiStaso (2008) – “The source cycle”– (a) Content analysis of 2.059 articles from New York Times and Washington Post

“newspapers increasingly legitimized weblogs as credible source”

– (b) Content analysis of 120 weblogs

“they heavily relied on traditional media as sources”

• Walejko/Ksiazek (2008)– Analysis of 600 blogposts from political and science blogs

about one third of the sources are traditional news sites


Open Questions

• Data for the german-speaking blogosphere shows that (excluding Wikipedia) MSM are very often linked to by blogs

• Expanding from these findings, three research questions were formulated:

– RQ1: In which context do blogs refer to text or videos produced by journalistic outlets?

– RQ2: Do blogs criticize or approve professionally selected and produced information?

– RQ3: Are there differences within the blogosphere itself, e.g. do blogs with a large audience differ in their reactions from those with small publics? Source: www.deutscheblogcharts.de, Feb 2008 / www.technorati.com


Selected target sites

MSM (1) MSM (2) Blogs

bild.t-online.de spiegel.de basicthinking.de/blog

daserste.de stern.de bildblog.de

dradio.de sueddeutsche.de nerdcore.de

faz.net tagesschau.de netzpolitik.org

focus.de taz.de spreeblick.de

heise.de wdr.de

heute.de welt.de

netzeitung.de zdf.de

n-tv.de zdf.de/ZDFmediathek

prosieben.de zeit.de

• Analysis of links from blogs to the 20 most linked-to german journalistic sites as well as to the five most linked-to german-speaking blogs (control group)


Construction of the dataset

Step Resulting N

Retrieving the latest 600 links for 25 sites through the Technorati API (thanks to Jens Schröder for the help)

15.000

Drawing a random sample of 70 links from each of the 25 sets1.750

Excluding links• Self-referencing (e.g. welt.de/blog linking to welt.de)• Spam-Blogs • Other sites (newsboards etc.)• Links from non-german postings

1.168

• The final dataset included only links from german-speaking, non-automated Blogs


Codeplan

• In addition to Technorati data (esp. on the centrality of the linking Blog), links were manually coded for various characteristics, including:

• Gender of the blog author• Link Target [on linked-to site]

– main site– thematic category– specific article

• Evaluation of the linked-to content [on linking site]– Positive– Neutral– Negative

• Coding was done by two research assistants (thanks to Julia Gutjahr and Norman Müller)

• Inter-Coder-Reliability ranged from .97 to .84

• Link Context [on linking site]– static sidebar link/blogroll– automated link from embedded

RSS– plain link w/o additional context– as source for a specific claim– part of a link collection


Descriptives (1)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

• Centrality of linking Blogs follows the typical „power law“-distribution

Technorati measures „authority“ as number of other Blogs that link to a given site within last 180 days.

Fig. 1: Distribution of Technorati Authority among linking blogs (N=1.168)

• Average Authority: 50

• Median Authority: 11


Descriptives (2)

9,7 5,9

84,4

0

20

40

60

80

100

Main Site Ressort/Category Specific Article

Fig. 2: Target of the link (in %; N=1.168)

• The large majority of links is pointing to specific articles/videos/blog postings


Descriptives (3)

• Most links (~ 90%) are placed in the context of a posting with original content by the blog author

– About a third of the links is used as a source for a statement or claim– More than half of the links are part of a posting where other sources are referenced as well

4 1,9 5,4

35

53,7

0

20

40

60

80

100

Static/Blogroll Automated/RSSPlain Link Source for specific claimPart of link collection

Fig. 3: Context of link (in %; N=1.087)


Descriptives (4)

• A large majority of the links makes no evaluating statement on the source of the link

• Of those who do, slightly more links are placed in a positive context than in a negative

1,99,6

81,1

5,2 2,10

20

40

60

80

100

Very positive Positive Neutral/no Evaluation Negative Very Negative

Fig. 4: Evaluation of linked-to site/article (in %; N=1.087)


Descriptives (4)

• Content from the five Top Blogs gets slightly less negative evaluations, but the difference is not significant

12,3

11,2

11,5

83,1

80,5

81,1

4,6

8,2

7,4

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Blog

MSM

Total

Positive Neutral Negative

Fig. 5: Evaluation of linked-to site/article – MSM & Blogs compared (in %; N=1.087)

Chi²=3.849, df=2, n.s.


Descriptives (4)

• Content from broadcasting sites gets the most positive as well as the most negative evaluations

12,3

7,9

14,4

11,5

83,1

84,7

76,4

81,1

4,6

7,4

9,2

7,4

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Blog

Print

Broadcasting

Total


Fig. 6: Evaluation of linked-to site/article – different types of media compared (in %; N=1.087)

Chi²=13.958, df=4, phi=.114** ; online-only netzeitung.de omitted


Descriptives (4)

• Content from publicly funded sites (i.e. of the public broadcasting stations) is more often positively evaluated than Blog-based content and content from private competitors

12,3

14,7

8,8

11,5

83,1

78,2

82,1

81,1

4,6

7,1

9,0

7,4

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Blog

Public Funding

Private Funding

Total


Fig. 7: Evaluation of linked-to site/article – different types of funding compared (in %; N=1.087)

Chi²=11.299, df=4, phi=.102*


Descriptives (4)

• Central Blogs are slightly more critical of MSM content, but the difference is statistically not significant

11,9

8,4

11,2

80,4

81,2

80,5

7,7

10,4

8,2

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

"Long Tail"

"A-List"

Total


Fig. 8: Evaluation of links to MSM – different degrees of centrality compared (in %; N=827)

„A-List“: Authority > 50 (18 %); long tail: authority < 50 (72 %)


Descriptives (4)

13,4

7,8

12,3

83,7

80,4

83,1

2,9

11,8

4,6

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

"Long Tail"

"A-List"

Total


Fig. 9: Evaluation of links to Blogs – different degrees of centrality compared (in %; N=260)

Chi²=8.109, df=2, phi=.177*

• Central Blogs are more critical of content in the Top 5 Blogs, while blogs from the „long tail“ are more positive

„A-List“: Authority > 50 (18 %); long tail: authority < 50 (72 %)


Conclusion

– RQ1: In which context do blogs refer to text or videos produced by journalistic outlets? – Links to MSM are usually placed as source for statements or claims, mostly in combination

with links to other sites (blogs or other MSM)

In Blogs, additional communication about and dissmenination of MSM content takes place

– RQ2: Do blogs criticize or approve professionally selected and produced information?– Generally, most links from blogs are without any evaluative claims; if they are, they are more

often positive than negative

– Significant (but nevertheless small) differences exist with respect to different types of MSM

Blogs mostly channel attention towards journalistically produced content, thus complementing rather than replacing (or attempting to replace) MSM media

– RQ3: Are there differences within the blogosphere itself?– A-List Blogs are more critical towards other top blogs than they are towards MSM

Direction of causality not clear: Are A-List blogs more popular because the criticize MSM? Or do they criticize MSM because they feel that they are becoming more „similar“?


Thank you for your attention.

Dr. Jan Schmidt

Hans-Bredow-Institut

Warburgstr. 8-10, 20354 Hamburg

[email protected]

www.hans-bredow-institut.de

www.schmidtmitdete.de


Bibliography

– Hewitt, H. (2005): Blog. Understanding the information reformation that’s changing your world. Nashville.

– Messner, M. & M. Watson DiStaso (2008): The Source Cycle. How traditional media and weblogs use each other as sources. In: Journalism Studies, Vol. 9, No 3, 2008, 447-463.

– Neuberger, C., C. Nuernbergk & M. Rischke (2007): Weblogs und Journalismus: Konkurrenz, Ergänzung oder Integration? In: Media-Perspektiven, issue 2, 96-112.

– Reese, S.D. et al. (2007): Mapping the blogosphere. Professional and citizen-based media in the global news arena. In: Journalism, 8, 235–261.

– Schmidt, Jan (2007): Blogging practices in the german-speaking blogosphere. Empirical findings from the ‘Wie ich blogge?!”-survey’, Nr. 07-02. Bamberg. Online verfügbar: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-9953.

– Waleiko, G. & T. Ksiazek (2008): Blogging from the Niches: The Sourcing Patterns of Political and Science Bloggers. Presentation at the „Internet Research 9.0 conference“, Copenhagen, October 16-18.


25,6

24,5

23,1

21,8

18,9

15,7

15,6

15,4

14,9

13,1

11,8

10,7

9,4

8,6

7,7

7,3

7,1

5,6

4,8

3,8

69,8

69,4

46,2

72,7

73,6

72,5

75

84,6

78,7

86,9

73,5

89,3

86,8

79,3

88,5

92,7

90,5

90,7

91,9

94,3

73,7

93,8

100

89,3

84,6

4,7

6,1

30,8

5,5

7,5

11,8

9,4

6,4

14,7

3,8

12,1

3,8

2,4

3,7

3,2

1,9

26,3

6,3

10,7

15,4

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

wdr.de

zdf.de

prosieben.de

zdf.de/ZDFmediathek

bildblog.de

spreeblick.de

zeit.de

faz.net

dradio.de

basicthinking.de/blog

sueddeutsche.de

heise.de

taz.de

daserste.de

welt.de

netzpolitik.org

stern.de

nerdcore.de

heute.de

n-tv.de

bild.t-online.de

focus.de

netzeitung.de

spiegel.de

tagesschau.de

Positiv Neutral Negativ

• About a quarter of the postings in the final dataset link to a blog, about a third to websites of newspapers/weekly magazines, the rest to websites of broadcasters

33,740,5

24,4

0

20

40

60

80

100

Print Broadcasting Blog

Fig. XX Targeted site (in %; N=1.168)

the online-only „netzeitung“ accounts for the missing 1,4%

Schmidt Jan How Do Blogs Comment On Msm

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