Do blogs have a bigger impact than you'd think?

Here is the first scholary critique of the article "Mapping the Blogosphere." To read the article first click here.
1) Research topic and researcher(s): “Mapping the Blogosphere: Professional and Citizen-Based Media in the Global News Arena,” by Stephen Reese, et. al. In Journalism, 8 (3) 2007, pp. 235-261. Retrieved from Communication and Media Complete, on Mar. 02, 2008.

2) Rationale of the study:
To find 1) the extent weblogs (blogs) link to the professional news media, 2) how the political affiliation of blogs is related to their linking to professional news media, 3) how is political affiliation of blogs related to the affiliation of their linking choices and 4) How is political affiliation of blogs related to their linking to international sites and authors? (Reese, 2007, p. 241).

3) Literature review:
· This study points out that traditional theories and the relationship of press and the public are changing with the emergence and popularity of blogs.
· Traditional media has more limits and less interaction than the new media of blogs.
· Journalism is one aspect that has changed due to blogs.
· Professional journalists are experienced in the journalistic craft and usually have formal training.
· Journalists generally have limits on their work. For instance, they must work with an editor and make money for their work.
· One boundary that traditional forms of media face is that viewer or readers may have to pay for news services.
· Bloggers can freely express ideas with or without the approval of a superior.
· New forms of news are more interactive.
· One way that blogs are more interactive is that they interlink.
· Bloggers can provide links that readers can instantly obtain.
· Links can create an intertwining web of similar thoughts, concepts, phenomena, and ideas.
· Blogs can be considered complementary to traditional forms of media as they can be interconnected through interlinking with the work of professional journalists.
· One negative issue that new blogs face is the overlap of interlinking. Some blogs have the same links so the same messages are being echo by each other.
· Finally, new forms of new sources assist the transcendence of geographical boundaries.

4) Research Method:
The researchers used both contextual analysis and textual analysis of new and political blogs.

5) Subject of the Study:
The researchers of the study began by studying blogs devoted to new and politics. The process continued as the conductors of the study selected liberal and conservative perspectives that were reputable and popular in the blogosphere. After finding particular sites, the researchers described patterns of significance for each site.

This process was employed to gain insight into the aspects of each blog and how they became reputable and popular. In the course of the study, six weblogs were selected (three liberal: Points Memo, Atrios, and Daily Kos; and three conservative: Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, and Little Green Footballs).

6) Research Findings:
· Given the broadness of blogosphere, researchers focused on three major boundaries of the structure of blogging networks: professional, political, and geographic.
· The conductors of the study were challenged with the content analysis because of the large amount of information a blog contains (posts, comments, links, etc).
· Another challenge was the rapid interactivity of each blog. Because there are constantly being comments and links added the testing environment was somewhat inconsistent.
· One interesting aspect of the study is that many of the blogs provided links to traditional forms of news.
· 47.6% of blogs made references to professional news media including news-editorial, policy, or opinion journals
· Positive affects of new forms of news includes the increase of attention to global issues, rather than national insularity.

7) My position on this Scholarly Essay:
I believe that this is a critical issue to study. With the popularization of news and political blogs, more and more people are exploring their thoughts and ideas via blogs. The findings of this study confirmed my previous beliefs as far as the effects of blogs. Additionally the purpose and results of this study were written in a lucid, concise writing style.

Although the study was important and easy to follow, I feel that the methodology was primitive. There seemed to be little or no structure to how the researchers set out to answer their research questions. Additionally, the study did not answer all of the research questions. For example, 1) how the political affiliation of blogs is related to their linking to professional news media? And 2) how is political affiliation of blogs related to the affiliation of their linking choices? Remain unanswered by the study. Finally, I feel that the scope of the study was too broad. The study would have been refined had the researchers ask a research question such as, “How are blogs changing the affects of traditional mass media?”

Overall the study was heuristic, but the scope of the experiment was too broad for any one study to uncover the answers to.