Public Choice (2008) 134: 97–108 DOI 10.1007/s11127-007-9203-8
What do bloggers do: an average day on an average political blog
Laura McKenna ·.Antoinette Pole
Received: 2 June 2007 / Accepted: 9 June 2007 / Published online: 8 August 2007 . Springer Science+Business Media, BV 2007
Abstract This study investigates whether average political bloggers engage in four distinct activities: informing readers, checking the media, engaging in political advocacy, and gathering money for charitable causes. Findings show that most bloggers inform their readers about articles in the media or to draw attention to key posts on other blogs. Somewhat less frequently, most bloggers write posts that detect errors or biases in the media. Bloggers use their blogs to pursue activist and philanthropist activities even less often. Ideology and traffic levels slightly affect the content and purpose of blog posts.
1 Introduction
In the past four years, bloggers have garnered headlines and respect after several key achievements in journalism and politics. In 2002, bloggers helped unseat Trent Lott from his position of majority leader in the Senate by publicizing remarks he made at a party for Strom Thurmond. Just three years later, bloggers highlighted an error made on Dan Rather’s show, 60 Minutes II, bringing into question accuracy and bias in the entire media industry. In an effort to mobilize voters, BlogforAmerica was created by the Dean campaign in 2000 to augment traditional campaign activities by tapping into an “e-citizenry.” Yet, aside from these well publicized cases by a small group of A-list bloggers, we have only an incomplete picture of the entire blogging enterprise. We know little about what average political bloggers do on their blogs on a daily basis.
There are seven million active blogs in existence and each day, nearly 80,000 new blogs are added to that number (“Measuring the Blogosphere” 2005). With the ever growing number of blogs, it is necessary to go beyond the aforementioned cases and learn about what these seven million bloggers write about on a daily basis. This study focuses on bloggers who write about political issues. It explores the various politics topics that interest them, and how they use their blogs to engage in political activity. The paper also examines their relationship to traditional media sources and elected officials and how bloggers tap the political potential of this medium.
This study investigates whether average political bloggers engage in four distinct activities: informing readers, checking the media, engaging in political advocacy, and gathering money for charitable causes. We expected that bloggers would engage in these activities to varying degrees. Findings show that most bloggers inform their readers about articles in the media or to draw attention to key posts on other blogs. Also, most bloggers at one time or another write posts that detect errors or biases in the media. Activist and philanthropist activities occur less frequently. We also find that ideology may play a role in determining what blogging activities bloggers pursue. Results show that bloggers with high traffic levels are somewhat more likely to inform their readers and to engage in watchdog activities. The findings suggest that average political bloggers do a variety of activities, but they are most committed to filtering information for their readers on certain topics or from a particular ideological perspective.
2 What do bloggers do?
Though there is substantial literature on information technology and politics (Browning 1996; Bennett and Fielding 1999;Davis 1999;Barber 1998; Davis et al. 2002; Bimber 2003;Pole 2005;West 2005), little has been written on politics and blogs. Because blogging only became popular in recent years, most of the literature about blogging and politics has either focused on a few well-documented cases (see, e.g., Hewitt 2005; Kennedy School of Government Case Program 2004) or examined the interactions of the most popular or A-list bloggers (see, e.g., McKenna and Pole 2004; Drezner and Farrell 2007). The few writers who examine average bloggers present differing accounts of their behavior.
According to the “echo chamber” theory of blogs, bloggers amplify views from party and media elites that reflect their own political predispositions (Wallsten 2005). Providing links to mainstream news sources and blogs is clearly an important function of blogs. However, we do not know how often bloggers link to other sources. We also do not know whether they criticize their sources or passively link to them.
Others, including Hewitt (2005)and Posner(2005), maintain that bloggers are not merely linkers and followers of traditional media sources. Instead, bloggers challenge traditional news sources, which they believe is biased, arrogant, elitist, and corrupt. There has been much anecdotal evidence of bloggers pursuing their role as media watchdogs. In August of 2006, Paul Johnson of Little Green Footballs (www.littlegreenfootballs.com) found an altered Reuters photograph, which was published by The New York Times (Farhi 2006).
Bloggers are also described as political activists, who push their own causes and candidates (Klam 2004; Trippi 2004; Bowers and Stoller 2005). Joe Trippi, manager of Howard Dean’s campaign in 2000, credits bloggers with the initial success of the campaign. Buttressing more traditional campaign activities, bloggers and blog readers served as campaign workers collecting money, disseminating information, organizing events, and even publishing campaign literature. Trippi describes bloggers as connectors or extraordinary political citizens who bring in hundreds of other supporters into a candidate’s camp (Trippi 2004).
Supporting this picture of bloggers as activists is best illustrated by the bloggers who raised large sums of money for political candidates in the 2004 election. For example, Kentucky Democrat Ben Chandler bought $2,000 in advertisements on blogs, and these advertisements raised nearly $80,000 in contributions (Lillkvist 2004). Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos, directed more than $750,000 to the Democratic Party and candidates from 6,500 readers of his blog (Justice 2004). Several liberal bloggers recently created their own political action committee called BlogPac (www.blogpac.org) in order to better raise money for candidates and causes. Bloggers also engage in other forms of political activism, such as asking readers to sign petitions and urging them to attend local rallies. So great is the potential power of the bloggers to support political candidates and causes that a recent paper aimed at progressive groups advised candidates how to best harness their power (Bowers and Stoller 2005).
In addition to the aforementioned activities, several articles illustrate the effectiveness of bloggers as philanthropists in gathering supplies for American troops abroad and in collecting donations for the victims of the 2004 Tsunami (Internet Week 2004; Ramos and Piper 2005; Wright 2005). In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, bloggers, including Reynolds, collected donations for relief organizations (O’Connell 2005; Reynolds 2005). A few bloggers, such Michelle Catalano of ASmall Victory (www.asmallvictory.net), organized their own efforts (Catalano 2005). Bloggers strategized about how to best use blogs to further their philanthropic goals (Jarvis 2005).
Other research broadly assesses what motivates bloggers to write their blogs. One study finds that most bloggers blog for cathartic reasons and that networking and communication is a large function of blogging (Chang et al. 2005). Nardi et al. (2004) show that there are a variety of purposes for blogging: a documentation of personal life, an outlet for commentary and opinions, catharsis, and articulation ideas through writing and maintaining community forums. Studying readers, Kaye (2005) reports that they access blogs for information and media surveillance, convenience, personal fulfillment, political surveillance, social surveillance, and expression and affiliation.
There has been little consensus about the mission of the average political blogger. Do they act as an “echo chamber” or a “watchdog” to traditional news sources? Are they supporting political candidates and causes? Are they active collecting support during times of crisis, as described in journalistic accounts of bloggers? Through our research we hope to mediate this scholarly debate, in addition to gaining further insight into the activities of seven million average bloggers.
3 Methodology: research design, data collection & operationalization
Our research is largely exploratory and to lesser degree it is also explanatory. Based on survey research using a cross-sectional design, we assess how political bloggers use their blogs. The unit of analysis is political bloggers.
To examine political blogging, we compiled a random sample of 500 bloggers. Using the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem’s (www.truthlaidbear.com) ranking of links during the third week of May 2005, the sample was gathered from the top 4,000 bloggers who were linked by a minimum of 40 other bloggers.1 We use the Truth Laid Bear’s links rankings, rather than the traffic rankings because the former is more inclusive—all bloggers can potentially be
The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem may be skewed toward conservative and libertarian bloggers. included in the sample, whereas bloggers must be registered with SiteMeter to be included in the traffic rankings. Obtaining a random sample of bloggers is imperfect because of the amorphous nature of the blogosphere. The blogosphere is defined as the intellectual space shared by writers and readers of the blogs.
In July 2005, we generated a 28-question survey, designed to learn the content, the purpose, and the frequency of activities in which political bloggers typically engage. The survey questions inventory the political topics bloggers write about, evaluate a range of activities that bloggers undertake, and assess the frequency of these activities. Activities were then organized under four subheadings: informer, watchdog, activist, and philanthropic activities. The list of activities was based on the scholarly literature on political blogging, as well as informal content analysis of blogs over several years. These activities describe various facets of political blogging, but this is anything but an exhaustive list. For example, bloggers were not asked whether they contributed original reporting in the style of mainstream journalists, because most bloggers do not have the means or the access to write original stories. Nor do we include “watching the government” under the watchdog heading. Instead we focus on watching and checking traditional media sources. When conducting survey research, it important to limit the number of questions to reduce drop-off rates.
We defined informer activities of bloggers to include the following acts: writing about a political post on another blog; an article in a newspaper; an upcoming vote in congress, state legislature, city council or the United Nations; an upcoming rally, protest or march; the positions or activities of a candidate, political party, or interest group; and the release of data or statistics not published in a newspaper. Watchdog activities are defined as writing about errors or omissions in the media. Activist activities are defined as encouraging others to vote; to register to vote; to sign a petition; to contact an elected or appointed official; to attend a rally, protest, or march; to attend a political fundraiser; and to attend a political party or local community meeting.2 Activist activities also involve a fundraising component. Bloggers were asked if they used their blog to donate money to a candidate or campaign; a political party; or an interest group or political action committee. Philanthropic activities were determined by asking bloggers if they encouraged their readers to donate money to organizations that provide humanitarian relief.
A total of 417 bloggers received an e-mail with a link to the survey.3 Respondents were asked to complete an on-line survey hosted by SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com). A follow-up e-mail was sent to bloggers two weeks later reminding them to complete the survey. To increase the response rate, we sent respondents a copy of our paper. A total of 148 bloggers returned the survey, yielding a 35 percent response rate. Seven cases were dropped, because their posts did not contain political content. Crawford et al. (2002)find the response rate for web-based surveys is higher than the response rate for mail surveys. Our response rate is quite good. Many scholars suggest that the upper limit of response rates to be expected from the general population is 50 percent. According to Goyder (1985), the number of follow-ups and the salience of the topic are key predictors of response rates. We suspect that the saliency of this issue is a key factor in the high response rate.
Since bloggers were chosen at random, non-political bloggers were eliminated in several ways. First, the cover letter indicated that this was a survey of political bloggers and political participation. Second, the first survey question asked bloggers, “Do you discuss politics,
2We use the terms political activists and political advocates interchangeably throughout this paper.
3Since mailing addresses are rarely listed on blogs we relied upon e-mail to distribute the questionnaires. Though we visited 500 blogs, we were only able to obtain e-mail addresses from 417 bloggers.
public policy or current events on your blog?” If the respondent answered no, don’t know, or not applicable, they were directed to a thank you note and were not permitted to complete the survey. If the respondent answered yes, then they proceeded to the next question. Third, among those who said that their blog contained political content, they were asked, “What percentage of your posts discuss politics, public policy or current events?,” and finally, the third question asked them to identify what political issues they discussed. Through a process of self-selection and filter questions we were able to cull a sample of political bloggers.
4 Findings
4.1 Blogger demographics The demographic composition of political bloggers is fairly homogenous; the vast majority of these bloggers are white, well-educated, and male. Seventy-five percent of bloggers are male (106 out of 141) and 23 percent of respondents (33 out of 141) are female, and more than 80 percent of bloggers (116 out of 141) are white. A majority of bloggers (58 percent or 82 out of 141) reported that they are between the ages of 26 and 41. Compared to the general population bloggers are well-educated. Nearly two-fifths of respondents (55 out of 141) indicated that they earned a bachelor’s degree and 33 percent of bloggers (46 out of 141) hold a master’s degree. In addition, 11 percent of bloggers said they earned a doctoral, law or medical degree. Though we are studying the average blogger, it is worth noting that the average blogger is not an average citizen.
4.2 Informer activities: the core business of bloggers Respondents reported engaging in a variety of political activities. By far the most popular activity for all political bloggers is providing readers with links to reports and articles found elsewhere. Nearly all bloggers, 91 percent (128 out of 141), said that they inform their readers about newspaper articles. Similarly, 87 percent of bloggers (122 out of 141) provide links to posts on other blogs. Table 1 illustrates the various informing activities of political bloggers.
A majority of bloggers reported that they provide information not found in traditional media outlets, including party platforms, dates of political rallies or events, upcoming votes,
Table 1 Political bloggers inform readers about political issues or events and the release of data. Locating this information is much more difficult than gathering information from traditional news sources and like-minded bloggers. There is an element of activism and independent journalism in these informing activities. Despite this extra effort, most bloggers, at one time or another, provide this specialized information to their readers.
Findings from our research show that informing is the core business of blogging. The ability to provide hyperlinks to original sources facilitates this function. Bloggers are able to synthesize and analyze information found in diverse sources for their readers. Many bloggers specialize in particular topics or political perspectives, and a few even name their blogs after their particular political niche or policy area and restrict their blog posts to that topic (McKenna 2007). For example, Eduwonk (www.eduwonk.com) focuses on education policy, and The Oil Drum (www.theoildrum.com) focuses on energy politics. Blogs that specialize in a particular political perspective, include Blue Girl, Red State (www.bluegalinaredstate.blogspot.com) and The Right Nation (www.ideazione.blogspot. com).
Bloggers inform their readers about a wide variety of political topics. Respondents indicated what political topics they blogged about from an extensive list of choices. These choices included but were not limited to economics, feminist theory, political cartoons, and international politics. The most popular choices selected by bloggers include the media and politics, economics and politics,and campaigns and elections with 80 percent of bloggers selecting these topics. The least popular topic is feminist theory/women and politics; only 32 percent of bloggers (45 out of 141) address this topic. We also asked bloggers to rate on a scale from one to 10 how frequently they engage in a variety of blogging activities. Bloggers rated that they inform readers about a political post on another blog a score of 5.2 out of 10, while they rated informing their readers about an article in a newspaper a score of 6.5 out of 10. Bloggers rated these two activities higher than other activities.
4.3 Watchdog activities: keeping an eye on mainstream media Eighty percent of bloggers (113 out of 141) notify their readers about bias or omissions in the media. It is clear that most bloggers see themselves as a check on traditional news sources. When asked how frequently respondents write watchdog posts, bloggers scored this activity a 4.9 out of 10. Media watchdog posts are rated a close second to informing activities in the blogosphere. Bloggers maintain a high level of distrust of mainstream news sources, while at the same time relying on it as a source of information for their readers. Bloggers maintain an ambivalent relationship with the media with little signs of strain.
Despite their solid watchdog reputation, most bloggers do not claim to replace traditional media outlets. Typically, bloggers do not have access to key policymakers for interviews or the ability to travel to international capitals. However, bloggers who find themselves at the location of a crisis have been able to provide first hand accounts and photographs of events, as they did in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. There have also been many important examples of first-rate journalism by bloggers in countries where there is no free press. In the future, original reporting by bloggers may increase as bloggers grow more professional and earn more credibility.
4.4 Political activists: more letters than campaign donations In addition to the informing and watchdogs missions, bloggers also ask their readers to engage in a variety of political activities, as illustrated in Table 2. Nearly two-thirds of bloggers (90 out of 141) reported encouraging their readers to vote or to contact an elected official,
Table 2 Political activities that political bloggers ask their readers to engage in Activity Number Percentage
suggesting that bloggers believe that they can motivate their readers to become political active and engaged. Considering that only 34 percent of Americans reported contacting elected or appointed officials, bloggers take this activity quite seriously (Verba et al. 1995). With access to elected officials through e-mail and the availability of telephone numbers on official websites, the technology savvy blogger can provide hyperlinks and e-mail addresses on his blog.
Initial findings suggest that many bloggers are using their blogs to promote a variety of political activities, even activities rarely undertaken by the general public. Though six percent of Americans reported attending a protest (Verba et al. 1995), more than a quarter of bloggers said that they encourage their readers to attend a rally, protest or march. Clearly bloggers see their roles as motivators or advocates of political participation. Bloggers provide readers with compelling information, topped with modest doses of persuasion.
We also asked bloggers to rate how frequently they engage in a variety of activities on their blogs. Bloggers do not rate activist activities as high as other activities, especially informer activities. While 45 percent of respondents (64 out of 141) rated informing readers about an article a score between eight and 10 (on a scale ranging from one to 10), only five percent of respondents (seven out of 141) rated encouraging readers to contact elected or appointed officials similar scores. On average, bloggers rated encouraging their readers to contact an elected official a score of 2.9 out of 10, suggesting that they do not engage in this activity with any frequency. Requests to attend rallies, protests and marches or to contact an elected official are often spurred by highly contested, legislative action or elections, which are somewhat rare events.
Giving money to political causes is also considered a form of political activism. Bloggers asked their readers to give money to a variety of political causes, illustrated in Table 3, though fewer respondents said they do this. Curiously more bloggers encourage their readers to give money to charity than to political causes. One reason few bloggers have not asked their readers to give money to political causes might be because blogs are a relatively new phenomenon. While Dean’s BlogforAmerica played a role in raising campaign contributions, other candidates relied upon websites rather than on blogs. Until the Tsunami disaster of 2004, bloggers might not have viewed themselves as conduits for raising money. Because bloggers have raised money for natural disasters, perhaps they will view upcoming political campaigns somewhat differently.
4.5 Philanthropists: bloggers have a heart Bloggers also engage in a variety of philanthropic endeavors, though arguably this is a new medium through which to undertake these activities. The focus of these efforts has largely been on raising money. Additionally, some bloggers collected physical items such as water, clothing, food, and supplies. Respondents said they asked readers to donate money to a variety of causes including Tsunami relief, military related charities, faith-based organizations, animal welfare, and multiple sclerosis. Forty-four percent of bloggers (62 out of 141) indicated that they encourage their readers to give money to organizations that provide humanitarian relief. This number is slightly lower than expected considering that 66 percent of Americans reported making charitable contributions (Verba et al. 1995)and theeaseofproviding hyperlinks to philanthropic organizations. There still may be some discomfort with providing credit card information on the Internet.
Though 44 percent of bloggers (62 out of 141) reported asking for philanthropic donations, this is a rarely pursued activity amongst bloggers. Most bloggers reported that they rarely encourage their readers to make a charitable contribution to a relief effort or charity. On average, respondents scored this activity a 2.9 out of 10. Only 15 percent of respondents (23 out of 141) rated this activity a score between five and 10. Bloggers probably do not engage in this activity with any frequency because philanthropic efforts focus on natural disasters and acts of terrorism, which thankfully are not daily occurrences. While some bloggers solicit funds on a regular basis, our observations suggest that this is atypical.
4.6 Ideology and mission Do bloggers with different ideologies have different motivations for blogging? The literature would tend to support this notion. Liberals, such as Trippi, point out the benefits of blogging to assist in elections, to gather donations for campaigns, and to advocate for certain causes. Conservatives and libertarians, including Hewitt, write about bloggers upending the liberal media establishment; bloggers are essentially media watchdogs rather than independent political actors. The bloggers we surveyed include 40 liberals, 63 conservatives, and 50 libertarians.4 Results indicate that nearly all bloggers are informers, therefore conservative and liberal bloggers alike participate in this activity. We examine the ideological preferences of bloggers who reported that they engage in watchdog, activist, and philanthropic activities.
One hundred thirteen respondents reported that they blog about errors or omissions in the newspaper, which we define as a watchdog activity. Only 27 out of 40 liberal bloggers
4The remaining bloggers identified themselves as Centrist, Communist, Socialist or other. Bloggers in these categories collectively comprise 18 percent of the sample.
reported that they engage in this activity, while 57 out of 63 conservative bloggers and 42 out of 50 libertarian bloggers write watchdog posts. Clearly, this mission is preferred by conservative and libertarian bloggers, however, more than half of liberal bloggers are keeping an eye on the mainstream media as well. Liberal bloggers may be more concerned with accuracy rather than bias, although further research is required to confirm that hypothesis.
Differences between how conservative and liberal bloggers engage in activist activity are negligible with slight variations depending on the activity. Two-thirds of conservative bloggers (40 out of 59) and slightly less than two-thirds of liberal bloggers (22 out of 36) reported that they encourage their readers to contact elected and appointed officials. A greater percentage of conservative bloggers, 47 percent (28 out of 59), asked their readers to sign a petition than liberal bloggers, 36 percent (13 out of 36). In contrast, fewer conservative bloggers asked their readers to attend a rally, protest or march. Fewer than a quarter of conservative respondents reported asking their readers to attend a rally, while more than 35 percent of liberal bloggers indicated that they encourage their readers to attend rallies, protests, and marches. Liberal bloggers may feel more comfortable with offline political activity. There is a weak positive correlation (Kendall’s tau-b =..238) between ideology and asking readers to contribute money to a candidate. It is interesting to note that conservative bloggers were still actively engaged in advocacy efforts, while the Republicans controlled Congress and the Presidency from 2000 to 2006.
While the sample comprised a greater number of conservative bloggers, a greater percentage of liberal bloggers asked their readers to give money to organizations that provide humanitarian relief. Nearly half of liberal bloggers (17 out of 36) reported that they ask their readers to make charitable contributions, while only 36 percent of conservative bloggers indicated that they ask their readers to make charitable contributions. Liberal bloggers seem to be more likely to engage in philanthropic blogging.
4.7 Traffic level and mission Readership in the blogosphere is concentrated in a handful of blogs (Drezner and Farrell 2007). Although Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit receives as many as 200,000 readers per day, the data show most bloggers receive only a handful of readers. Our sample included A-list bloggers like Reynolds, as well as bloggers with a far smaller audience. Nearly 70 percent of bloggers (96 out of 141) have traffic levels of 500 readers or less, and almost 30 percent of bloggers (39 out of 141) have traffic levels of 500 readers or more.
Do low traffic and high traffic bloggers approach their blog in the same way? We hypothesized that bloggers with higher levels of traffic would more frequently engage in labor- intensive activities, such as checking for errors or bias in the media, than bloggers with lower traffic levels. Researching the veracity of a newspaper article takes much more effort than simply providing a link to an interesting article in the paper. This extra effort could be one factor that bolsters readership. Referring readers to articles was an activity that both would engage in equally, because it required less effort.
As predicted, bloggers with high traffic were more likely to inform readers about errors in the media. Nineteen percent of bloggers with low traffic (17 out of 89) frequently report errors or bias in the media, while 33 percent of high traffic bloggers (13 out of 39) perform this task. Surprisingly, we found that bloggers with high traffic levels are more likely to notify their readers about articles in the newspaper. Forty-two percent of respondents with low readership (38 out of 90) frequently inform their readers about key articles in the media. In contrast, 64 percent of bloggers with high traffic levels (25 out of 39) frequently perform this task. Results suggest that bloggers with high traffic levels are more likely to produce
political posts with a range of objectives than bloggers with lower traffic levels. Bloggers with low traffic levels might post more sporadically and include more personal content.
5 Conclusion
Political bloggers engage in a variety of activities from informing to philanthropy. Depending on political events or opportunities, they don different hats or take up different missions. A majority of bloggers are informers providing their readers with information found on other blogs, in the mainstream media, and about political officials. Bloggers synthesize information to provide a one-stop source of facts and links for their readers along with a healthy dose of sass and humor. Given that nine out of 10 bloggers provide this service, we can say that informing is the core business of blogging.
Though bloggers do link to the mainstream media quite often, they also take their job as media fact checkers quite seriously as well. Bloggers both work with media and confront it. Conservative and libertarian bloggers are especially keen on checking the liberal media establishment, but our data show that liberal bloggers also take their job as media watchdogs seriously.
Results indicate that 90 percent of bloggers use their blogs to perform activist activities, such as encouraging their readers to contact elected officials or to attend rallies. Though most bloggers at one time or another have written an activist post, bloggers write activist posts infrequently, because the events that drive activism, such as a close election or a congressional vote, also occur infrequently. Only 10 percent of bloggers asked their readers to donate money to political campaigns or organizations, despite the well-publicized success of Dean’s BlogforAmerica. Perhaps bloggers lack the time and the resources necessary to engage their readers or they prefer to maintain their pundit status. It will be interesting to see if there is any change in their political activism as this medium matures.
While bloggers are not passing the hat for politicians, they do ask their readers to donate money to philanthropic causes. Forty-four percent of bloggers surveyed provide links to philanthropic organizations, at one time or another, although most bloggers do not make these requests often. The philanthropic mission was slightly more pronounced among liberal bloggers. Bloggers may ever so often engage in philanthropy, because of the ease and speed of electronic donations on the Internet and the ability of bloggers to make personal appeals.
Blogging is still in its infancy, and the full potential of this medium has yet to be tapped. It will be interesting to see in future years if bloggers shift direction and concentrate their efforts in different areas. If bloggers start to make an income out of advertisements, then they may link less often to the mainstream media and have greater resources to do their own reporting. As bloggers grow in experience and confidence, inserting their own views into politics may become commonplace. As the audience for blogging mushrooms, bloggers may be more assertive in their efforts to mobilize readers for political action. Certainly, there are many opportunities for bloggers, and bloggers will play an important role in American politics for years to come.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their comments and suggestions: Dan Drezner, Henry Farrell, Joel Bloom, Mitchell Glodek, Eszter Hargittai, Chris Lawrence, Edward A. Miller, Steven Naftzger, Jay Rosen, Charles Tien, and Ethan Zuckerman.
shinima99 (05/05/2008)
Public Choice (2008) 134: 97–108
DOI 10.1007/s11127-007-9203-8
What do bloggers do: an average day on an average
political blog
Laura McKenna ·.Antoinette Pole
Received: 2 June 2007 / Accepted: 9 June 2007 / Published online: 8 August 2007
. Springer Science+Business Media, BV 2007
Abstract This study investigates whether average political bloggers engage in four distinct
activities: informing readers, checking the media, engaging in political advocacy, and gathering
money for charitable causes. Findings show that most bloggers inform their readers
about articles in the media or to draw attention to key posts on other blogs. Somewhat less
frequently, most bloggers write posts that detect errors or biases in the media. Bloggers use
their blogs to pursue activist and philanthropist activities even less often. Ideology and traffic
levels slightly affect the content and purpose of blog posts.
1 Introduction
In the past four years, bloggers have garnered headlines and respect after several key
achievements in journalism and politics. In 2002, bloggers helped unseat Trent Lott from
his position of majority leader in the Senate by publicizing remarks he made at a party for
Strom Thurmond. Just three years later, bloggers highlighted an error made on Dan Rather’s
show, 60 Minutes II, bringing into question accuracy and bias in the entire media industry.
In an effort to mobilize voters, BlogforAmerica was created by the Dean campaign in 2000
to augment traditional campaign activities by tapping into an “e-citizenry.” Yet, aside from
these well publicized cases by a small group of A-list bloggers, we have only an incomplete
picture of the entire blogging enterprise. We know little about what average political
bloggers do on their blogs on a daily basis.
There are seven million active blogs in existence and each day, nearly 80,000 new blogs
are added to that number (“Measuring the Blogosphere” 2005). With the ever growing number
of blogs, it is necessary to go beyond the aforementioned cases and learn about what these seven million bloggers write about on a daily basis. This study focuses on bloggers
who write about political issues. It explores the various politics topics that interest them, and
how they use their blogs to engage in political activity. The paper also examines their relationship
to traditional media sources and elected officials and how bloggers tap the political
potential of this medium.
This study investigates whether average political bloggers engage in four distinct activities:
informing readers, checking the media, engaging in political advocacy, and gathering
money for charitable causes. We expected that bloggers would engage in these activities
to varying degrees. Findings show that most bloggers inform their readers about articles in
the media or to draw attention to key posts on other blogs. Also, most bloggers at one time
or another write posts that detect errors or biases in the media. Activist and philanthropist
activities occur less frequently. We also find that ideology may play a role in determining
what blogging activities bloggers pursue. Results show that bloggers with high traffic levels
are somewhat more likely to inform their readers and to engage in watchdog activities. The
findings suggest that average political bloggers do a variety of activities, but they are most
committed to filtering information for their readers on certain topics or from a particular
ideological perspective.
2 What do bloggers do?
Though there is substantial literature on information technology and politics (Browning
1996; Bennett and Fielding 1999;Davis 1999;Barber 1998; Davis et al. 2002;
Bimber 2003;Pole 2005;West 2005), little has been written on politics and blogs. Because
blogging only became popular in recent years, most of the literature about blogging
and politics has either focused on a few well-documented cases (see, e.g., Hewitt 2005;
Kennedy School of Government Case Program 2004) or examined the interactions of the
most popular or A-list bloggers (see, e.g., McKenna and Pole 2004; Drezner and Farrell
2007). The few writers who examine average bloggers present differing accounts of their
behavior.
According to the “echo chamber” theory of blogs, bloggers amplify views from party and
media elites that reflect their own political predispositions (Wallsten 2005). Providing links
to mainstream news sources and blogs is clearly an important function of blogs. However,
we do not know how often bloggers link to other sources. We also do not know whether they
criticize their sources or passively link to them.
Others, including Hewitt (2005)and Posner(2005), maintain that bloggers are not merely
linkers and followers of traditional media sources. Instead, bloggers challenge traditional
news sources, which they believe is biased, arrogant, elitist, and corrupt. There has been
much anecdotal evidence of bloggers pursuing their role as media watchdogs. In August
of 2006, Paul Johnson of Little Green Footballs (www.littlegreenfootballs.com) found an
altered Reuters photograph, which was published by The New York Times (Farhi 2006).
Bloggers are also described as political activists, who push their own causes and candidates
(Klam 2004; Trippi 2004; Bowers and Stoller 2005). Joe Trippi, manager of Howard
Dean’s campaign in 2000, credits bloggers with the initial success of the campaign. Buttressing
more traditional campaign activities, bloggers and blog readers served as campaign
workers collecting money, disseminating information, organizing events, and even publishing
campaign literature. Trippi describes bloggers as connectors or extraordinary political
citizens who bring in hundreds of other supporters into a candidate’s camp (Trippi 2004).
Supporting this picture of bloggers as activists is best illustrated by the bloggers who
raised large sums of money for political candidates in the 2004 election. For example, Kentucky
Democrat Ben Chandler bought $2,000 in advertisements on blogs, and these advertisements
raised nearly $80,000 in contributions (Lillkvist 2004). Markos Moulitsas, founder
of the Daily Kos, directed more than $750,000 to the Democratic Party and candidates from
6,500 readers of his blog (Justice 2004). Several liberal bloggers recently created their own
political action committee called BlogPac (www.blogpac.org) in order to better raise money
for candidates and causes. Bloggers also engage in other forms of political activism, such
as asking readers to sign petitions and urging them to attend local rallies. So great is the
potential power of the bloggers to support political candidates and causes that a recent paper
aimed at progressive groups advised candidates how to best harness their power (Bowers
and Stoller 2005).
In addition to the aforementioned activities, several articles illustrate the effectiveness
of bloggers as philanthropists in gathering supplies for American troops abroad
and in collecting donations for the victims of the 2004 Tsunami (Internet Week 2004;
Ramos and Piper 2005; Wright 2005). In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, bloggers, including
Reynolds, collected donations for relief organizations (O’Connell 2005; Reynolds
2005). A few bloggers, such Michelle Catalano of ASmall Victory (www.asmallvictory.net),
organized their own efforts (Catalano 2005). Bloggers strategized about how to best use
blogs to further their philanthropic goals (Jarvis 2005).
Other research broadly assesses what motivates bloggers to write their blogs. One study
finds that most bloggers blog for cathartic reasons and that networking and communication
is a large function of blogging (Chang et al. 2005). Nardi et al. (2004) show that there are a
variety of purposes for blogging: a documentation of personal life, an outlet for commentary
and opinions, catharsis, and articulation ideas through writing and maintaining community
forums. Studying readers, Kaye (2005) reports that they access blogs for information and
media surveillance, convenience, personal fulfillment, political surveillance, social surveillance,
and expression and affiliation.
There has been little consensus about the mission of the average political blogger. Do they
act as an “echo chamber” or a “watchdog” to traditional news sources? Are they supporting
political candidates and causes? Are they active collecting support during times of crisis,
as described in journalistic accounts of bloggers? Through our research we hope to mediate
this scholarly debate, in addition to gaining further insight into the activities of seven million
average bloggers.
3 Methodology: research design, data collection & operationalization
Our research is largely exploratory and to lesser degree it is also explanatory. Based on
survey research using a cross-sectional design, we assess how political bloggers use their
blogs. The unit of analysis is political bloggers.
To examine political blogging, we compiled a random sample of 500 bloggers. Using
the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem’s (www.truthlaidbear.com) ranking of links during the third
week of May 2005, the sample was gathered from the top 4,000 bloggers who were linked by
a minimum of 40 other bloggers.1 We use the Truth Laid Bear’s links rankings, rather than
the traffic rankings because the former is more inclusive—all bloggers can potentially be
The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem may be skewed toward conservative and libertarian bloggers.
included in the sample, whereas bloggers must be registered with SiteMeter to be included
in the traffic rankings. Obtaining a random sample of bloggers is imperfect because of the
amorphous nature of the blogosphere. The blogosphere is defined as the intellectual space
shared by writers and readers of the blogs.
In July 2005, we generated a 28-question survey, designed to learn the content, the purpose,
and the frequency of activities in which political bloggers typically engage. The survey
questions inventory the political topics bloggers write about, evaluate a range of activities
that bloggers undertake, and assess the frequency of these activities. Activities were then organized
under four subheadings: informer, watchdog, activist, and philanthropic activities.
The list of activities was based on the scholarly literature on political blogging, as well as
informal content analysis of blogs over several years. These activities describe various facets
of political blogging, but this is anything but an exhaustive list. For example, bloggers were
not asked whether they contributed original reporting in the style of mainstream journalists,
because most bloggers do not have the means or the access to write original stories. Nor
do we include “watching the government” under the watchdog heading. Instead we focus
on watching and checking traditional media sources. When conducting survey research, it
important to limit the number of questions to reduce drop-off rates.
We defined informer activities of bloggers to include the following acts: writing about
a political post on another blog; an article in a newspaper; an upcoming vote in congress,
state legislature, city council or the United Nations; an upcoming rally, protest or march;
the positions or activities of a candidate, political party, or interest group; and the release
of data or statistics not published in a newspaper. Watchdog activities are defined as writing
about errors or omissions in the media. Activist activities are defined as encouraging others
to vote; to register to vote; to sign a petition; to contact an elected or appointed official;
to attend a rally, protest, or march; to attend a political fundraiser; and to attend a political
party or local community meeting.2 Activist activities also involve a fundraising component.
Bloggers were asked if they used their blog to donate money to a candidate or campaign;
a political party; or an interest group or political action committee. Philanthropic activities
were determined by asking bloggers if they encouraged their readers to donate money to
organizations that provide humanitarian relief.
A total of 417 bloggers received an e-mail with a link to the survey.3 Respondents were
asked to complete an on-line survey hosted by SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com).
A follow-up e-mail was sent to bloggers two weeks later reminding them to complete the
survey. To increase the response rate, we sent respondents a copy of our paper. A total of
148 bloggers returned the survey, yielding a 35 percent response rate. Seven cases were
dropped, because their posts did not contain political content. Crawford et al. (2002)find
the response rate for web-based surveys is higher than the response rate for mail surveys.
Our response rate is quite good. Many scholars suggest that the upper limit of response rates
to be expected from the general population is 50 percent. According to Goyder (1985), the
number of follow-ups and the salience of the topic are key predictors of response rates. We
suspect that the saliency of this issue is a key factor in the high response rate.
Since bloggers were chosen at random, non-political bloggers were eliminated in several
ways. First, the cover letter indicated that this was a survey of political bloggers and political
participation. Second, the first survey question asked bloggers, “Do you discuss politics,
2We use the terms political activists and political advocates interchangeably throughout this paper.
3Since mailing addresses are rarely listed on blogs we relied upon e-mail to distribute the questionnaires.
Though we visited 500 blogs, we were only able to obtain e-mail addresses from 417 bloggers.
public policy or current events on your blog?” If the respondent answered no, don’t know,
or not applicable, they were directed to a thank you note and were not permitted to complete
the survey. If the respondent answered yes, then they proceeded to the next question. Third,
among those who said that their blog contained political content, they were asked, “What
percentage of your posts discuss politics, public policy or current events?,” and finally, the
third question asked them to identify what political issues they discussed. Through a process
of self-selection and filter questions we were able to cull a sample of political bloggers.
4 Findings
4.1 Blogger demographics
The demographic composition of political bloggers is fairly homogenous; the vast majority
of these bloggers are white, well-educated, and male. Seventy-five percent of bloggers are
male (106 out of 141) and 23 percent of respondents (33 out of 141) are female, and more
than 80 percent of bloggers (116 out of 141) are white. A majority of bloggers (58 percent
or 82 out of 141) reported that they are between the ages of 26 and 41. Compared to the
general population bloggers are well-educated. Nearly two-fifths of respondents (55 out of
141) indicated that they earned a bachelor’s degree and 33 percent of bloggers (46 out of
141) hold a master’s degree. In addition, 11 percent of bloggers said they earned a doctoral,
law or medical degree. Though we are studying the average blogger, it is worth noting that
the average blogger is not an average citizen.
4.2 Informer activities: the core business of bloggers
Respondents reported engaging in a variety of political activities. By far the most popular
activity for all political bloggers is providing readers with links to reports and articles found
elsewhere. Nearly all bloggers, 91 percent (128 out of 141), said that they inform their
readers about newspaper articles. Similarly, 87 percent of bloggers (122 out of 141) provide
links to posts on other blogs. Table 1 illustrates the various informing activities of political
bloggers.
A majority of bloggers reported that they provide information not found in traditional
media outlets, including party platforms, dates of political rallies or events, upcoming votes,
Table 1 Political bloggers inform readers about political issues or events and the release of data. Locating this information is much more difficult than gathering
information from traditional news sources and like-minded bloggers. There is an element of
activism and independent journalism in these informing activities. Despite this extra effort,
most bloggers, at one time or another, provide this specialized information to their readers.
Findings from our research show that informing is the core business of blogging. The
ability to provide hyperlinks to original sources facilitates this function. Bloggers are able
to synthesize and analyze information found in diverse sources for their readers. Many
bloggers specialize in particular topics or political perspectives, and a few even name
their blogs after their particular political niche or policy area and restrict their blog posts
to that topic (McKenna 2007). For example, Eduwonk (www.eduwonk.com) focuses on
education policy, and The Oil Drum (www.theoildrum.com) focuses on energy politics.
Blogs that specialize in a particular political perspective, include Blue Girl, Red State
(www.bluegalinaredstate.blogspot.com) and The Right Nation (www.ideazione.blogspot.
com).
Bloggers inform their readers about a wide variety of political topics. Respondents indicated
what political topics they blogged about from an extensive list of choices. These
choices included but were not limited to economics, feminist theory, political cartoons, and
international politics. The most popular choices selected by bloggers include the media and
politics, economics and politics,and campaigns and elections with 80 percent of bloggers
selecting these topics. The least popular topic is feminist theory/women and politics; only
32 percent of bloggers (45 out of 141) address this topic. We also asked bloggers to rate on a
scale from one to 10 how frequently they engage in a variety of blogging activities. Bloggers
rated that they inform readers about a political post on another blog a score of 5.2 out of 10,
while they rated informing their readers about an article in a newspaper a score of 6.5 out
of 10. Bloggers rated these two activities higher than other activities.
4.3 Watchdog activities: keeping an eye on mainstream media
Eighty percent of bloggers (113 out of 141) notify their readers about bias or omissions
in the media. It is clear that most bloggers see themselves as a check on traditional news
sources. When asked how frequently respondents write watchdog posts, bloggers scored
this activity a 4.9 out of 10. Media watchdog posts are rated a close second to informing
activities in the blogosphere. Bloggers maintain a high level of distrust of mainstream news
sources, while at the same time relying on it as a source of information for their readers.
Bloggers maintain an ambivalent relationship with the media with little signs of strain.
Despite their solid watchdog reputation, most bloggers do not claim to replace traditional
media outlets. Typically, bloggers do not have access to key policymakers for interviews
or the ability to travel to international capitals. However, bloggers who find themselves at
the location of a crisis have been able to provide first hand accounts and photographs of
events, as they did in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. There have also been many
important examples of first-rate journalism by bloggers in countries where there is no free
press. In the future, original reporting by bloggers may increase as bloggers grow more
professional and earn more credibility.
4.4 Political activists: more letters than campaign donations
In addition to the informing and watchdogs missions, bloggers also ask their readers to engage
in a variety of political activities, as illustrated in Table 2. Nearly two-thirds of bloggers
(90 out of 141) reported encouraging their readers to vote or to contact an elected official,
Table 2 Political activities that political bloggers ask their readers to engage in
Activity Number Percentage
suggesting that bloggers believe that they can motivate their readers to become political active
and engaged. Considering that only 34 percent of Americans reported contacting elected
or appointed officials, bloggers take this activity quite seriously (Verba et al. 1995). With access
to elected officials through e-mail and the availability of telephone numbers on official
websites, the technology savvy blogger can provide hyperlinks and e-mail addresses on his
blog.
Initial findings suggest that many bloggers are using their blogs to promote a variety of
political activities, even activities rarely undertaken by the general public. Though six percent
of Americans reported attending a protest (Verba et al. 1995), more than a quarter of
bloggers said that they encourage their readers to attend a rally, protest or march. Clearly
bloggers see their roles as motivators or advocates of political participation. Bloggers provide
readers with compelling information, topped with modest doses of persuasion.
We also asked bloggers to rate how frequently they engage in a variety of activities on
their blogs. Bloggers do not rate activist activities as high as other activities, especially
informer activities. While 45 percent of respondents (64 out of 141) rated informing readers
about an article a score between eight and 10 (on a scale ranging from one to 10), only five
percent of respondents (seven out of 141) rated encouraging readers to contact elected or
appointed officials similar scores. On average, bloggers rated encouraging their readers to
contact an elected official a score of 2.9 out of 10, suggesting that they do not engage in this
activity with any frequency. Requests to attend rallies, protests and marches or to contact an
elected official are often spurred by highly contested, legislative action or elections, which
are somewhat rare events.
Giving money to political causes is also considered a form of political activism. Bloggers
asked their readers to give money to a variety of political causes, illustrated in Table 3,
though fewer respondents said they do this. Curiously more bloggers encourage their readers
to give money to charity than to political causes. One reason few bloggers have not asked
their readers to give money to political causes might be because blogs are a relatively new
phenomenon. While Dean’s BlogforAmerica played a role in raising campaign contributions,
other candidates relied upon websites rather than on blogs. Until the Tsunami disaster
of 2004, bloggers might not have viewed themselves as conduits for raising money. Because
bloggers have raised money for natural disasters, perhaps they will view upcoming political
campaigns somewhat differently.
4.5 Philanthropists: bloggers have a heart
Bloggers also engage in a variety of philanthropic endeavors, though arguably this is a new
medium through which to undertake these activities. The focus of these efforts has largely
been on raising money. Additionally, some bloggers collected physical items such as water,
clothing, food, and supplies. Respondents said they asked readers to donate money to a
variety of causes including Tsunami relief, military related charities, faith-based organizations,
animal welfare, and multiple sclerosis. Forty-four percent of bloggers (62 out of 141)
indicated that they encourage their readers to give money to organizations that provide humanitarian
relief. This number is slightly lower than expected considering that 66 percent of
Americans reported making charitable contributions (Verba et al. 1995)and theeaseofproviding
hyperlinks to philanthropic organizations. There still may be some discomfort with
providing credit card information on the Internet.
Though 44 percent of bloggers (62 out of 141) reported asking for philanthropic donations,
this is a rarely pursued activity amongst bloggers. Most bloggers reported that they
rarely encourage their readers to make a charitable contribution to a relief effort or charity.
On average, respondents scored this activity a 2.9 out of 10. Only 15 percent of respondents
(23 out of 141) rated this activity a score between five and 10. Bloggers probably do
not engage in this activity with any frequency because philanthropic efforts focus on natural
disasters and acts of terrorism, which thankfully are not daily occurrences. While some
bloggers solicit funds on a regular basis, our observations suggest that this is atypical.
4.6 Ideology and mission
Do bloggers with different ideologies have different motivations for blogging? The literature
would tend to support this notion. Liberals, such as Trippi, point out the benefits of blogging
to assist in elections, to gather donations for campaigns, and to advocate for certain
causes. Conservatives and libertarians, including Hewitt, write about bloggers upending the
liberal media establishment; bloggers are essentially media watchdogs rather than independent
political actors. The bloggers we surveyed include 40 liberals, 63 conservatives, and 50
libertarians.4 Results indicate that nearly all bloggers are informers, therefore conservative
and liberal bloggers alike participate in this activity. We examine the ideological preferences
of bloggers who reported that they engage in watchdog, activist, and philanthropic activities.
One hundred thirteen respondents reported that they blog about errors or omissions in
the newspaper, which we define as a watchdog activity. Only 27 out of 40 liberal bloggers
4The remaining bloggers identified themselves as Centrist, Communist, Socialist or other. Bloggers in these
categories collectively comprise 18 percent of the sample.
reported that they engage in this activity, while 57 out of 63 conservative bloggers and 42
out of 50 libertarian bloggers write watchdog posts. Clearly, this mission is preferred by
conservative and libertarian bloggers, however, more than half of liberal bloggers are keeping
an eye on the mainstream media as well. Liberal bloggers may be more concerned with
accuracy rather than bias, although further research is required to confirm that hypothesis.
Differences between how conservative and liberal bloggers engage in activist activity
are negligible with slight variations depending on the activity. Two-thirds of conservative
bloggers (40 out of 59) and slightly less than two-thirds of liberal bloggers (22 out of 36) reported
that they encourage their readers to contact elected and appointed officials. A greater
percentage of conservative bloggers, 47 percent (28 out of 59), asked their readers to sign
a petition than liberal bloggers, 36 percent (13 out of 36). In contrast, fewer conservative
bloggers asked their readers to attend a rally, protest or march. Fewer than a quarter of
conservative respondents reported asking their readers to attend a rally, while more than
35 percent of liberal bloggers indicated that they encourage their readers to attend rallies,
protests, and marches. Liberal bloggers may feel more comfortable with offline political activity.
There is a weak positive correlation (Kendall’s tau-b =..238) between ideology and
asking readers to contribute money to a candidate. It is interesting to note that conservative
bloggers were still actively engaged in advocacy efforts, while the Republicans controlled
Congress and the Presidency from 2000 to 2006.
While the sample comprised a greater number of conservative bloggers, a greater percentage
of liberal bloggers asked their readers to give money to organizations that provide
humanitarian relief. Nearly half of liberal bloggers (17 out of 36) reported that they ask their
readers to make charitable contributions, while only 36 percent of conservative bloggers indicated
that they ask their readers to make charitable contributions. Liberal bloggers seem
to be more likely to engage in philanthropic blogging.
4.7 Traffic level and mission
Readership in the blogosphere is concentrated in a handful of blogs (Drezner and Farrell
2007). Although Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit receives as many as 200,000 readers per
day, the data show most bloggers receive only a handful of readers. Our sample included
A-list bloggers like Reynolds, as well as bloggers with a far smaller audience. Nearly 70
percent of bloggers (96 out of 141) have traffic levels of 500 readers or less, and almost 30
percent of bloggers (39 out of 141) have traffic levels of 500 readers or more.
Do low traffic and high traffic bloggers approach their blog in the same way? We hypothesized
that bloggers with higher levels of traffic would more frequently engage in labor-
intensive activities, such as checking for errors or bias in the media, than bloggers with
lower traffic levels. Researching the veracity of a newspaper article takes much more effort
than simply providing a link to an interesting article in the paper. This extra effort could
be one factor that bolsters readership. Referring readers to articles was an activity that both
would engage in equally, because it required less effort.
As predicted, bloggers with high traffic were more likely to inform readers about errors
in the media. Nineteen percent of bloggers with low traffic (17 out of 89) frequently report
errors or bias in the media, while 33 percent of high traffic bloggers (13 out of 39) perform
this task. Surprisingly, we found that bloggers with high traffic levels are more likely to
notify their readers about articles in the newspaper. Forty-two percent of respondents with
low readership (38 out of 90) frequently inform their readers about key articles in the media.
In contrast, 64 percent of bloggers with high traffic levels (25 out of 39) frequently perform
this task. Results suggest that bloggers with high traffic levels are more likely to produce
political posts with a range of objectives than bloggers with lower traffic levels. Bloggers
with low traffic levels might post more sporadically and include more personal content.
5 Conclusion
Political bloggers engage in a variety of activities from informing to philanthropy. Depending
on political events or opportunities, they don different hats or take up different missions.
A majority of bloggers are informers providing their readers with information found on other
blogs, in the mainstream media, and about political officials. Bloggers synthesize information
to provide a one-stop source of facts and links for their readers along with a healthy
dose of sass and humor. Given that nine out of 10 bloggers provide this service, we can say
that informing is the core business of blogging.
Though bloggers do link to the mainstream media quite often, they also take their job as
media fact checkers quite seriously as well. Bloggers both work with media and confront
it. Conservative and libertarian bloggers are especially keen on checking the liberal media
establishment, but our data show that liberal bloggers also take their job as media watchdogs
seriously.
Results indicate that 90 percent of bloggers use their blogs to perform activist activities,
such as encouraging their readers to contact elected officials or to attend rallies. Though
most bloggers at one time or another have written an activist post, bloggers write activist
posts infrequently, because the events that drive activism, such as a close election or a congressional
vote, also occur infrequently. Only 10 percent of bloggers asked their readers to
donate money to political campaigns or organizations, despite the well-publicized success
of Dean’s BlogforAmerica. Perhaps bloggers lack the time and the resources necessary to
engage their readers or they prefer to maintain their pundit status. It will be interesting to
see if there is any change in their political activism as this medium matures.
While bloggers are not passing the hat for politicians, they do ask their readers to donate
money to philanthropic causes. Forty-four percent of bloggers surveyed provide links to
philanthropic organizations, at one time or another, although most bloggers do not make
these requests often. The philanthropic mission was slightly more pronounced among liberal
bloggers. Bloggers may ever so often engage in philanthropy, because of the ease and speed
of electronic donations on the Internet and the ability of bloggers to make personal appeals.
Blogging is still in its infancy, and the full potential of this medium has yet to be tapped.
It will be interesting to see in future years if bloggers shift direction and concentrate their
efforts in different areas. If bloggers start to make an income out of advertisements, then
they may link less often to the mainstream media and have greater resources to do their
own reporting. As bloggers grow in experience and confidence, inserting their own views
into politics may become commonplace. As the audience for blogging mushrooms, bloggers
may be more assertive in their efforts to mobilize readers for political action. Certainly, there
are many opportunities for bloggers, and bloggers will play an important role in American
politics for years to come.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their comments and suggestions: Dan
Drezner, Henry Farrell, Joel Bloom, Mitchell Glodek, Eszter Hargittai, Chris Lawrence, Edward A. Miller,
Steven Naftzger, Jay Rosen, Charles Tien, and Ethan Zuckerman.