Linking to the converted?
Mapping the structures of the French and Australian political blogospheres
Tim Highfield
t.highfield@qut.edu.au
A comparative study of networks
of political blogging in Australia and France
Research Questions
Methods
Network and content analysis of a population of Australian and French political blogs
Research Aims
Developing methodologies for
studying blogging activity and (link-based) networks, especially for
comparative studies

Tests and Work in Progress
Challenges, Limitations,
and Problems
Selecting a 'sensible' amount of data
~250 Australian political blogs, news websites, and associated sites
~450 French sites
Data collection using rss feeds
Post content, links extracted
Templates created for blogs to isolate static elements (blogrolls etc.) from posts
 Providing new information on international
(political) blogging
Investigating additional means of representing
and demonstrating research outputs

Current Project
Tools
Leximancer - text/content analysis
ManyEyes - visualisation
testing others
Section of the French political blogosphere
May 2008
Content of Pineapple Party Time blog
March 2009
Concept map from Australian political blog posts,
13-27 January 2009 [June 2009]
The lifespan of links
What to do with the chosen data
Coding, data management,
and accurate tracking
What is the structure of the political blogosphere(s)?
How does information flow through these networks?