For anyone interested in the political consequences of blogging, this paper by George Washington University political scientists Henry Farrell, Eric Lawrence, and John Sides is worth a read. Using a very large sample of 16,145 Americans who use blogs, drawn from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, the authors address three main questions. First, do blog users only read material with which they already agree (e.g. do conservatives only consume right-leaning blogs and liberals read liberal blogs)? The paper finds a strong relationship between users’ ideological and partisan preferences and their online reading habits. Farrell and his colleagues write:
Second, are blog users more polarized than the public in general? Here again, the answer is yes. Third, do blog users participate more in politics? These results are perhaps the most interesting. While these online information consumers are more politically active than non-blog users, it’s those with a left-wing orientation who participate at the highest levels, according to the paper. This finding is consistent with what others have discovered about the political culture of the blogosphere. Liberals tend to use blogs as a political mobilizing device. Many more liberal sites actively promote political participatory acts, like giving money, and direct partisan support of the Democratic Party. They provide more avenues for involvement and actively encourage partisan participation. Fewer conservative bloggers or readers use the Internet for these purposes. Farrell et. al. put it this way:
Conservatives face a permanent structural political disadvantage in terms of money, mobilization and ideas unless they close this gap. This paper underscores this important point. Hat Tip: The Monkey Cage
