Mapping the Australian Networked Public Sphere

Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess, Tim Highfield ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, Brisbane, Australia

Lars Kirchhoff, Thomas NicolaiSociomantic Labs, Berlin, Germany

Image by campoalto

Mapping Blog Networks

•Standard methodology:• find blogs (search, Technorati, specific blog platform, etc.)• identify links (on current page) crawl to linked pages repeat• capture (scrape) text and other details (not always included)• plot link network structure, correlate with blog content patterns

•Problems in blog mapping:• defining and identifying the population to be mapped• determining which links are relevant• method of plotting links, identifying blog clusters, etc.• correlating link network structure and blog themes• tracking changes over time

Key Problems

• Technology limitations:• crawlers and scrapers often lack sophistication

• need to distinguish: • posts – comments – ancillary / functional texts

• discursive links – blogroll links – functional links

• want to slice data in different ways:• select blog activity for specific days, weeks, months

• select blog content and links for specific blogs or blog clusters

• Analytical limitations:• patterns of interlinkage tell only part of the story

• maps provide only a temporary snapshot

• want to understand:• what clusters have in common

• and how they change over time

Our Approach

• Process stages (Australian political blogs as test case):• data gathering and processing

• track large number of (broadly) political Australian blogs through RSS feeds• scrape blog content for newly posted entries• separate blog post content from ancillary materials / separate discursive links from other link types• (grow master list of blogs as required)

• content analysis• combine extracted blog post content (per blog, per cluster, per timeframe, …) • automated analysis to identify key themes and keywords • currently using Leximancer

• network analysis• combine extracted link information (overall, per timeframe, per cluster, …)• automated network mapping to identify lead blogs and clusters• currently using Gephi

• combined analysis• e.g. comparative content analysis for lead blogs and clusters in the link network• e.g. correlation of blogosphere patterns with external factors (parallel themes in mainstream media,

etc.)

Patterns of Activity (Jan.-Aug. 2009)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2009

.01.

1220

09.0

1.14

2009

.01.

1620

09.0

1.18

2009

.01.

2020

09.0

1.22

2009

.01.

2420

09.0

1.26

2009

.01.

2820

09.0

1.30

2009

.02.

0120

09.0

2.03

2009

.02.

0520

09.0

2.07

2009

.02.

0920

09.0

2.11

2009

.02.

1320

09.0

2.15

2009

.02.

1720

09.0

2.19

2009

.02.

2120

09.0

2.23

2009

.02.

2520

09.0

2.27

2009

.03.

0120

09.0

3.03

2009

.03.

0520

09.0

3.07

2009

.03.

0920

09.0

3.11

2009

.03.

1320

09.0

3.15

2009

.03.

1720

09.0

3.19

2009

.03.

2120

09.0

3.23

2009

.03.

2520

09.0

3.27

2009

.03.

2920

09.0

3.31

2009

.04.

0220

09.0

4.04

2009

.04.

0620

09.0

4.08

2009

.04.

1020

09.0

4.12

2009

.04.

1420

09.0

4.16

2009

.04.

1820

09.0

4.20

2009

.04.

2220

09.0

4.24

2009

.04.

2620

09.0

4.28

2009

.04.

3020

09.0

5.02

2009

.05.

0420

09.0

5.06

2009

.05.

0820

09.0

5.10

2009

.05.

1220

09.0

5.14

2009

.05.

1620

09.0

5.18

2009

.05.

2020

09.0

5.22

2009

.05.

2420

09.0

5.26

2009

.05.

2820

09.0

5.30

2009

.06.

0120

09.0

6.03

2009

.06.

0520

09.0

6.07

2009

.06.

0920

09.0

6.11

2009

.06.

1320

09.0

6.15

2009

.06.

1720

09.0

6.19

2009

.06.

2120

09.0

6.23

2009

.06.

2520

09.0

6.27

2009

.06.

2920

09.0

7.01

2009

.07.

0320

09.0

7.05

2009

.07.

0720

09.0

7.09

2009

.07.

1120

09.0

7.13

2009

.07.

1520

09.0

7.17

2009

.07.

1920

09.0

7.21

2009

.07.

2320

09.0

7.25

2009

.07.

2720

09.0

7.29

2009

.07.

3120

09.0

8.02

2009

.08.

0420

09.0

8.06

2009

.08.

0820

09.0

8.10

2009

.08.

20

Opinion

Blog

Australian News

Bushfires Budget

Artefact

Qld Election

New Sites Added

Content Analysis: Individual Blogs

Content Analysis: Political Blogosphere

4-5 August 2009

Next Steps

•ARC Discovery Project, 2010-12 (Axel Bruns and Jean Burgess)

•Expand the population:• From political blogs to Australian blogs in general• Snowball / network crawler approach

• Map the blogosphere:• Long-term map of frequent interlinkages, clusters of blog communities• Short-term maps of ad hoc networks around current events and themes• Trending topics and correlations with mainstream media• Patterns of information flow, structures of dissemination and influence

• Extend to other online publics:• Twitter, Flickr, YouTube – what can we track, what publics do we find?• How are these spaces interconnected?