My Insularity

Eszter Hargatti at Crooked Timber has a post about her study on "Cross-Ideological Conversations Among Bloggers." She is trying to test Cass Sunstein's theory, in Republic.com, that internet politics forms isolated communities of shared ideology, rather than broad conversations among people with different viewpoints.

It's a fascinating study, and she shows that there is a high-degree of cross-ideological conversation among the 41 political blogs she studies, although much of it involves invoking the other side for purposes of "straw-man" arguments.

Of course, being a Washingtonian, I have to now believe that the most important part of any book is the index, especially the part that begins with the first letter of my own last name, so I checked to see whether the Decembrist was included, not expecting it to be.* So I was pleasantly surprised to see that I'd made the cut. (I've always had a natural, reciprocated affinity for the Crooked Timber gang.)

But take a closer look at one of her main charts. This is a way of depicting all the links across political blogs during a week in March, conservative blogs in red, liberal blogs in blue. Those closer to the center have more links -- "conversations" -- across ideology.

OK, see that red guy over at the far left? Matching up the numbers to her chart, that's Blogs for Bush (who now, courtesy of me, have at least one link from a liberal site.) On a quick read, the closest thing to a cross-ideological conversation there is between the people who want to boil George Voinovich in oil, and those who think the boil-in-oilers are wimps who don't understand that we're in a war against the Islamo-fascists and their allies in the Nevada Democratic Party.

Now see that lonely little blue guy on the upper right? That's me. Apparently as insular on the left as "Blogs for Bush" is on the right?

I hope not. I'm guessing this was just one of those weeks, where I didn't post much or if I did, it didn't happen to have many links to other blogs. In the chart, I see only inbound links.

It's still an interesting study, and outliers are just that, outliers. I'll try better not to be one!

*In New York, the most important part of a book is the acknowledgments.

Comments

[theCoach]

Right leaning blogs were terrified of the ironclad logic!

[Michael J.W. Stickings]

I don't know. Although The Decembrist is generally quite liberal, attracting mostly liberals (I presume), and although there might not be as much interlinking with non-liberal blogs, it seems to me that there have been some excellent conversations here lately. And I don't mean conversations among like-minded ideologues who, like Siths, see the world in absolutes. For that reason, I'm not sure that cross-blog linking is necessarily the best measure to determine any given blog's insularity. What may matter just as much is the content of intra-blog conversations. You may be right about Blogs for Bush (no link from me), which I don't much care for, but you at least (if I may heap some praise -- in part because I like your blog and contribute comments from time to time) have attempted to think about the meaning of liberalism and to engage conservatism as a set of ideas to be taken seriously -- you don't just spew the latest talking points (this is not meant as an insult to TPM!). Plus, the comments sections of your posts reflect, I think, an interest among your readers in thinking about ideas. That, from what I can see, is rare in the blogosphere, at least in terms of the typical left-right slandering.

[murky]

It seems to me the lesson is that if you want more links, you'll have to engage in more straw-man argumentation or otherwise be less moderate. Rhetorical opposites attract and so does your own rhetorical reflection, but everything else is random and uninteresting.

[Electoral Math]

I'm not that surprised, Mark. Most of what you've been doing recently is critiquing other liberal arguments. RedState.org is not in their list. Nor is "investing in conservative ideas". Plus you also spend a larger portion of your time linking to things other than other blogs than most.

[Michael J.W. Stickings]

Exactly. I know the blogosphere is all about this great virtual community where bloggers link to other bloggers and thereby circumvent the MSM. But there's something awfully tiring about that, a lot of going around in circles. I know with my own blog (which I don't mean to compare to this one), I'd often much rather link to interesting sites around the web than to other blogs (which themselves are usually linking to other blogs... ad infinitum). If you're going to link to blogs, at least link to those that are particularly interesting or that have something worthwhile to say, no matter its ideological orientation.

[Steve Hill]

Thanks for highlighting that article. I wouldn't have found it otherwise. I find the research fascinating.

As a new blogger (the Maryland Policy blog if you don't mind a little shameless self promotion) with a blog that discusses policy issues I have spent way too much time recently reading other blogs. And, while I confess to having excessive "site meter" envy, I am left feeling as though many of the blogs--even some of my favorites--are doing little to move the conversation forward.

On the positive side, there is a lot of great information and people are motivated to pay attention to what is going on. On the not so great side, I sense that much of the conversation only adds to the polarization.

We have problems talking about the choices that people make without calling them names or referring to them in disparaging ways. Ultimately, there has to be a place where we can have meaningful conversation about the issues and build on the places where we share concerns. Don't we?

Having said that, I don't think that I'd put the Decembrist in the far upper right corner--at least not as an indication of the extremism of the conversation here.

[Trevino / Tacitus]

Well, Blogs for Bush....eh. No surprise there.

As for your linkage, I think it's probably reflective of your wonkish nature rather than your partisanship. (I speak with a full four days of readership to my credit.) No worries there.

[Brad Barrett]

I would echo the comment on linking to other like minded blogs as not being the best way to measure how insulated or open-minded a blog is. I read this, TPM, Kos, Political Aniamal and others, all liberal. I do wander over to RedState to get a different leaning. However, you could link to many a Red blog simply to say, "Look at what a bunch of idiots the right wingers are." The link doesn't necessarially mean support. I agree that I rarely read other blogs linked from a blog, but I do read linked articles.

[Dave Herman]

Hee-hee... the "little red... on the far left" is Blogs for Bush. Ah, mixed metaphors.

[Russell Travis]

Hi,

Not schooled in the blogosphere and its ultimate
functionality for our (or any) society, I wondered after reading the Crooked Timber blurb, etc., whether it would be advisable to place a domain I dreamed up several years ago, viz., www.linkbetween.com, up for sale using blog
sources to do so (indeed, linkbetween.com might be a good example of a connective blog). Please advise. Many thanks.

Russ

[Samuel Long]

Stick to your guns. Were I you, I'd not let myself be unduly swayed by this study.

[Eszter Hargittai]

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I have updated the image because I realized it was not displaying exactly what I had described it as in the original blog post. The overall message is similar, but I thought it was important to let you know since you had linked to it directly (that's a good thing as this way it is updated here as well), but I'm afraid your comment about "that red guy over at the far left" is no longer relevant to the graph (partly because I switched their positions to reflect the layout of the other graph). Blogs for Bush is #3 on the graph, which as you can see in this updated image is only getting a link from another red dot (conservative blog). You as #27 are linked to by blue dots only and don't seem to be linking to anyone at all if I am reading the direction of the arrows correctly. This graph is of posts in a week in March (March 13-19th to be exact). I'm sorry this update may cause confusion here.

[brian]

not too late for a compliment, excellent articles!

[john]

No surprise