Online Information Sources of Political Blogs

Abstract

Bloggers claim to be crucial providers of information in American elections and policy debates, usurping the role of mainstream media. This study coded more than 2,000 hypertext links to different sources on six widely read political blogs during seven consecutive days. Less than 15% of hyperlinks were to primary sources. Almost half were to mainstream media reports. Thus, political blogs may be comparable to a newspaper comprised of only op-ed pages and opinion columnists. The findings call into question the role of political blogging and raise concerns about how blog readers are learning about public policy and political debates.