Language Networks on LiveJournal

Abstract

Language use in 1,000 randomly-selected and 5,025 crawled LiveJournals was analyzed in order to determine the overall language demographics, the robustness of four non-English language networks (Russian, Portuguese, Finnish, and Japanese), and the characteristics of individuals who bridge between different languages on LiveJournal.com. The findings reveal that English dominates globally but not locally, network robustness is determined mostly by population size, and journals that bridge between languages are written by multicultural, multilingual individuals, or else they have broadly accessible content. Implications of these findings for cross-cultural conversation via blogs are considered