Biting the Hand that Feeds
Weblogs and Second-Level Agenda Setting
Bryan Murley and Chris Roberts
University of South Carolina
Do you know this woman?
Harriet Miers, George Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, is the latest to experience the heat of the blogosphere
Agenda Setting
McCombs and Shaw (1972) 400 studies related to agenda-setting New Criticism McCombs (2004): Media still set the
agenda, even with the Internet
Weblogs
Definition A web page with minimal to no external editing,
providing on-line commentary, periodically updated and presented in reverse chronological order, with hyperlinks to other online sources. Blogs can function as personal diaries, technical advice columns, sports chat, celebrity gossip, political commentary, or all of the above. (Drezner, 2004)
Blog Stories
Trent Lott (2002) Iraq War (2003) Rathergate (2004) Presidential Election (2004)
Research Questions RQ 1. Do bloggers act as another level of gatekeepers by
linking to material from traditional news media? RQ 2. How much original reporting do bloggers provide? RQ 3. How often do bloggers link to media stories to critique
content? RQ 4. How often do bloggers link to media stories to critique
the media source? RQ 5. Do bloggers follow agenda-setting priorities of
traditional media outlets?
Methodology
Content Analysis of top 20 weblogs’ material for MWF of April 11-15, 2005.
Coded: Type of post Source Secondary sources News or opinion
Truth Laid Bear
Provides ratings of weblogs according to traffic rankings.
Findings
Nearly half (n=344, 49 percent) of the 706 posts included at least one link to a mainstream media source.
For political blogs, 56 percent of the 495 blog entries include a link to a mainstream media source.
Many blog topics matched MSM topics.
Findings
13 percent of posts were critical of MSM. 72 percent of MSM links were to news
stories. Just 6 percent of blog entries featured
original reporting.
Research Questions RQ 1. Do bloggers act as another level of gatekeepers by linking to
material from traditional news media? Yes. RQ 2. How much original reporting do bloggers provide? Very Little RQ 3. How often do bloggers link to media stories to critique content? RQ 4. How often do bloggers link to media stories to critique the media
source? RQ 5. Do bloggers follow agenda-setting priorities of traditional media
outlets? Yes.
Discussion
Blogs act as second-level agenda setters. Possibility of primary agenda-setting
when blogs focus on criticism of MSM. Reliance on MSM for fodder limits
agenda-setting ability of blogs.
Future Research
How does a blog obtain the credibility status of “mainstream media” and set a primary agenda? Or is that conferred by mainstream media?
Wider pool of weblogs and blog readers to gauge agenda setting capacity.