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EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERYCHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Part Two: The BlogosphereAssistant Professor Natalie Pang

Party Websites and Blogs: The Good, The Bad, and The ToxicAssistant Professor Natalie PangDivision of Information StudiesWee Kim Wee School of Communication and InformationNanyang Technological University

About the study

• Period of Study: April 27th – 8th May

• Nomination Day to a day after polling day

• 833 Blog posts examined

• 764 Blog posts coded & analyzed

• 200 blogs in total

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About the study

• 10 coders split into 2 teams

• 1 team coding factual content

• 1 team coding qualitative content

• All coders undergone training on coding frame to establish familiarity 

• All coders then underwent 1 round of coding tests using the same posts to establish reliability between coders

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List of blogs (showing top 20)No. Blog Name Count

1 The Satay Club 35

2 The Online Citizen 34

3 Singapore Election 2011 33

4 Singapore Notes 26

5 mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore 20

6 Diary of a Singaporean Mind 18

7 Hun Boon's Blog 17

8 Thoughts of a Cynical investor 17

9 The Owl 15

10 Yawning Bread 15

11 Singapore Election Watch 14

12 SpotlightOnSingapore 14

13 Yee Jenn Jong 1413 Yee Jenn Jong 14

14 Yours Truly Singapore 14

15 New Asia Republic 13

16 Molitics Writing Silence 12

17 pressrun.net 12

18 Sgpolitics.net 12

19 life one degree north, one‐o‐three degrees east 11

20 Think Happiness 11

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Originality & Media Type

Originality

Primary Secondary Both

Videos (2%) 13 (1%) 11 (13%) 10 (3%)

Podcasts (1%) 5 (0%) 1 (1%) 3 (1%)

Photos (32%) 344 (33%) 33 (39%) 80 (25%)

Texts (53%) 560 (54%) 28 (33%) 176 (54%)

Ill t ti (12%) 109 (11%) 11 (13%) 56 (17%)Illustrations (12%) 109 (11%) 11 (13%) 56 (17%)

1031 84 325

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Secondary ContentLocal Media

Foreign Media

Other Blogs

CitizenMedia

Social Media

Party Pages

ElectionsDept

Others

Video (13%) 

11

Podcast (1%)

1

Photos (39%)

5 1 18 3 4 2

TextText (33%)

8 3 1 3 3 1 2 7

Illustration (13%)

2 6 3

24 (29%) 4 (5%) 2 (2%) 23 (27%) 12 (14%) 5 (6%) 2 (2%) 12 (14%)

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Party MentionsPAP WP SDP NSP SPP RP SDA

558148

105

4845 30

285

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Party Mentions

200

250

218

100

150 147

126

Positive

Positive+Neutral

Positive+Negative

Neutral

Negative+Neutral

0

50

PAP WP SDP NSP SPP RP SDA

11

46

9 103

11

12

39

12

5

1

26

1 21

39

2631

1 21

8 12

11 2

1

Negative

8

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What were bloggers really talking about?

247

302

307

11%

13%

14%

Political system

Candidate’s quality

Governance

96

99

103

111

114

115

116

127

170

5%

5%

5%

5%

5%

6%

8%

Si ’ id tit

Number of seats contested

Cost of living

Minister’s salary

Elections online

Foreigners’ unease

Fair play

Media surveillance

Housing cost

Hearing people’s voices

12

14

15

25

29

32

51

74

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Party quality

Education

Leadership quality

Transport

Election strategy

Healthcare

Generation Y

Singapore’s identity

No. of mentions

9

Issues & Valence

120

140123

40

60

80

100

120

20

47

66 70

60

56

99

64Pro‐PAP

Anti‐PAP

Neutral

Anti‐Opp

0

20

Governance (14%) Candidate’s 

quality (13%) Political system (11%) Hearing 

people’s voices (8%)

Housing cost (6%)

20

72

16

3

19 2136

012

2 32

821

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pp

Pro‐Opp

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Online Talk on Politicians (1)Rank

Most mentioned (by no. of blogs)

Most mentioned with positive valence

Most mentioned with neutral valence

Most mentioned with negative valence

1 Lee Kuan Yew (193) Low Thia Khiang (69) Lee Kuan Yew (82) Lee Kuan Yew (93)

2Lee Hsien Loong

(161)Nicole Seah (68) Lee Hsien Loong (81) Lee Hsien Loong (70)

3Low Thia Khiang

(126)George Yeo (58) Low Thia Khiang (59) Vivian Balakrishnan (63)

4 George Yeo (123) Chen Show Mao (53) George Yeo (59) Tin Pei Ling (53)

5Goh Chok Tong 

(101)Chiam See Tong (48) Goh Chok Tong (48) Mah Bow Tan (49)

6 Nicole Seah (93) Lee Kuan Yew (45) Vincent Wijeysingha (40) Goh Chok Tong (42)

7Vivian Balakrishnan

(90)Lee Hsien Loong (43) Nicole Seah (32) Wong Kan Seng (38)

8Chen Show Mao 

(74)Sylvia Lim (34) Sylvia Lim (31) George Yeo (36)

9 Chiam See Tong (73)  Tan Jee Say (27) Tan Jee Say (30) Chiam See Tong (20) 

10Vincent Wijeysingha

(65)Goh Chok Tong (22) Vivian Balakrishnan (27) Khaw Boon Wan (20) 11

RankMost mentioned (by no. of blogs)

Most mentioned with positive valence

Most mentioned with neutral valence

Most mentioned with negative valence

11 Tin Pei Ling (65)Vincent Wijeysingha

(22)Chiam See Tong (26) Lui Tuck Yew (18)

Online Talk on Politicians (2)

(22)

12 Tan Jee Say (62) J B Jeyeratnam (17) Chen Show Mao (24) Nicole Seah (14)

13 Sylvia Lim (62) Pritam Singh (16) Kenneth Jeyeratnam (17)  Lim Hwee Hua (13)

14 Mah Bow Tan (62) Ang Yong Guan (10) Tin Pei Ling (17) Tan Jee Say (12)

15 Wong Kan Seng (49) Yaw Shin Leong (9) Mah Bow Tan (15) Chee Soon Juan (10)

16 Pritam Singh (31) Chee Soon Juan (8)  Pritam Singh (15) Low Thia Khiang (10)

17 J B Jeyaretnam (33) Gerald Giam (8) J B Jeyeratnam (14) Vincent Wijeysingha (10)

18Chee Soon Juan 

(27)Vivian Balakrishnan (8) James Gomez (14) Yaacob Ibrahim (9)

19Khaw Boon Wan 

(27)Yee Jenn Jong (8) Lim Swee Say (14) Lim Boon Heng (8)

20 James Gomez (19) Michelle Lee (7) Lim Hwee Hua (13) Chan Chun Sing (7)12

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Question & Answers

Thank you for your time