Posted on 05/23/2005 6:35:23 AM PDT by mathprof
IN the spring of 1712, the British essayist Joseph Addison rambled from pub to parlor seeking the pulse of his countrymen regarding rumors (false, it turned out) that the king of France, Louis XIV, had died. The St. James coffeehouse, Addison reported in The Spectator, was "in a Buzz of Politics."
In the 18th century, "buzz" was part of what social theorists called the emerging - and powerful - bourgeois public sphere. In the 21st century, the buzz is in the blogosphere.
Or at least, that's the popular mythology. As a result of their influence in incidents like the "60 Minutes" episode in which CBS was duped by forged documents related to the president's National Guard service, bloggers have taken on the role of agenda-setters - citizen scribe-warriors wresting power from a mainstream media grown fat and lazy.
But according to a preliminary study - the first rigorous look at the influence wielded by political blogs during the 2004 presidential campaign - bloggers are not always the kingmakers that pundits sometimes credit them with being. They can, it seems, exert a tremendous amount of influence - generate buzz, that is - but only under certain circumstances.
Buzz is potent stuff.
"Buzz can alter social behavior and perceptions," wrote the authors of "Buzz, Blogs and Beyond," published last week by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the market research firm BuzzMetrics. "It can embolden or embarrass subjects. It can affect sales, donations and campaign coffers. It can move issues up, down and across institutional agendas."
To analyze Web log buzz, the study zeroed in on a few dozen political blogs, from left-leaning forums like Daily Kos and AmericaBlog to conservative ones like Instapundit and Power Line, as well as middle-of-the road sites like BuzzMachine and Wonkette...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Huh. The NYT is still in business?
From this byline:
New York Times ^ | 5/23/2005 | TOM ZELLER Jr.
Are you suprised they think Wonkette is MoR?
Yeah, that Wonkette, she's sure "middle-of-the-road." Geez, these guys are obvious sometimes.
Well, considering the source of the article wonkette would be middle of the road...
This is a bunch of words that don't say much at all. zzzzzzzzzzz
My thoughts exactly!
NYT Barf alert!!!
Wonder why that is? /sarc
So the bottom line is that lefty-loony theories like the debate jacket-bulge being a secret link to Karl Rove turn out to not have much ability to influence people's thinking, whereas right-wing truth obvious to everyone (except journalists) like the fakery inherent in the Bush TANG documents, catch fire and become well-known. Wonder why? Would it have anything to do with one is accurate and the other is lunacy regardless of the politics involved?
Well maybe from the perspective of people whom overwhelmingly voted for Kerry and Gore. No one ever accused the New York Times of being fair and balanced.
Good point.
As long as people eat fish and clean bird cages the NYT will stay in business.
Well, considering that most of the NYT editors are flaming gayboys, as first revealed to us by Washington Times writer Bill Sammon, it's no surpise that they think skankyrat Wonkette is mild. More than likely, they may think that she is boring.
Yeah, but they spend most of their time whistling past graveyards.
I think they call the NYT The Old Grey Whore.
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