so this is mass communication?

This year at the National Communication Association at least two divisions at the conference have blog papers on the prestigious “top paper panel.” I know this because I wrote them. There could be more top papers – there certainly are plenty of papers about the impact and uses of blogs here – but I just haven’t found them yet (it is hard to search for topics in the program).

I say this not to toot my horn (though it certainly might seem that way) but to provide a status report on the state of blog research. I still get some reviews of my work back from journals saying they don’t understand why someone would research blogs. This exposure of blog research in the top paper panels is huge because it signals that not only can there be quality research about blogs – but also that blogs are worth researching.

I wouldn’t call blogs my life’s work – although it has been the focus of much of my work thus far – but I imagine that my interest in communication technology will continue to find me in this position of proclaiming why the next “big thing” is worth researching & examining how it is different from everything else we have known to that point.

Just as blogs are starting to get this hat tip from the academy, the mainstream press seems to have ended its love affair with blogs in that there are more “scare” stories out there talking about the *dangers* of blogs. Take the front page article in Forbes the November 14, 2005 issue (thanks to Jon Lundberg for pointing it out to me). The title, “Attack of the Blogs,” and the image of a muscular Arnold-like arm coming out of a computer screen to beat up a business man sums up the concept of the article. One pull quote refers to bloggers as “a bunch of sickos” who did “obscene and vile stuff.”

So, to me, it seems appropriate that the academy has endorsed this line of research because it now appears there is much more to examine in regards to the impact of blogs on society, personal communication, & the media.

In about 30 minutes I’m presenting “Political Cynicism, Political Uses, and Information Efficacy Among Readers of Celebrity Weblogs “, a paper that came out of my dissertation that I co-authored with Dr. Lynda Lee Kaid from University of Florida:

This study tests the effects of personalized and “stealth” political discourse on weblogs, or blogs, and its affect levels of political trust, information efficacy, and political uses/gratifications. By surveying readers of three different blogs (N = 1838), this study identified significant effects as a result of exposure to political statements on blogs. Indeed, there are differences in the levels of political cynicism depending on how political statements were communicated. Readers of non-political blogs are more confident in their level of political information and their ability to participate in politics. Finally, political uses/approaches and avoidances were examined, as were differences based on gender and age.

Before going into the specific findings, let me explain a bit more about the method. We looked for the association of political cynicism, information efficacy and political uses & gratifications (approach/use of blog for political information & avoiding blog’s political content) based on the type of political messages one reads on celebrity blogs. We used 3 celebrity blogs: blog with clearly labeled & somewhat traditional political messages (Wil Wheaton), blog with satirical and “under the radar” political messages (Dave Barry), & a blog with no political messages (Roger Avary). Respondents were recruited for the survey from a post by the celebrity on his blog.

The basic findings here are that

• Respondents who read the blog that never made political messages (Avary) were least cynical & there were differences between each blog group.
• Respondents who read the blog that never made political statements (Avary) reported the highest level of information efficacy.
• Respondents who reported the highest level of approach to the blog or use of the blog to obtain political messages were those read the blog that contained political messages in a very clear & straight-forward manner.
• Respodents who said that they were least likely to use the blog for obtaining political messages were those that read the non-political blog (Avary).
• There was no relationship between use/approach of a blog for political information & cynicism.
• There was a statistically significant – but very weak – relationship between avoiding political messages and cynicism.

I’m off to present this!

At NCA next week I’m presenting my paper on “Negative Messages on Campaign Blog Posts” as a top paper in the Political Communication Division:

An advancement in online campaigning during the 2004 election cycle was the integration of blogs in candidate Web sites. Blogs offer a personalized presentation of the campaign and candidate. This content analysis investigated negative campaigning in the blog posts of George Bush and John Kerry during the general election cycle. Results find frequent discussion regarding the opponent, a great deal of negative messaging, and the dominance of logical appeals.

Here are my basic findings:

• 56% of the overall posts (N = 1190) discussed the opponent. Kerry discussed Bush more frequently.
• 49.6% of all items contained an attack of some sort. Of the items that were classified as political statements, 83.6% were attacks. Of the items that discussed the opponent, 78.8% contained an attack.
• The challenger used more attacks than the opponent, finding further support for previous research that found challengers & Democrats use attacks more often in political ads.
• Blog posts focused more in issues than candidate image.
• Posts used logical (63.6%), source credibility (54.4%) & emotional (24.4) appeals.

One of the most fulfilling pieces of this project for me was that almost everything that previous scholars had found true in televised political ads occurred in these negative campaign blog posts. Much of the campaign Web site literature comes from political advertising, since the Web site itself can be considered a form of adverting. However, research on negative messages on Web sites focus more on the re-purposing of traditional negative messages (tv ads/spots) on the site rather than negative messages that only appear on the Web site.

My mentor and PhD advisor specializes in political advertising & has done a lot of work looking at the impact of Web sites on voters, so I will be very interested to hear her thoughts on this paper.

The presentation is on Friday, November 18 from 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. in the Boston Sheraton in Republic Ballroom A. Please stop to discuss this research!

I realize it has been quite a bit since I’ve blogged. The reason is part post-hurricane life, part pre-NCA life. I’ve always said that October & early November make up the busiest time of my year … and this year was no different.

I am presenting 5 papers at the National Communication Association conference in Boston in 10 days. I have two papers on “top papers” panels, a piece from my disseration, and then two pieces about the convention blog posts that were accepted as panel proposals. That means I have spent the last month or so writing those two papers from the panels. I’ll post the abstracts separately with some break-out findings over the next few days.

Additionally, I was making changes to a few papers that were recently accepted at journals.

Here is my overall presentation schedule (all blog related) for NCA. If you’re going to be there too, stop by one of my sessions

• Political Cynicism, Political Uses, and Information Efficacy among Readers of Celebrity Weblogs
  Thu, Nov 17 – 12:30pm – 1:45pm
  Building/Room: Marriott / Brandeis
• Negataive Messages on Campaign Blog Posts (top paper panel)
  Fri, Nov 18 – 12:30pm – 1:45pm
  Building/Room: Sheraton / Republic Ballroom A
• Frame Analysis of Credentialed Blogs: Covering the 2004 National Political Party Conventions
  Fri, Nov 18 – 5:00pm – 6:15pm
  Building/Room: Marriott / Cape Cod
• Impression Management and Self-presentation Online: An Analysis of Popular Blogs (top paper panel)
  Sat, Nov 19 – 2:00pm – 3:15pm
  Building/Room: Marriott / Suffolk
• Blog Bias: Reports, Inferences, and Judgments of Credentialed Bloggers at the 2004 Nominating Conventions
  Sat, Nov 19 – 3:30pm – 4:45pm
  Building/Room: Marriott / Tufts

See you in Boston!