Poignancy in the US political blogsphere

Purpose – To suggest methods and approaches to the study of relationships between the blogsphere and news, and to show, through a preliminary study, how the blogsphere makes particular political contributions through the manner in which social issues are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The article provides a set of research questions as well as general methodological approaches to undertake empirical, comparative analysis of the blogsphere and news. It reports on a preliminary study of the contribution of the blogsphere to politics using semantic analysis. Hyperlink analysis of the right-of-center US political blogsphere is also provided in a figure. Findings – It was found that the contribution of the blogsphere to political issue formation is distinctive from that of the news, for the blogsphere provides to issues a poignancy not found in the news. Research limitations/implications – The reported study is suggestive of a particular contribution the blogsphere may make to issue formation. Practical implications – The article outlines a research agenda. Originality/value – The article seeks to reorient the study of the blogsphere.