Seven days that shook the blogosphere–

Mobilizing protest in weblogcommunications

Benedikt Köhler

http://blog.metaroll.de

5. Oktober 2007

Introduction

É Question: How did the mobilization of protest in the„Free Burma!“-blog action(http://free-burma.org) proceed?

É Data: Links in blog comments related to the topic„Burma“ between September 25 and October 22007

É Method: Snowball sampling until sample wassaturated (no more new links). German Blog „BasicThinking“ as seed. Social network analysis (SNA)and visualization with Pajek and UCINET

É Numbers: 462 Blogs (networked nodes), 638directed links between blogs (arcs)

Before the storm (September 25, 2007)

The size of nodes is equivalent to their influence overthe whole period. Gray circle in the middle: BasicThinking (our seed blog).

The first links (September 25, 2007)

Isolated links among the German language blogs on theright. Purple node on the left: central actor SDRENG(IT). Dark gray: Lupe (CH).

Centers of gravity (September 27, 2007)

Centers of mobilization emerge in the Germanlanguage blogosphere. Isolated dyads and triads, e.g.at the top the Le Monde blogs (FR).

The leap (September 28, 2007)

Emanating from the central blogs, a number ofsub-centers emerge. They are able to mobilize furtherblogs. A bridge forms between German and Italianblogs (Dario Salvelli).

Consolidation (September 29, 2007)

Further links increase the network’s integration. Somenew nodes at the periphery are now connected to thenetwork.

. . . (September 30, 2007)

Again: new interconnections and integration of furthernodes.

. . . (Oktober 1, 2007)

More links emerge.

Complete picture (Oktober 2, 2007)

German and Italian blogosphere connected onlythrough few nodes. Obvious clustering. Density ofinterconnections varies between Italy and DE/AT/CH.

And then . . .

On October 4, thousands of weblogs worldwide show anentry like this.

Important nodes (prestige)

É Indegrees (incoming links):É Basic Thinking (DE): 104É Lupe (CH): 45É Comicomix (IT): 45É Danzando a piedi nudi (IT): 33É Gianl (IT): 26

É Outdegrees (outgoing links):É Forensikblog (DE): 18É Simon Columbus (DE): 10É Basic Thinking (DE): 8É Goggiblog (CH): 8É Lupe (CH): 7

→ Different communication patterns in Italian andGerman blogosphere. Critics of the initiativeoverrepresented in outdegrees.

Important nodes (closeness / betweenness)

É Nodes with greatest closeness (can most easilyreach all other nodes):É Basic Thinking (DE): 19.65É Dario Salvelli (IT): 19.17É Blogwiese (DE): 16.88É Startupblogger (DE): 16.86É Blogging Tom (CH): 16.81

É Nodes with greatest betweenness (can act asbridge or broker):É Basic Thinking (DE): 7.78É Lupe (CH): 6.02É Dario Salvelli (IT): 4.60É Goggiblog (CH): 4.30É Simon Columbus (DE): 2.76

Distribution of comment activity

É Indegree: Entry in X’s weblog

É Outdegree: X comments an entry in another blog

É Rank correlation: ρ = 0.42

Comment activity over time

É The „leap“ is clearly visible: on September 28, 190new links suddenly emerge between weblogs(roughly 30% of all links)

É Marked decline afterwards

Conclusions (tentative)

É Secret of rapid mobilization could be the sparseinterlinkage of the network (average 1.5 links/node)

É At the same time network is manifestly centralized→ rapid dissemination of information in star shape

É German language blogosphere integrates threecountries, but only weak ties to French and Italianweblogs. Different patterns of weblogcommunication (highly integrated Splindercommunity in Italy)

É Will those new links endure? Could they bereactivated when required?

Thank you

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