Further Reading

For more information about blogging and politics, here are some resources:

"The Rise of Open Source Politics" - a bit old, but insightful discussion of new internet media and politics.

Wikipedia: Political Blogs - especially see the sections on the USA and the cited articles in the footnotes.

"Political Blogs: The New Iowa?" - an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, a very credible source.

Politics 2.0 - a feature that Mother Jones did about how the internet will influence the next election.

"Politics 2.008: how will the Internet influence the presidential election?" - another article.

Mainstream Blogs: Washington Post Blogs

Stumped and The Trail both cover the presidential campaign. The Trail is written by various journalists and includes plain news articles, whereas Stumped is written by one person.
The writer of Stumped appears to be very pro-Obama. He is Andres Martinez, a journalist from Southern California. This is different from the other blogs in that the entire blog consists of his answers to letters sent in to him. There is also a commenting system, so readers can discuss political issues.
The Trail has few opinion pieces, but there does seem to be a heavy Democratic bias. For example, one article reads: "If you're a McCain you call that a smashing victory and sweep up tons of delegates, but Democrats don't work that way, because of their fetish for "fairness" and all that."

Mainstream Blog: Political Punch

Political Punch from ABC News is written by ABC News Correspondent Jake Tapper. Because it is from an individual, it is more biased than the others, using satirical phrases such as "Clinton'$ Ca$h Woe$" to show his opinion. Tapper has written books critical of Bush, but he also openly criticizes candidates such as Romney and Clinton in his blog, so it is hard to see where his bias lies.

Mainstream Blog: CNN Political Ticker

CNN's Political Ticker described itself as having the "latest political news from CNN's Best Political Team, with campaign coverage, 24-7." Like many other mainstream blogs, this is not really a blog; it is simply a news aggregator with no analysis, blogger-reader interaction, or interaction with other blogs. However, it seems fairly objective, or as objective as CNN is in general.

Mainstream Blog: RealClearPolitics

RealClearPolitics is a blog that is part of a larger website. Although it claims to be independent, a simple google search reveals that it is partially owned by Forbes Media, and it is syndicated on Time Magazine's website. There are only a couple of different bloggers, and there is no commenting system here either. The posts mainly link to and analyze other news stories or blog posts. It seems to be pretty objective because it is a team effort.

Mainstream Blog: National Review Blog

Though it is called a "blog," this is missing some of the important qualities that define a blog. There is no commenting system, so blogger/reader interaction is heavily impaired. This also means that readers cannot discuss their opinions on a specific blog post very easily. Also, the authors are all anonymous, and the blog doesn't link to other blogs as independent ones always do. Despite the fact that National Review is known for being a conservative publication, this blog doesn't seem too biased, mainly because it's more of a syndication for their news articles than an actual blog.
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Mainstream Blog: Fox News Blog

The Fox News Campaign Blog is predictably conservative in both the comments posted by readers and their analysis of democratic candidates. There are MANY comments as well. Most of the news is fact-oriented (I suspect they post their regular news stories here as well as analyses) and the bloggers are anonymous journalists. There was no interaction between bloggers and commenters that I saw here.

Independent Blogs: The Daily Kos

The Daily Kos can't really be described as a single blog, but more of as a blogging entity. Any user can create an account, and begin their own blog, regardless of qualifications. This user freedom makes for a very interesting content stream. If one were to view the main Stream, the titles and opinions range all over the map, from extreme right wing conservatives, all the way to Anarchistic ideas and thoughts.

The true Independent entity is one that does not filter its users, but instead allows anyone to post and be viewed based on ideas, and not be viewed because of the corporate backing.

Independent Blog: Perrspectives

Perrspectives was created by Jon Perr and has many subsections in it. It has a place for articles ad well as resources. But our analysis lies in the blog. The blogs are informative with pictures and/or video clips in them, as well as links on many things essential to the main point of the post. Links to news articles litter each post to help the reader clarify anything they may not know about. The blog isn't really done in a professional or childish voice, but there are many words that just don't seem to fit in with the scheme of a political blog. All in all, this blog is very informative, complete with a search engine, links to other blogs and resources. A good place to look if you're interested in politics.
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/

Independent Blog: Bipolar Nation

Bipolar Nation was started in 2006 by Dan Kenitz and is co-authored by Aaron Robertson. It aims to bring people of every race and political view to one place to discuss current events. Along with the post made, people are encouraged to respond to the post with links directing you to make a comment or visit a forum. BPN is very good at giving the reader related topics at the end of each post, and on the home page a month by month break down of posts that have been added. The only thing I reccomend to this site would be a search engine to allow readers to find particular topics. Otherwise this blog is very informative and promotes a healthy community for the discussion of politics.
http://www.bipolarnation.com/

The New York Times: The Caucus

This blog lives true to its name, as there is no single person who reports more than anyone else on this site. Innumerable NY Times reporters all post impartial and up-to-date coverage of the facts and numbers regarding the race for nomination. On Super Tuesday the posts on the race are by-the-hour and are organized by party. The benefit of the large number of reporters is that the voices span the range of liberal and conservative, overarching, and focusing on minutiae. They come from rural and urban, male and female, red and blue. And none of these voices is at all militant; the reporting is expertly neutral. The variety lies with the writing styles, the topics reported on, the party emphasis, and connections made.

US News: Washington Whispers

Paul Bedard’s Washington Whispers is a whimsical conservative take on activities in Washington. Featuring a series of short dramas in which all the candidates are represented by bobblehead dolls, Washington Whispers is funny and appeals to a youthful audience. However it is possible that Whispers sacrifices its relevance to humor. The reporting deals with very frivolous topics such as Chelsea Clinton’s attire at a sports bar, or unsubstantiated speculation as to who Sen. John McCain would choose for his running mate.
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Newsweek: Stumper

Andrew Romano, Newsweek’s official political blogger, runs a highly opinionated forum. Most of the posts were written by other Newsweek reporters, but they all go down under Romano’s name. The reporting on different campaigns is personal; it documents the reactions and opinions of the author. An article by Susanne Smalley guesses at Mitt Romney’s emotions and stress level while facing different obstacles on the campaign trail. And occasionally the news borders on the trendy; featuring an interview with fashion guru Tim Gunn centering on the importance of a politicians' apparel.
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CBS News: Horserace

Editor Vaugn Ververs and political correspondents Brian Montopoli, David Miller, Kevin Hetchtkopf, Jeff Greenfield, James Klatell keep a running commentary on the 2008 presidential race. This blog actually contains some very shrewd analyses on different candidates’ tactics. And is a very up-to-date resource for recently released campaign ads. Also remind people, as does every other political site in existence, what the polling times are in each state, as well as which candidates are the frontrunners in which states. Overall, a relatively unbiased and informative resource, if a bit conservative.
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Candidate Blogs: Huckabee

Mike Huckabee’s official blog features posts from an entity called “Team Huckabee,” Mike Huckabee himself, and Chip Saltzman (Huckabee’s campaign manager). Mike Huckabee posts inspirational letters about his campaign and statements about his credentials. Team Huckabee posts run the gamut from schedules of Mike Huckabee’s appearances to numerous youtube videos promoting Huckabee. Chip Saltzman’s posts are where all the business is at. He posts phone lists and asks people to make calls on behalf of Huckabee. Along the side of the page runs a long list of hundreds of links to alternative blogs that are also supporting Huckabee. These are often conservative or religious based, such as A Polichristian Point of view or Evangelical Outpost. Others, like Hillary v. Huckabee on Education, are clearly political. Other links just lead to really brainless myspace pages (Jackalope2day, Pete Moss Verbal Ramblings) that happen to mention that they like Mike.

What is a Mainstream blog?

The division between mainstream and independent blogs is ambiguous. However, mainstream blogs tend to have the following features:

- Put out by large corporations (like Fox News or CNN blogs) that often branch out into more capital-heavy forms of media, such as television
- Explicitly backed by corporate advertising
- Have their own website (unlike this blog)
- Produced by a group of people, usually as employment (unlike those who blog just for fun)
- Read by more people than independent blogs, because the information is seen as more credible and those people are used to these corporations in other media formats

The factual information in these blogs is usually more credible, but the opinions, biases, and analyses may be skewed differently.

With our increasingly fast journalistic practices today, the line between regular news stories and blogs is also unclear at times. However, blogs tend to have comments and a gennerally greater sense of interactivity between the blogger(s) and the blog readers.

What makes an Independent Blog?

There are a few factors that go into these Blogs being categorized as Independent. One of the main ones is their ownership. For a truly Independent Blog, it is not owned or sponsored by anyone. However, the bulk of these blogs do not get viewed regularly, and so we are discounting these from our research. The kind of Independent Blog we are focusing on is not always related to their cause or opinions, but rather to who owns and operates them.
For example, let's look at a Blog that supports electing Mitt Romney in the 08 Elections. The Blog, titled CoMITTed to Romney, is owned by a 33 year old self described "wife, mother, and business owner of the technology solutions company BlodgetTech" (Source). This Blog is privately owned and operated by Ann Marie Curling, and is posted on by a small group of bloggers. There is no major corporate ownership or sponsorship that is present, and the site is hosted by Blodgetech, a Blog Tech company.
This Blog is the perfect example of an Independent Blog. It's views are controlled by the few Bloggers who post, and by the owner, an average person.

Independent Blogs are not defined by the views, but by the ownership. However, the viewpoints and opinions of Independent Blogs seem to be different from the Mainstream Blogs.

Welcome to The MC Symposium Blog!

For the symposium, we are studying the differences and similarities between Mainstream and Independent Blogs. On this page, you will find different comparisons, interpretations, and other writings involving the Blogs we have studied. Feel free to post comments on any of the posts, as well as to read through our analysis. Thanks!