WHODATHUNKIT?
What are the chances that COD, Izzy, and I would make it into a scientific conference’s proceedings?
There appears to be socially-based variation in the frequency and manner in which members of reciprocally linked blogs converse. Blog topic conditions frequency of interaction: political blogs contain more conversation than Catholic blogs, which in turn contain more conversation than homeschooling blogs. However, it is also the case that the political bloggers are mostly male, and the homeschooling bloggers are mostly female (the Catholic bloggers include both males and females); thus gender, rather than topic, may condition this variation. Males post more mentions in entries and more comments than do females overall; this is especially evident in two mixed-sex dyads, in which a reciprocal conversation is taking place, but the male blogger makes more mentions of the female blogger than vice versa. For example, in his blog Homeschool and Other Education Stuff (http://www.cobranchi.com), Daryl Cobranchi posts entries referencing Isabel (Izzy) Azuola-Lyman or her blog The Homeschooling Revolution (http://icky.blogspot.com) more than 100 times, while she mentions him or his blog only 10 times. The tone of the messages on both sides is good-natured banter, as when Daryl blogs:
Izzy and Chris [http://www.odonnellweb.com/mtarchives/001018.html] are having a mild disagreement over this [http://www.lewrockwell.com/latulippe/latulippe15.html] article. For the record, I’m with Chris on this one. Sorry, Izzy.
While our evidence suggests that mentioning another blog author tends to lead the other to reciprocate with a mention (indicating, crucially, that these authors are reading each other’s blogs on a regular basis), they do not necessary reciprocate in the same manner. One member of the dyad sometimes mentions the other only in entries, while the other interacts primarily through comments posted to the other’s blog. Such asymmetries may indicate a power dynamic (who goes to whose blog?); exploration of this possibility is left for future research.
I wonder if they ever did any of that “future research.”
4 Responses to “WHODATHUNKIT?”
 Comment by COD January 20th, 2008 at 11:36 pm |
Actually, ODonnellWeb was referenced in a UK doctoral dissertation (or whatever the equivalent over there is) back in 98 or 99. It was also part of a study at the U of Texas examining how closely blogs reflect the author in real life. |
 Comment by don January 21st, 2008 at 2:22 am |
I just find it strange that people actually study this type of thing. |
 Comment by Alasandra January 21st, 2008 at 8:18 am |
I am suitably impressed. It is interesting in an intellectual kind of way. Do keep us updated on any future research. |
 Comment by Crimson Wife January 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 am |
Can I go to Hawaii to give a firsthand account to the researchers about blogging on Catholicism & homeschooling? :p |