A glimpse into the rightwing echo chamber

Posted By Evgeny Morozov Monday, November 2, 2009 - 2:27 PM Share

So what exactly does all this NSF-funded research on obscure subjects get us, after all? Well, how about this excellent graph of how information spreads (and evolves - i.e. gets distorted in the process) through the rightwing blogosphere? The image below is courtesy of Harvard's David Lazer whose own research was recently singled out by Sen Tom Coburn; it aims to visualize how various rightwing blogs have picked up and amplified Coburn's criticism. This provides a pretty good insight into how well-integtrated and networked the new media empire of the right really is:

Node colors correspond to dates (28: white, 29: light gray, 30: dark gray). Time flows left to right, where the variations within each day reflect publication time of day, but only in an "eyeballing" sense. Link weights are encoded white: explicit mention, black: shared text, grey: both. Arrows point from destination node to source

More from Lazer:

And as the signal propagates it evolves. Thus, for example, Stossel quotes from the Heritage blog, but then adds his distinct emphasis. The link and copying structure reflects the attention each blogger is paying to other blogs, however one would guess that each blog has a different but overlapping audience...

I don't know about you, but I want more, not less, of such research funded - and to study left-wing blogospheres/echo-chambers too.

(1)

HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE

DRLAKE777

1:17 AM ET

November 4, 2009

Agreed. This is exactly the

Agreed. This is exactly the type of analysis that needs to be done.

In general, I would prefer that social science NSF funding be used to gather data which will then be publicly available to all, rather than funding analysis itself.