Newspapers will have to change the way they approach blogging if they are going to be a force in increasing public dialogue on political issues, says a joint study from American universities Ball State University and the University of Nevada, Reno.
A study of blogs and audience engagement during the week before the fall 2006 US elections found that most newspaper staff-produced blogs contained a small number of postings, failed to create much interaction between the blogger and the audience and attracted few audience comments.
In the review of 360 newspapers, Ball State journalism professors Lori Demo and Mary Spillman along with Larry Dailey, a journalism professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, found that 42 per cent of newspapers had blogs with political content but discovered commitment to blogging widely varied.
"Political blogs are seen as providing a meeting place for journalists interested in promoting the democratic process and readers looking for a chance to share observation and beliefs," Demo said. "These blogs offer individuals an opportunity to communicate outside the dominant media structure found in news stories, staff columns and letters to the editor. To be as effective as some of the more popular citizen-produced blogs, however, newspaper versions must attract an audience and generate a conversation.
"This study provides a snapshot of an emerging newspaper feature during a five-day period before a national election. While much has been written about blogs' potential to save democracy and revive journalism, this picture of newspapers' blog posts does little to support that notion."
The study found:
- While some blogs contained frequent posts as high as 57 during the five-day study, the average was 8.2, and almost 25 per cent had no posts.
- The average number of comments for the five-day period was 33.5, or an average of 6.7 per day, which was skewed by a few bloggers receiving as many as 100 posts daily.
- About 58 per cent of people responding to blogs contributed more than one comment.
- 80 per cent of bloggers posted no responses to readers' comments.
Facing declines in circulation, daily newspapers recently started offering blogs in hopes of emulating the success many citizen-produced blogs had in capturing a new audience. Supporters argue that those citizen-produced blogs empower the public and encourage conversation by expanding and renewing the concept of the public sphere, Spillman said.
Nielsen/NetRatings reported that unique visitors to the largest Internet newspaper blog sites rose from 1.2 million in December 2005 to 3.8 million in December 2006.
"However, the results of our study call into question whether newspapers are wasting valuable staff resources," Demo said. "The time it takes a reporter to post a blog entry that attracts 10 or fewer comments could be time better spent in other areas. Newspapers might consider spending staff time monitoring blogs as sources of news rather than trying to recreate the blogosphere on their websites."
Spillman believes that politics may not be the best topic for newspaper blogs. "While experts have pointed to blogs' potential to transform democracy, it is possible that blogs generate more citizen participation when the subject matter is sports, parenting or other lifestyle topics than politics," she said.
The project was supported by the university's News Research Institute (NRI), the fourth immersive learning institute created at Ball State as a result of a $20 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc to fund the Digital Exchange, an initiative expanding opportunities for students to participate in innovative, immersive educational experiences.
The other institutes, administered by Ball State's Centre for Media Design, are the Institute for Digital Entertainment and Education, the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation and the Institute for Digital Fabrication.
