Chapter 1. Introduction
The growing online practice of blogging has become a topic of interest for internet
researchers. Associations between political news blogs and traditional journalism are being
drawn by observers and bloggers themselves. In an article in USC Annenberg’s Online
Journalism Review, J.D. Lasica states, “Weblogging will drive a powerful new form of amateur
journalism as millions of Net users — young people especially — take on the role of columnist,
reporter, analyst and publisher while fashioning their own personal broadcasting networks”
(2001a, ¶ 4). A qualitative study addressing the motivations of political news bloggers suggests
that some define their role as “watchdogs of the mainstream press,” stating that blogs are “a
desperate attempt at free press,” and that blogs are alternative “voices in the wilderness”
(Reynolds, 2003, p. 11). Such associations make political news blogs a relevant subject for mass
communications research, while implicitly suggesting that information published in political
news blogs may be different in some way from traditional news content.
This study investigates the relationships between political news blog content and
traditional journalistic content, drawing on past theory and methodology used in agenda setting
research. Public agenda setting research addresses the influence of the media on public opinion,
and intermedia agenda setting addresses the influence of media upon other media. Because
blogs represent a new hybrid form of published independent media and individual opinion, both
public and intermedia agenda-setting may be useful theories in examining political news
blogging as it relates to journalism and mass communication. This study examines potential
relationships between blog coverage and both newspaper coverage and public opinion data, as a
first step in shedding light on the positioning of this new medium within the array of forms
studied in mass communications.
Theory
Page 1 of 39 
Convention