Mapping Code Politics: Liberal Leadership Race

This research project tracks on a weekly and monthly basis blog and news coverage of candidates in the Leadership race for the Liberal Party of Canada. The research is investigating the relationship between a candidate’s coverage in the news compared to the less formal blogosphere. Do some candidates receive proportionally more coverage in one sphere than the other? How do political events, controversies, and policy statements effect the news and blogosphere? The project will also track the emergence of political issues in both spheres. Lastly, the project will also investigate the “tone” of the blogopshere in an attempt to locate and identify moments when the campaign becomes more hostile or negative.


Coverage of the Candidates in the News and Blogospheres

This part of the project seeks to determine the amount of coverage that the
Liberal leadership candidates receive in online news and in the blogosphere
(posts by bloggers). Findings include weekly analyses charting the
distribution (as a percentage) of the coverage of the race among the
candidates and a cumulative 'tracker' that follows coverage for the
candidates in both the news and blogosphere since September 1, 2006.


Leadership Campaign Issue Ticker

This aspect of the project tracks the coverage of political issues in both
the news and blogosphere. It seeks to determine which issues are of greater
importance for bloggers and the mainstream news. We post weekly charts and a
cumulative graph that tracks the rise and fall of issues during the
campaign.


Liberal Leadership Bloggers

This part of our project determines who are the most influential bloggers on a weekly basis covering the Liberal Leadership Race. We examine their political affiliations, their blogging networks and relations to the candidates through hyperlink patterns and the content of their posts.


Opinions of the Leaders in the Blogosphere

This research tracks the 'tone' of the blogosphere in an attempt to
determine attitudes and opinions toward the top tier candidates. Each week
we produce and post graphs and a cumulative tracker that show weekly changes
in attitudes and opinions towards the candidates as reflected by comments
posted in the blogosphere.


Liberal Leadership Convention Blog

Lab Director, Greg Elmer, will be attending the liberal leadership convention in Montreal. He will be sharing his insights and commentary on his convention blog. You can visit the blog here: http://gregelmer.blogspot.com/.


29 November, 2006 - 12:19