An Analysis of Political Blog Use in North Carolina During the 2008 Election (2009)

Undergraduates: Joshua Ellis, Josh Ellis

Faculty Advisor: Jane Brown
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication

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This research project examines the use of North Carolina political blogs by three main groups: the general public, the “chattering class,” and the media. The general public refers to everyday citizens of voting age who aren’t intimately involved in the day-to-day political process. The chattering class is a term used to define politically engaged and connected people who are political advocates, campaign operatives, consultants, candidates and party leaders. The media refers to the traditional North Carolina press, which consists of management, editors and reporters from newspapers, online newspapers, broadcast television stations and terrestrial radio stations. The media include people who assign, generate, edit or publish political coverage for their respective medium.
All in all, the political blogosphere is growing source for interaction between average citizens, journalists and the chattering political class. Prior research of national blogs suggested the general public use these sites to find information on political candidates and share opinions in a virtual community. Mainstream journalists use political blogs as sources and communication tools. National campaigns are using political blogs to raise money, organize support and interact with voters. The growing number of state political blogs justifies the rationale for similar analysis at the state level. The ultimate goal of my research was to determine what impact state political blogs have on elections.