Blog searching. The first general‐purpose source of retrospective public opinion in the social sciences?
| Date | 26 June 2007 |
| Published date | 26 June 2007 |
| Pages | 277-289 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520710764069 |
| Author | Mike Thelwall |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Blog searching
The first general-purpose source of
retrospective public opinion in the social
sciences?
Mike Thelwall
School of Computing and Information Technology,
University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to demonstrate how blog searching can be used as a retrospective source
of public opinion.
Design/methodology/approach – In this paper a variety of blog searching techniques are
described and illustrated with a case study of the Danish cartoons affair.
Findings – A time series analysis of related blog postings suggests that the Danish cartoons issue
attracted little attention in the English-speaking world for four months after the initial publication of
the cartoons, exploding only after the simultaneous start of diplomatic sanctions and a commercial
boycott.
Research limitations/implications – Blogs only reveal the opinions of bloggers, and blog
analysis is language-specific. Sections of the world and the population of individual countries that do
not have access to the internet will not be adequately represented in blogspace. Moreover, bloggers are
self-selected and probably not representative of internet users.
Originality/value – The existence of blog search engines now allows researchers to search
blogspace for posts relating to any given debate, seeking either the opinions of blogging pundits or
casual mentions in personal journals. It is possible to use blogs to examine topics before they first
attract mass media attention, as well as to dissect ongoing discussions. This gives a retrospective
source of public opinion that is unique to blog search engines.
Keywords Public opinion,Internet, Search engines, Drawings,Denmark
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
There is a wide range of online information types that researchers can exploit. In
addition to managed resources, such as digital libraries and repositories, the web hosts
much general (implicit) information that can be used for direct evidence of online
activities (i.e. how the web or web genres are used by particular groups) or indirect
evidence of offline activities (i.e. insights the web can give about activities that happen
predominantly offline). For instance, social science researchers have used hyperlinks
between sets of web pages to reveal international communication patterns (Foot et al.,
2003; Heimeriks et al., 2003; Park, 2003) and others have used content analysis of web
pages to reveal patterns of web use (Weare and Lin, 2000). Blogs in particular have
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The work was supported by a European Union grant for activity code NEST-2003-Path-1. It is
part of the CREEN project (Critical Events in Evolving Networks, contract 012684). The author
offers his grateful thanks to Laura Hasler and Kayvan Kousha for help with this paper.
Blog searching
277
Refereed article received
18 September 2006
Approved for publication
28 September 2006
Online Information Review
Vol. 31 No. 3, 2007
pp. 277-289
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520710764069
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