American Politics Blog Part II
Blogs are important to those in the field of political science because they allow those who are serious about the field to communicate their viewpoints more than scholarly articles do. Blogs, like scholarly articles, still tend to demand a higher quality of writing-- or at least greater length and depth than social media genres.
I will be analyzing the following three blogs for their similar genre characteristics. The first of these blogs is "In Tenure Veritas", which is the blog of political science professor Justin Buechler of UC Berkeley.
"Smart Politics" is a blog from professor Eric Ostermeier, of the University of Minnesota.
Finally, the Center for Political Studies Blog is a collection of blog posts revolving around the subject of political science, with many of the posts coming from University of Michigan Political Science professors.
WHY THESE BLOGS?
While the word "science" is indeed in the title of the "Political Science" discipline, it is hard to not equate the term politics with words like opinion, argument, debate, and other less "scientific" connotations. As indicated above, I was looking for publications in which professionals and students in the field shared more than research findings which involved multiple years and months to produce. Even professors have opinions. Blogs serve a much different purpose than more instantly-updating social media genres, which are better for reactions and news. Those who read blogs in political science are likely fellow professors or professionals in the field. Students and individuals who follow politics closely might also find blogs to be great sources of insight on the important developments in the field. The genre is accessible and most blog posts are about the length of op-ed articles in newspapers.
Like newspapers, blogs are updated daily or at least multiple times per week. Blogs that are not updated frequently will likely have fewer readers and ultimately expire. Three features that were prevalent among the blogs analyzed here were archive sections, hyperlinks, and research interpretation. I will focus on the importance of research interpretation in this analysis, as archive sections and hyperlinks are fairly common among all blogs, and not particularly special to discuss as features of a political science blog.
The Characteristics
Research Interpretation
An important characteristic among the three political science blogs examined is research interpretation. Research interpretation is a discourse-based expectation of the blog genre. The writers of these blogs are expected to go beyond the headlines of political news and offer important analysis for those who desire a deeper understanding or assessment of implications. For example, in a February 8th blog post by Buchler entitled "Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party", Buchler examines the Democratic Primary through referring to past research in political science. In this post, Buchler reflects on Bernie Sanders' recent polling rise and "victories" in early primary states like New Hampshire and Iowa. Throughout the post, Buchler focuses on terms that he deems relevant to explain Sanders' rise, particularly the term "liberalism", especially as it is described by another researcher, Stephen Skowronek, in his book The Party Decides. Throughout the rest of the article, Buchler uses Skworonek's discussion of American (vs. European) Liberalism to critique the viability of Bernie Sanders as a presidential candidate.
In a January 21st post on Ostermeier's blog, he uses historical research to interpret the upcoming Senatorial races in "Bellweather" states, observing that "A Smart Politics analysis of more than 1,900 U.S. Senate contests since the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913 finds that the winning party of elections in North Carolina and Alabama have had the strongest correlation with which party controls the chamber in the next congress." This post examines trends in past elections with an eye towards future elections, providing readers with information about which 2020 senatorial races will be most consequential in determining which party holds the senate majority. Similar to Buchler's post, Ostermeier's interprets data through a historical lens-something that a newspaper article, cable news segment, or mere poll would typically not be best suited to do.
A June 9, 2020 post titled "The words that made a difference in the 2016 election" on the University of Michigan blog also sought to explain research published on recent political trends. This post summarized the findings of a new book entitled "Words That Matter: How the News Media Environment Allowed Trump to Win the Presidency." A data table, indicating the words that most voters remembered being covered by the media in 2016 tracks the relationship between words and dates:
This table illustrates just how prevalent Hillary Clinton's "e-mail scandal" was in terms of media coverage of the 2016 election. The post then offers interpretations that the data suggest: "Donald Trump was confronted with a shifting but largely uninfluential series of scandals, whereas Hillary Clinton faced a single, stable, and influential scandal involving her use of a private email server."
Research interpretation seems to be a particularly important function for blogs of political science professionals, for this sets them apart from the more fleeting political reporting that occurs in mainstream media outlets. In general, research interpretation deals far more with the "why" of political science, which is what readers of blogs like these would expect.