Negative Blogs

Bloggers are having a real impact on opinions inside many Arabic nations, finds a broad look at the blogosphere in the Middle East.

The study has given web researchers insight into the issues and forces that are shaping online conversation in the Middle East and beyond.

The study, carried out by the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard analyzed some 35,000 active Arabic language blogs in 18 different countries. This included several thousand blogs that mixed Arabic and English, or Arabic and French.

From that set, researchers identified the most connected blogs, i.e. those that were the most linked to, and then used a team of Arabic speakers to further analyze the content.

A map of this blogging network was then created.

“The goal,” said the authors, “was to produce a baseline assessment of the networked public sphere in the Arab Middle East, and its relationship to a range of emergent issues, including politics, religion, culture and international affairs.”

The study was paid for largely with US State Department funds.

Bloggers