Evolution of Political Blogging

New Politics Institute has released a report titled Emergence of the Progressive Blogosphere:A New Force in American Politics.

The report has an interesting contrast of "conservative" and "progressive" uses of blogging tools. It's also a great source for some general statistics about the evolution and distribution of blogs and political blogs.

Social Edge's Patrick O'Heffernan has penned a review of the report that is worth looking at:

From Social Edge:


First, the reckoning. Bowers and Stoller found that, while most blog traffic goes to a few national blogs, both conservatives and progressives operate hundreds of locally focused blogs (conservatives hold an advantage in local political blogs) which are used to organize supporters, bypassing indigenous political organizations as well as local social service and advocacy groups. A prime example was the International Red Cross blog set up to raise funds and volunteers after the South Asian tusami http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/2004/12/american-red-cross-donation-collection.html parralleling local efforts to do the same.

Via Smartmobs