There are millions of blogs. The Perseus Development Corporation, a company that studies Internet trends, estimated that by 2005 more than 10 million would have been created. Many are created by journalists, academics, and those working in politics, for whom sounding off to others is often an imperative. The vast majority are probably by people who are not part of the opinion/analysis industry and just want to let off steam and/or be visible on the net. For discussions on the significance of blogs, see:-
- The Power and Politics of Blogs by Daniel W. Drezner & Henry Farrell
- Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality by Clay Shirky
- The Blogging Iceberg by Perseus Development Corp.
Here is an index to a selection of the most visible politically-oriented blogs. Not all sites make their raison d'être , or even authorship, clear and it is not always easy to characterise the focus of a blog, but I have tried to indicate the general orientation in most cases, where it is not obvious from the title. If the site does not seem to have any specific focus (which many do not) I have tried to indicate the country of origin, which will often be a guide to the general perspective. Blogwise is a general index that offers map-based geographical searches . Oscar Jr has a country-based index at Blogs around the World . Both these may include non-political blogs.
I have tried to include as wide a variety as possible, though I have excluded those that mostly rabbit on about whether they've had an early night, or how nice the daffodils are looking in the sun. Even so, recipes for wholemeal bread cannot entirely be avoided. If you think I have missed an especially interesting and informative political blog, please email me with the details. I have marked what seem to me to be particularly interesting sites with a § Links should open in a new window.
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