Mapping Iran's Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere.
June 5, 2008 1:42 PM   Subscribe

Mapping Iran's Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere.

From the abstract:
We used computational social network mapping in combination with human and automated content analysis to analyze the Iranian blogosphere. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that Iranian bloggers are mainly young democrats critical of the regime, we found a wide range of opinions representing religious conservative points of view as well as secular and reform-minded ones, and topics ranging from politics and human rights to poetry, religion, and pop culture. Our research indicates that the Persian blogosphere is indeed a large discussion space of approximately 60,000 routinely updated blogs featuring a rich and varied mix of bloggers. Social network analysis reveals the Iranian blogosphere to be dominated by four major network formations, or poles, with identifiable sub-clusters of bloggers within those poles. We label the poles as 1) Secular/Reformist, 2) Conservative/Religious, 3) Persian Poetry and Literature, and 4) Mixed Networks.
posted by chunking express (4 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Too bad the present administration, given its priorities, appears more interested in mapping Iranian oil fields...
posted by ornate insect at 1:51 PM on June 5, 2008


Speaking of Iran, here are some photos of the country your President is planning on destroying.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:50 PM on June 5, 2008


Great post. What can you say about a place where one huge section of the blogs is dedicated to poetry, and another to strict (for want of a better term, and disliking "fnudamentalist") religion? What a country.
posted by YouRebelScum at 5:41 AM on June 6, 2008




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