| In the decade since the Blogger self-publishing platform was launched, blogs have become an inescapable part of the American political debate. First connected with nascent movements both supporting and opposing military action following the September 11, 2001, attacks, they soon became important organizational and fundraising tools for social groups and political campaigns. By the time of the 2008 presidential campaign, roughly one-quarter of American voters consulted political blogs to find news, information, opinion and discussion about the election.;Despite significant interest in blogs from researchers, many gaps remain in the literature. Our understanding of who reads blogs and how blog readers think and behave in the political realm is sparse and inconsistent, while our understanding of the effects blogs have on attitudes and information-processing is similarly incomplete. This study undertakes two analyses in an attempt to fill in these gaps. First, survey data from the 2008 Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project are used to identify predictors of using liberal and conservative blogs, as well as to identify the extent to which readers of such blogs participate in politics and operate as political sophisticates. Results from this analysis are used as a starting point for a series of experiments in which cognitive effects of blog-reading are tested. These experiments attempt to identify the process by which blog readers interpret news frames differently from non-readers, and specifically examine ways in which media norms in blog communities might impact information-processing.;The results of these studies suggest two conceptual approaches for future research on news media use. First, changes in media use behavior demand that our approach to measuring media use by updated to focus more on topic-specific, trans-medium use patterns. Second, the development of a media sophistication concept, in parallel with political sophistication, should be pursued and used as a moderator in the study of media effects. |
