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- Title
Discussion catalysts in online political discussions: Content importers and conversation starters.
- Authors
Himelboim, Itai; Gleave, Eric; Smith, Marc
- Abstract
This study addresses 3 research questions in the context of online political discussions: What is the distribution of successful topic starting practices, what characterizes the content of large thread-starting messages, and what is the source of that content? A 6-month analysis of almost 40,000 authors in 20 political Usenet newsgroups identified authors who received a disproportionate number of replies. We labeled these authors “discussion catalysts.” Content analysis revealed that 95 percent of discussion catalysts' messages contained content imported from elsewhere on the web, about 2/3 from traditional news organizations. We conclude that the flow of information from the content creators to the readers and writers continues to be mediated by a few individuals who act as filters and amplifiers.
- Subjects
INTERNET forums; USENET (Computer network); CONTENT analysis; CONTENT filters (Computer science); INFORMATION theory
- Publication
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 2009, Vol 14, Issue 4, p771
- ISSN
1083-6101
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01470.x