Following the publication of our updated map of the political web, and in response to some questions we’ve received, here’s a top 5 list of conservative and progressive blogs excerpted from this dataset.

Please note this ranking is based on hyperlinks patterns (inbound links from other sites within the dataset) and does not take into account traffic comments or third-party data.  Feel free to report to the “Map Keys” page under the Map tab.

If you have been paying attention to the health care reform debate, you may have seen the “obamacare” expression creep up in headlines and blog posts…depending on which sites you have been reading.

The graph below is a screenshot from linkfluence’s “linkscape” dashboard, showing the progressive growth of content mentioning obamacare.

Unsurprisingly, this content stems by and large from the conservative side of the web, but has begun spilling over to other communities which, in the case of progressive blogs, are attempting to respond in kind. The more the discussion revolves around obamacare, the more the issue is likely to become personalized and entrenched.

Based on the posts collected through the linkscape dashboard within each community, the following word cloud* shows a very clear-cut picture of the chatter brewing within each community.

In red, expressions from the conservative web, in blue, expressions from the progressive web: rings a bell?

*(we pulled the words and expressions most specific to one community vs. the other and emphasized them to underscore those semantic differences)

Politicosphere.net follows in the footsteps of PresidentialWatch08.com, a site created in 2008 to map the US political web and keep tab on the online pulse of the election.
The election has come and gone, but the political web remains more vibrant than ever. The charts, feeding off of a large sample of political and news sites on the U.S., aim to reflect current trends and discussion topics, as new issues arise on the political agenda. The map of the politicosphere (read the “notice” page for details) represents a large, qualified sample of the most active and authoritative online sources covering politics. It is by no means comprehensive or perfect, but it provides a unique way of navigating the network graph of US politics.
To learn more about linkfluence’s mapping, mining and research services, feel free to contact us.