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Motives for Active Participation in Political Blogs: A Qualitative and Quantitative

Analysis of Eight German Blogs
Kathrin Greuling and Thomas Kilian
Social Science Computer Review 2014 32: 221 originally published online 31 October 2013
DOI: 10.1177/0894439313508611

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Non-Symposium Article
Social Science Computer Review
2014, Vol. 32(2) 221-237
ª The Author(s) 2013
Motives for Active Participation Reprints and permission:
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in Political Blogs: A Qualitative DOI: 10.1177/0894439313508611
ssc.sagepub.com
and Quantitative Analysis of
Eight German Blogs

Kathrin Greuling1 and Thomas Kilian1

Abstract
Blogs play an important role in political communication and in forming the opinions of political actors
and politically interested users. Their ability to facilitate active interaction, present opinions,
mobilize voters, and thereby, influence public opinion and eventually election outcomes makes
political blogs an interesting research subject. Thus, this article draws upon a qualitative content
analysis to reveal the readers’ motivations and main themes to post comments and get involved in
the discussions on political blogs. We analyze 12 blog discussions (500 pages) in eight left-leaning
German political blogs and use qualitative content analysis to develop a category scheme com-
prising of 3,868 codings. We find that social interaction with other blog users is the main motive
for blogging on German political blogs together with the desire for the exchange of further infor-
mation and analysis, and the expression of the own opinion concerning the subject. Moreover,
we classify 191 users by their motivations for blogging using cluster analysis and identify the
bloggers’ different communication roles. By providing insight into the users’ political discussions,
motives for participation, and communication roles, we clarify the role that political blogs play in
the process of forming political opinion and derive implications for politics.

Keywords
political blogs, motives, participation, interaction, communication roles

Introduction
Access to political information is crucial for political participation and is conducive to transparency
and democracy (e.g., Griffiths, 2004). Recently, blogs and online discussion forums have gained
attention in research on political communication and opinion formation (Davis, 2005; Johnson &
Kaye, 2009; Meraz, 2013; Sobkowicz & Sobkowicz, 2012; Zhang, Johnson, Seltzer, & Bichard,
2010). For politically interested persons, blogs are a medium to inform themselves on political topics
and to interact with each other to fulfill social needs by exchanging opinions (Lawrence, Sides, &

1
Institute for Management, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany

Corresponding Author:
Kathrin Greuling, Institute for Management, University of Koblenz-Landau, Universitaetsstrasse 1, 56070 Koblenz, Germany.
Email: greuling@uni-koblenz.de

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222 Social Science Computer Review 32(2)

Farrell, 2010; Rojas & Puig-i-Abril, 2009). In blogs, the blog’s author publishes his articles that are
then commented on and discussed by the blog’s users. The opportunity to actually observe and (from
the political actors’ perspective) intervene those interactions makes political blogs an interesting
research subject. From the content of the user’s political discussions can be inferred the users’
motives for participation and the possible consequences of interaction on political blogs. Prior
research has focused on the motivations for reading blogs (Kaye, 2005; Kaye & Johnson, 2002;
Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, & Swartz, 2004; Papacharissi, 2003; Trammell, Tarkowski, &
Hofmokl, 2004), but mostly they only examine content and motivations in general, for example,
across different kinds of blogs or discussion forums. Other research is interested in the degree of
interaction, or the tone and style of participation, but they do not bring together different dimensions,
or do not combine qualitative and quantitative approaches (e.g., Ainsworth, Hardy, & Harley, 2005;
Hagemann, 2002; Papacharissi, 2004; Sæbø, Rose, & Molka-Danielsen, 2010). Hence, there is still a
significant research gap in how and why people are actively participating in political blogs using
different methods to be able to derive more implications for political governance.
Therefore, in this article, we first analyze the content of blog discussions among 191 users in
left-leaning German political blogs. We conduct a qualitative textual analysis to deduce the readers’
motivations and main themes to post comments and get involved in the discussions on political
blogs. Second, we classify the commentators by their motivations for active participation using
cluster analysis and identify different communication roles of bloggers. By providing insight into
the users’ political discussions, motives for participation, and communication roles, we clarify the
role that political blogs play in the process of forming political opinion and derive implications for
politics. Our approach differs from prior research because we concentrate on the content generated
by blog users and complement the qualitative results by using the quantitative cluster analysis. Thus,
our main contribution is that we classify the commentators.
Specifically, we answer the following research questions:

 Research Question 1: Which motives for posting comments on political blog entries do
exist?
 Research Question 2: Do the motives for active participation and the main themes differ
from prior research that did not focus on political blogs?
 Research Question 3: Which type and degree of interaction, and which communication tone
and style can be found in discussions on political blogs?
 Research Question 4: Are there different communication roles among the blog users based
on the codings for the motives and the main themes for getting involved?
 Research Question 5: Is there a high extent and concentration of participation, that is, which
users are posting how often and how much?

The findings of our studies may be highly relevant for blog providers and political actors such as
political parties, for example, to identify political trends, relevant topics, opinion leaders, and to
influence public opinions and election outcomes.

Theoretical Background
Political Blogs
Blogs are web pages with entries posted by an individual or an author group that can be more or less
professional, providing online commentary, periodically updated, and presented in reverse chrono-
logical order (e.g., Wright & Hinson, 2008). They typically comprise texts, images, and hyperlinks
to other online sources. In the meantime, many blogs developed to professionally edited interactive

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Greuling and Kilian 223

platforms that are more and more hosted by multiauthor groups (e.g., Mutum & Wang, 2010). There
are different types of blogs, for example, personal blogs written by an individual like a diary,
organizational blogs for business purposes, or micro blogs with only very short pieces of digital
information. Blogs can vary regarding their content and technological features, but often they cover
one subject and so they can be distinguished, for example, by genres.
One genre is formed by political blogs. They are issue-oriented, influential online discussion for-
ums, which differ from traditional media particularly by their interactivity, number of perspectives,
open access to everybody, and (depending on the blog) deeper or at least additional, latest informa-
tion (Banning & Trammell, 2006; Johnson & Kaye, 2003, 2009, 2010). More characteristics of blogs
that can be used as criteria for differentiation depending on the type of blog, the subject of the blog,
and the individual characteristics of recipients are the writing style, the fairness or unfairness, the
balance or inbalance, the objectivity or subjectivity, depth of information, lower or higher credibil-
ity, cheapness and simplicity of use, and more or less accuracy (De Zúñiga, Puig-I-Abril, & Rojas,
2009; Johnson et al., 2007). On the one hand, political blogs could be seen as fairer, more balanced,
and more objective compared to a traditional newspaper because they offer more perspectives and
opinions of a broad user community to the public sphere (e.g., Johnson & Kaye, 2009). On the other
hand, they could be judged as less fair, less balanced, and more subjective, taking into consideration
that political blogs are driven by one blogger or a small number of bloggers as well as by strategic or
economic interests of the bloggers. Moreover, as mentioned above, not only the type of the content
and the websites’ features affect those dimensions’ evaluations but also the individuals’ character-
istics, such as media competence, media usage frequency, social psychological variables, and demo-
graphics (e.g., Johnson & Kaye, 2009). Thus, blogs can be discussed critically. By observing the
‘‘social networking’’ of the politicians’ targets, we can draw conclusions on the users’ motives for
participation, including their main themes and classify them. Thereby, we derive interesting impli-
cations for politics.

Motivations for Blogging

Overall, there is a lack of research analyzing motivations of blog readers to actively take part in
political discussions in blogs. However, we can draw on research into (1) user-generated content and
the general use of the Internet in the context of political information, (2) blog use in general, (3) the
use of political discussion forums, and (4) the motivation of blog readers to build on and position our
own study.
First, we can build on prior research on the motivations for producing user-generated content in
general that found four needs that are satisfied by activities, such as publishing diaries, expressing
opinions, or uploading photos and videos on the Internet: recognition needs (personal identity, gain
respect and support, create self-confidence, satisfaction, and publish expert knowledge), cognitive
needs (expand knowledge, discover the status quo of society, understand events, and improve one’s
own thinking), social needs (express emotions, share experiences and views, and inform family and
friends about your life), and entertainment needs, like passing the time, curiosity, entertainment, and
following trends (Leung, 2009). Furthermore, the use of the Internet for political information at large
is driven by the motives: guidance (search for political information and consults), entertainment/
social utility (search for political information to relax, to be entertained, and to interact socially
about political issues), convenience (search for political information on the Internet, because it is
easier for them), and information seeking (search for special/very current political information for
purely utilitarian reasons; Johnson & Kaye, 2003). Overall, the studies find similar motives for users
to participate although the wording is in some cases different (e.g., cognitive needs or information
seeking). However, Johnson and Kaye (2003) surprisingly do not find recognition needs as relevant
in their study.

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224 Social Science Computer Review 32(2)

Second, there is a stream of research that is concerned with blog use in general. The focus of this
research is on the content of blogs and the motivations for hosting blogs, but few studies concentrate
on the motivations of blog readers; especially, the reasons why people actively participate in polit-
ical blogs have been largely neglected (e.g., Baumer, Sueyoshi, & Tomlinson, 2008; Davis, 2005).
Some studies only examined the content of blogs and motivations for reading blogs in general, that
is, across different kinds of blogs conducting surveys or interviews asking for the reasons, why par-
ticipants read blogs. The motivations found can be summarized in social need and social interaction
to inform family and friends, self-expression, entertainment, passing the time, information, and pro-
fessional advancement (Kaye, 2005; Kaye & Johnson, 2002; Papacharissi, 2003; Trammell et al.,
2004). Interviews with 23 blog authors identified five similar main motivations for hosting blogs:
documenting one’s life, providing commentary and opinions, expressing deeply felt emotions,
articulating ideas through writing, and forming and maintaining community forums (Nardi et al.,
2004).
However, the motives of the individuals who write comments and discuss articles on political
blogs are still not clear. Since blogs can differ greatly regarding their purposes (e.g., personal vs.
organizational), content (e.g., sports vs. politics), and technological design (e.g., user interface, need
for registration), the investigation and concretization of motives for getting involved into political
discussions is still needed. For example, the main motives for commenting on political blog entries
could differ, in the way that informing family and friends or passing the time could play an inferior
role compared to prior research that examined blogs across different genres (Papacharissi, 2003;
Trammell et al., 2004) or even did not differentiate between different kinds of websites or forums
(Leung, 2009).
Third, some studies have analyzed the blogs’ or postings’ content to evaluate the use and effects
of political discussion forums but they did not adopt a coherent approach (Ainsworth et al., 2005;
Hagemann, 2002; Papacharissi, 2004; Sæbø et al., 2010). This means that they did not take into
consideration various elements, like tone and style, extent and concentration of participation, the
subjects in the discussions, and the degree of interaction together. Our qualitative method will bridge
that gap. Moreover, mostly those studies did not enrich their data by a combination of qualitative and
quantitative methods.
More recent investigations on political discussion forums concentrate on the relationship between
the content of blogs and the ideological affiliation (left-leaning, moderate, and right-leaning) and
practices of participation, measured by amount of sole-authorized sites, length of posts, usage fre-
quency of blogs for mobilization, or differences in their network ties. However, those studies do not
consider the motives and main themes for getting involved in and during political discussions (e.g.,
Meraz, 2013; Shaw & Benkler, 2012). Another study by Sobkowicz and Sobkowicz (2012)
examines the tonality (positive or negative) of the communication in their longitudinal study apply-
ing automatic emotion analysis after categorizing the comment type qualitatively, for example, as
agreement, disagreement, neutral, provocation, and off-topic. This study provides guidance for our
own study regarding our qualitative coding scheme, in particular the comment types’ categories.
Finally, Kim and Johnson (2012) have recently shed some light on the motivation of political blog
readers. With a survey they were able to extract political surveillance or guidance motives, expres-
sion or affiliation, convenience or information seeking, and entertainment as motivations for using
political blogs. Those motivations are similar to those for user-generated content and blog use in
general. However, our research approach is different from this study because ours’ is not based
on a survey but on the ‘‘real-life’’ discussions in political blogs and our outcome differs extremely
since we do provide the commenters’ classification. Our research is beneficial for politics because
individuals’ communication practices affect political knowledge, political efficacy, and online and
offline political participation behavior (e.g., McLeod, Scheufele, & Moy, 1999; Rojas, 2008). In
addition, blog users are highly relevant for politics because the motive to seek information online

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Greuling and Kilian 225

is related to community involvement and political activity (Kwak, Poor, & Skoric, 2006; Shah, Cho,
Eveland, & Kwak, 2005; Taveesin & Brown, 2006).

Data Collection and Method for the Qualitative Study

To achieve our research goals, our study adopts an exploratory mixed-methods approach, which is
common in underresearched fields. First, we selected eight German political blogs that at the time of
the study took place were on top of the German political blog rankings, for example, wikio.org and
deutsche blogcharts.1 Thereby, we assured the samples’ high quality since we did not choose the
blog entries and the respective comments or discussions following them randomly but made sure
that the threads ( ¼ all the comments on one blog entry) stem from the political blogs that were char-
acterized by highest readership numbers, page views per day, daily ad revenues, website backlinks,
likes, shares, comments, and tweets.2 Therefore, we can assume to have data from the most relevant
and influential political blogs in our sample with regard to the German rather small political blogo-
sphere compared to, for example, the United States. Our sample contains (moderate) left-leaning
blogs. Moreover, we considered blogs hosted by one person (e.g., duckhome) versus multiauthor
groups (e.g., netzpolitik.org) and nonprofit blogs hosted by nonprofessionals (e.g., carta, Spiegel-
fechter) as well as blogs run by one or more journalists (e.g., Sprengsatz.de). The continuously very
high ranking of the blog ‘‘Spiegelfechter’’ is why we analyzed five blog entries (and not only one)
and the respective comments from this blog. Furthermore, by that we aimed to foster the homoge-
neity of the quantitative analysis’ sample. In sum, we extracted 12 threads from the eight German
political blogs. One criterion for the selection was that they addressed heterogeneous political issues,
so that we are able to infer the motives for getting involved into the discussion more independently
of the blog entries’ subject. The range of political issues includes anonymity on the Internet, data
protection, discussions about plebiscites, democracy, terrorism, extremism, unconditional basic
income, foreign affairs, and the financial crisis. A second decision criterion was the variety in the
number of comments. They ranged from small (fewer than 10 comments) to large (over 200
comments). Again, this aimed to cover heterogeneous discussions of more and less popular topics
or in other words, of more and less active participation observed. In total, the data material had
approximately 500 pages. The material was collected in two waves, the first eight threads are from
October and November 2010 and the Threads 9 to 12 from September to November 2011. Since the
textual analysis of the second waves’ data material did not reveal new insights and since no new
categories arose from their content, there was no need to amplify the sample. Table 1 presents
detailed information on the blogs and the threads collected.
To analyze the discussions, qualitative content analysis was performed. Qualitative content
analysis is an empirical research method ‘‘for making replicable and valid inferences from texts’’
(Krippendorff, 2004, p. 18). Text passages were attached to categories, which led to a scheme of
codes. Conducting the study in this manner took advantage of the explorative character of qualitative
content analysis by assuring a certain degree of openness, that is, the categories to infer on the
motives for active participation arose out of the content. The analysis was conducted with the help
of MAXQDA, a software tool for qualitative data and textual analyses that supports researchers in
the systematical assignment of codes (contextual categories) to text sections.3 The comment was the
unit of analysis. Text passages were attached to categories, which led to a scheme of codes and sub-
sequently to a classification of the commentators. An important rule in the coding process was that
every argument was only coded once no matter how long it is stretched. Accordingly, each new
argument was newly coded. The initial coding phase consisted of two rounds being performed by
both authors. In the second coding phase, the coders agreed on the final coding scheme. The scheme
that emerged from this open coding process consists of categories that are mutually exclusive and
reliable.

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 Table 1. Overview of the Analyzed Political Blogs and Threads.

226
Type of Number of
Blog/URL Date Text Comments Topic

1 Alles Schall und Rauch September 26, 2011 Comment 30 Reinvestigation of the 09/11
http://alles-schallundrauch.blogspot.de/2011/09/
neue-911-untersuchung-durch.html
2 Carta October 25, 2010 Apostil 16 Anonymity on the Internet
http://carta.info/35454/das-dogma-anonymitaet/
3 Duckhome October 07, 2011 Comment 91 Lafontaine against the dictatorship of the
http://duckhome.de/tb/archives/9568-Oskars- financial markets
Revolutionsaufruf.html
4 Netzpolitik.org November 07, 2011 Comment 30 Federal Constitutional Court against
https://netzpolitik.org/2011/bundesverfassungs Facebook—data protection
gericht-vs-facebook/
5 Oeffinger-freidenker November 15, 2010 Report <10 Foreign deployment of the German
http://oeffingerfreidenker.blogspot.de/2010/11/ armed forces
mal-was-grundsatzlicheszu.html
6 Spiegelfechter October 16, 2010 Apostil >200 Actual situation of the national
http://www.spiegelfechter.com/wordpress/? referendum
s¼MehrþDemokratieþanstattþmehrþPolizei
7 Spiegelfechter October 19, 2010 Comment >50 Study on extreme right-wing attitude in
http://www.spiegelfechter.com/wordpress/? Germany
s¼DerþScho%C3%9Fþistþfruchtbarþnoch
8 Spiegelfechter October 29, 2010 Comment >200 Unconditional basic income
http://www.spiegelfechter.com/wordpress/4413/

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wahnsinn-mit-methode
9 Spiegelfechter November 03, 2010 Apostil 70 Danger through parcel bombs of
http://www.spiegelfechter.com/wordpress/? terrorists
s¼DeutschlandþimþPaketfieber
10 Spiegelfechter October 25, 2011 Comment 134 European financial stability facility
http://www.spiegelfechter.com/wordpress/7091/
der-rettungsplan-der-troika-wird-fehlschlagen-
zeit-fur-das-endspiel#comment-13827
11 Sprengsatz October 23, 2010 Comment 20 Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg or Angela
http://www.sprengsatz.de/? p¼3519 Merkel for Federal Chancellor
12 Weissgarnix October 26, 2010 Report >200 Wikileaks revelations on illegal arms
trade
Greuling and Kilian 227

Findings of the Qualitative Content Analysis

The main aim of the qualitative content analysis was to infer the motives for active participation in blog
discussions from the extracted comments. Thereby, we contribute to our Research Questions 1 to 3. We
clarify the motives and main themes that drive political discussions and find answers to the question of
which types and degree of interaction and which communication tones and styles can be found. By that,
we are able to evaluate the political discussions and determine their effects to derive implications for pol-
itics (e.g., Sæbø et al., 2010). The comments vary in different aspects. First, the length of the comments
varies greatly. Some of them include only two words, whereas others are one or more pages long. Second,
the comments also differ with respect to their content. Some of the comments are written in a serious and
objective way. Others however are more emotional and subjective. Those comments include for example
irony, metaphors, and few even insults toward the author or other commentators. Third, there are com-
ments that formally resemble letters to the editor from newspapers, whereas others include only Internet
jargon, such as ‘‘LOL.’’ As there are several differences in the comments, one can assume that the moti-
vation behind these comments is also different. For instance, someone who writes a comment that is two
pages long obviously exhibits a different motivation from a person who only posts ‘‘LOL.’’ Table 2 pro-
vides an overview of the final coding scheme, the number of codes assigned, and coding examples.
Overall, 3,868 codes were generated in the content analysis of the blog comments. The coding scheme
comprises of six main categories. ‘‘Expression of opinion’’ consisting of 495 codings (12.8%) captures
mostly judgmental expressions on a topic. The next two categories describe the ‘‘social interaction’’
(826, 21.4%) in the discussion with the addressee and the ‘‘type of social interaction’’ (767, 19.8%). The
blog author, who in most cases also participated in the discussion, was coded as a blog user. The category
‘‘social interaction with blog users’’ contains 738 (19.1%) codings. Social interaction with the blog
author was only coded when the authors’ original blog entry was directly referred to (88, 2.3%). The cate-
gory ‘‘type of social interaction’’ includes text fragments that are always directed to other blog users and
has the subcategories ‘‘Agreement’’ (229, 5.9%), ‘‘Disagreement’’ (476, 12.3%), ‘‘Invitation for Further
Comments’’ (49, 1.3%), and ‘‘Insults’’ (13, 0.3%). Those categories were coded to capture the tonality of
the interaction taking place and to identify drivers of the discussion that push the discussion forward by
their invitations for further comments. ‘‘Information and analysis’’ (814, 21.0%) addresses any kind of
knowledge sharing. ‘‘Further information and examples’’ (393, 10.2%) refers to new arguments or exam-
ples that are introduced into the discussion, while ‘‘analysis’’ (301, 7.8%) incorporates conclusions (usu-
ally based on information or arguments). Codes that are ‘‘Off-topic’’ comprising 70 codings (1.8%) stray
from the original blog entry and the subsequent discussion. ‘‘Conspiracy theories’’ (50, 1.3%) attempt to
explain political developments by secret actions by hidden actors or coalitions. ‘‘References’’ (283,
7.3%) are added by blog users to add credibility to the own argument, for instance, by providing links
(142, 3.7%), by citing well-known persons (65, 1.7%), by relating the topic to their own experiences
(29, 0.7%), or by referring to other sources without a link such as movies, books, and law (47, 1.2%).
The own experiences incorporate examples that could be also categorized as ‘‘further information.’’
However, the self-exposure motive led us to create a new subcategory. To further enrich our data, we
also coded rhetorical devices used in blog discussions, especially stylistic devices (683, 17.7%). The
comments included irony (245, 6.3%), metaphors (223, 5.8%), rhetorical questions (165, 4.3%), and
some swearwords (50, 1.3%). These stylistic devices are used to improve understanding, for emphasis
and to heat up the discussion. Some bloggers use ‘‘personalizations’’ (241, 6.2%) for the same reason.
Summing up, we can state that social interaction with other blog users is the main motive for
getting involved into political discussions together with the desire for the exchange of further infor-
mation and analysis concerning the subject. Participators want to express their opinion on the polit-
ical issue and mostly their disagreement to other commenters’ posts. By doing so, they use a lot of
stylistic devices and references and personalize their posts to add credibility (e.g., Sobkowicz &
Sobkowicz, 2012), show their eloquence, and enrich the discussions.

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228 Social Science Computer Review 32(2)

Table 2. Final Coding Scheme (3,868 Codings).

Main Category Number of

and Subcategory Example Codes

Expression of Opinion ‘‘The biggest mistake is to put the banks on the driver’s seat’’ 495 (12.8%)
Social interaction 826 (21.4%)
with author ‘‘Thanks to the author for his readable report.’’ 88 (2.3%)
with blog users ‘‘@Lennard ( . . . ) 738 (19,1%)
Type of social interaction 767 (19.8%)
Agreement ‘‘Full approval!’’ 229 (5.9%)
Disagreement ‘‘You simply didn’t get him right‘‘ 476 (12,3%)
Invitation for further ‘‘Anything I misunderstand there? Any lawyer here’’ 49 (1.3%)
comments
Insults ‘‘Please do not make conclusions about others based on yourself, 13 (0.3%)
thanks.’’
Information and analysis 814 (21.0%)
Further information and ‘‘It is often not only evil banks that own these papers but also 393 (10.2%)
examples insurance companies or pension funds.’’
Analysis ’’Most terrorists that decide to join the jihad do so by their own 301 (7.8%)
will. Anger might be a catalyst but at the beginning of their
journey stands an act of free will.’’
Off-topic ‘‘By the way: There are an incredible number of new 70 (1.8%)
developments in renewable energy that most people don’t
know of ( . . . ). (Blog Article is on civic participation.’’
Conspiracy theories ‘‘That the government is lying should be clear to the last retard. 50 (1.3%)
And the last ones who haven’t recognized this yet (or simply
don’t want to) are working in media companies.’’
References 283 (7.3%)
Links ‘‘Here is the photo proof: http://p4.focus.de/img/gen/O/Z/ 142 (3.7%)
HBOZyjnT_Pxgen_r_1100xA.jpg’’
To citations/sayings ‘‘Anyone who wants to drain a swamp should not ask the frogs.’’ 65 (1.7%)
To others (movies, books, ‘‘ . . . in his movie ‘Breaking The Waves’’’ 47 (1.2%)
poems, songs, and law) ‘‘By the way: this is also regulated by the § 203 StGB.’’
Own experience ‘‘Because at my school actually everybody improved by the 29 (0.7%)
centralized baccalaureate, a 1,0 was feasible.’’
Stylistic devices 683 (17.7%)
Metaphor/image ‘‘Disciples of financial capital’’ 223 (5.8%)
Swearword ‘‘Damned’’ 50 (1.3%)
Rhetorical question ‘‘What should he do at those times?’’ 165 (4.3%)
Irony ‘‘You request the impossible, that would be work and work is 245 (6.3%)
ugh!’’
Personalization ‘‘Or the German newspapers could launch a story that Osama bin 241 (6.2%)
Laden or the undead Saddam Hussein are behind the landslide
in Thuringia.)’’

Method for the Quantitative Analysis

The content analysis generated detailed information about the motivations for active participation in
political blogs. Since our coding scheme captures not only the bloggers’ motives and main themes
but also the comments’ communication tone and style (e.g., agreement, disagreement, off-topic), and the
bloggers’ interactions (e.g., links and references), we sophisticate our data by categorizing the commen-
ters based on our coding scheme. Thereby, we answer the Research Questions 4 and 5 regarding who is
how and to what extent participating in political discussions driven by which motives (e.g., expression of
opinion) and what degree of interaction (e.g., references) can be ascribed to the different clusters.

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Greuling and Kilian 229

To determine whether and which communication roles exist, we conducted a hierarchical cluster
analysis. A cluster analysis is an ‘‘empirical method for classification’’ (Punj & Stewart, 1983). The
aim of a cluster analysis is to divide the data up into meaningful subgroups on the basis of their simi-
larity, even if the number of possible subgroups or other information about the composition is
unknown (Bordia & DiFonzo, 2004; Fraley & Raftery, 1998; Romesburg, 2004). This procedure has
also been adopted by Bordia and Rosnow (1998) in the context of the discussions on rumors. To be
able to work with a homogenous database for clustering, we used only the five threads ( ¼ all the
comments on the blog entries) from the blog called ‘‘Spiegelfechter’’ that consisted of 191 users that
had one or more comments and exported them to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).
We ordered the comments by commentator manually and used the categories of the coding scheme
reported above as measures for the clustering of the 191 users. Additionally, we subsequently coded
the sum of codes, the amount of comments, the total words, and the average number of words per
comment per blog user to capture the different clusters’ extent and concentration of participation.
We aggregated the categories references and stylistic devices to reduce the number of variables
because in the cluster analysis we were no longer interested in the details, for example, where the
bloggers refer to but if there are distinct users that use references and stylistic devices more or less.
An overview of our variables that are adequate for the evaluation of political discussion forums,
because mostly they have been previously used (Sæbø et al., 2010), is shown in Table 3. How and
why the categories were developed is described in the qualitative part of our article. The data were
standardized by variables and cases as suggested by Bordia and Rosnow (1998). We used squared
Euclidean differences as the distance measure, and selected the linkage between groups as the clus-
tering method. To determine the optimal cluster solution, we used the elbow criterion and chose a
five-cluster solution as the most appropriate representation of the data.

Findings of the Quantitative Analysis

The cluster analysis led to a five-cluster solution (see Table 3). The first cluster contains 75, the
second Cluster 17, the third Cluster 23, the fourth Cluster 26, and the fifth Cluster 50 commenters.
The first and largest cluster (n ¼ 75) is called the ‘‘skeptical populace,’’ because compared to the
other four clusters their conversations contain almost no analyses during political discussions and on
average the lowest number of words per comment. Moreover, they use a lot of stylistic devices, refer
the most to other sources, and insult other commentators the most. This fraction is characterized by
the most off-topic comments and conspiracy theories. If they participate, they just deliver some
information and examples or their own opinion quite shortly. Cluster 1 is probably the less politi-
cally involved and shows less political expertise than the other actively participating blog readers
because they create rather short comments (lowest in average number of words per comments, see
Table 3). Since their attitude is rather skeptical and shiftless they were called the skeptical populace.
Cluster 2 (n ¼ 17) was named the ‘‘political networkers.’’ Political networkers provide the most
information without the need to refer to other online sources. Because they disagree and agree
frequently and because they invite for further comments, write the most often and the longest
comments, we think this is kind of a peer group for political actors. They analyze half as much
as Cluster 3 and they are characterized by a more neutral communication style. Because their mean
in interaction with other commentators is outstanding (see Table 3), we assume that social interac-
tion with other politically affiliated citizens is their main motive for active participation on political
blogs. They differ the most from Cluster 3 through their outbalanced communication style, their
need for social interaction, and less analyses.
The third cluster (n ¼ 23) could reflect the ‘‘political campaigners.’’ They like to express their
opinion and analyze the most. They enrich their conversations with stylistic devices and personalize
their comments by name-dropping of politicians, which stands for their talent in campaigning.

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230 Social Science Computer Review 32(2)

Table 3. Results of the Cluster Analysis (With 5 Threads and 191 Users).

Cluster 1: Cluster 2: Cluster 3: Cluster5:

Main Category Skeptical Political Political Cluster 4: Unsuspicious
and Subcategory Populace Networkers Campaigners Yes-Men Mass
¼ Categories of Analysis (n ¼ 75) (n ¼ 17) (n ¼ 23) (n ¼ 26) (n ¼ 50)

Expression of opinion 1.77 2.29 3.91*** 1.12 1.30

Social interaction
With author 0.05 0.12 0.13 1.27*** 0.00
With blog users 1.84 7.88*** 4.09 1.00 1.08
Type of social interaction
Agreement 0.63 1.94*** 1.09 1.08*** 0.18
Disagreement 1.07*** 4.71*** 2.87 0.96 0.74
Invitation for further comments 0.05 1.18*** 0.04 0.23 0.02
Insults 0.13*** 0.06 0.00 0.00 0.00
Information and analysis
Further information and examples 1.05 3.18 2.78 0.69 0.56
Analysis 0.39 1.82 3.57*** 0.77 0.72
Off-topic 0.44*** 0.00 0.09 0.00 0.04
Conspiracy Theories 0.27* 0.06 0.04 0.08 0.04
References (summarized) 1.47*** 0.71 1.00 0.73 0.28
Stylistic devices (summarized) 2.68 2.29 3.30* 1.69 1.66
Personalization 0.32 0.24 1.39*** 0.58 0.58
Sum of codes 12.16 26.47*** 24.30 10.19 7.20
Amount of comments 3.37 6.82*** 5.30 2.42 1.46
Total words 331.37 742.12*** 573.00 244.04 241.48
Average number of words per 73.41 113.00 104.91 93.54 174.56***
comment

*** ¼ significant p < 0.05. * means not significant.

Moreover, they also provide information and examples and are rather active. Since they seem to be
the most involved and talented ‘‘speakers’’ for a specific political position, they can be distinguished
from Cluster 2. This group of blog readers could contain important opinion leaders and could help
politicians to spread their political messages to generate supportive members.
Active participators in Cluster 4 (n ¼ 26) do express their opinion rarely (lowest mean in the cate-
gory ‘‘expression of opinion,’’ see Table 3) and interact (if they do so) the most with the blog author
and the least with other commenters. Additionally, Cluster 4 is the only one in which agreement
exceeds disagreement. Therefore, Cluster 4 is called the ‘‘yes-men.’’
The last and second largest cluster (n ¼ 50) includes the most inactive fraction of political blog
readers. They contribute very rarely to political discussions on political blogs but if, they write on
average many words per comment with the aim of expressing their own opinion. Unfortunately, their
detailed comments do neither provide any information, nor references, nor analyzes. Their commu-
nication style is neutral and in almost every category—except average number of words—they show
the lowest means. Hence, we call them the ‘‘unsuspicious mass.’’
Overall, the five clusters are characterized by almost negligible levels of interaction with the
author and the expression of personal experiences. The same applies for insults or the use of swear-
words, which seems to be common in political blogs (e.g., Jensen, 2003). In contrast, stylistic
devices were found quite frequently and the lengths of the comments were remarkable. Moreover,
in the analyzed political blog discussions, disagreement with the comment of another blogger is
more frequent than agreement, and direct questions are very rarely asked. Therefore, we suppose
that political blogs are used less as an information but more as a discussion platform for users with

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Greuling and Kilian 231

already formed opinions which corresponds with previous research (Sobkowicz & Sobkowicz,
2012). Furthermore, we can conclude that the concentration of political blog discussions is rather
moderate because the 191 bloggers are distributed in five clusters (n ¼ 75, 17, 23, 26, and 50),
so that not only one cluster represented by one or two individuals drives discussions by generating
content but at least 40 (21%) of the 191 bloggers (Clusters 2 and 3, the political networkers, and the
political campaigners).This is an interesting result because concentration could be assumed to be higher
since the German political blogosphere is rather small compared to other countries, like the United
States. In the following, our findings from the qualitative and quantitative analyses will be interpreted
and discussed.

Discussion
Summary
Through an open coding process, a code system was developed out of the content linking the com-
ment fragments to the categories expression of opinion, social interaction (with author, with blog
users), type of social interaction (agreement, disagreement, invitation for further comments, insults),
information and analysis (further information and examples, analysis, off-topic, conspiracy the-
ories), references (links, citations, own experience, other sources), and stylistic devices (metaphor,
swearword, rhetorical question, irony). Applying the theoretical approach of framing the relation-
ship between given information and a specific context in our case political discussions can be inter-
preted (Gamson & Modigliani, 1987). Framing can be defined as ‘‘a process by which a source
defined the essential problem underlying a particular social or political issue and outlines a set of
considerations purportedly relevant to that issue’’ (Nelson, Clawson, & Oxley, 1997, p. 222).
Framing consists of selecting some aspects of a perceived reality to promote a particular problem,
viewpoint, interpretation, or moral judgment (Cappella & Jamieson, 1997). Thus, in our case, the
blog entries state the problem or issue that is discussed through the following comments. The com-
menters provide their own perspectives on the subject with a certain underlying motivation.
Thereby, we were able to infer their motives and main themes for getting involved in the discussion
out of the comments’ content (see Table 2).
The second aim of our study was to broaden the understanding of the communication roles taken
by the content generating individuals in political discussions on political blogs. In service of this
aim, we investigated the collective social interactions involved in the transmission of current polit-
ical issues and clarified the role of political blogs in the process of forming a political opinion. The
cluster analysis revealed five clusters, which are based on the categories of the coding scheme plus
the additional codings (see Table 3). The first cluster is called the skeptical populace, the second
cluster contains the ‘‘political networkers,’’ the third cluster revealed the ‘‘political campaigners,’’
the fourth cluster includes the yes-men, and the fifth cluster represents the unsuspicious mass.
Our results are distinct from previous research because we examined the German political blogs,
concentrated on content generating blog readers, and extended the qualitative results by using a
quantitative cluster analysis method. In particular, we aimed to bridge the research gap of which
motives and main themes for getting involved in political blog discussions do exist, and who is how
interacting and to what extent participating. Hence, our perspective on active participation is more
differentiated and incorporates a more coherent account of various elements influencing political
discussions than prior research which previous studies have called for (e.g., Sæbø et al., 2010).
Distinguishing the motives of content generating commentators from the motives of passive blog
readers and the classification of the active participators could be highly relevant for political issues,
for example, to identify political trends, relevant topics, opinion leaders/mobilizers/persuaders, and
voters.

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232 Social Science Computer Review 32(2)

Discussing the Bloggers’ Motives, Types of Interaction, and Tone and Style
The content analysis revealed that in political blogs active participation seems to be mainly moti-
vated by the need for social interaction with other blog users (Papacharissi, 2003), the need for the
exchange of information (Johnson & Kaye, 2003), the need to inform others, and the need for
expressing one’s own opinions, mostly as disagreement (Sobkowicz & Sobkowicz, 2012; Trammell,
2006) with others, and partly even in the manner of a self-portrayal (e.g., Trammell et al., 2004).
Thus, our analysis mainly supports results of previous research on motivation to use blogs or on
political forums. Self-portraying may be exhibited, because political issues are a conviction for those
who are politically engaged and therefore these individuals enjoy conveying information to others
and persuading them. By actively participating, they use references and a lot of stylistic devices such
as metaphors, irony, long comments, a civilized communication style (Jensen, 2003), and persona-
lize their posts to add credibility, show their eloquence, and enrich the discussions. Furthermore,
being politically interested could be seen as an element of a lifestyle or a means for individualization
that incorporates being well educated (Kaye, 2005). However, we did not find any signals of enter-
tainment, in contrast to, for example, Ancu and Cozma (2009), who investigated the uses and grat-
ifications of accessing political candidate sites on MySpace, since not one of the bloggers wrote
something like ‘‘that’s fun or entertaining’’ or ‘‘I just want to spent some time, relax, avoid boredom
etc. by posting something on political blogs.’’ Another hint for that conclusion is that we did not find
a lot of emotionally charged conversation, for example, insults or swearwords. This does not mean
that political blogs are not entertaining for politically engaged users, but they do not communicate
that directly. The few insults and swearwords during the conversations seem to separate political
blogs from other platforms such as Twitter, where outrages have become a problem especially for
politicians. Moreover, the information-seeking motive (Johnson & Kaye, 2003) clearly plays an
important role in the decision to visit and read political blogs, but in our case, in which active
participation was analyzed, information seeking in form of asking directly for specific information
was not present because the questions we found were mainly rhetorical with no real interest in an
answer. Hence, commentators are seemingly not actively seeking information but more sharing their
knowledge by discussing already formed opinions (e.g., Sobkowicz & Sobkowicz, 2012). This find-
ing could also lead to the assumption that political blogs are kind of a ‘‘secondary’’ medium hobby
politicians frequent if they know something and would like to discuss it with others rather than to use
political blogs as a ‘‘primary’’ source of information, like a newspaper.

Discussing the Communication Roles, Degree of Interaction, Extent

and Concentration of Participation
Regarding our five-cluster solution we can conclude that overall, on political blogs we find rather
factual, issue-oriented discussions and comments (e.g., not much off-topic information). Across all
of the clusters, excluding Cluster 4, disagreement is more common than agreement, which is in part
necessary for a discussion and shows that active participants already have firm attitudes and convic-
tions on political issues that will likely not change (Sobkowicz & Sobkowicz, 2012). We could also
interpret disagreement as kind of a critical attitude or potentially as a sort of discontent with contem-
porary politics and therefore as a chance for politics to identify specific subjects politicians should
put more emphasis on in their communication activities. Additionally, bloggers are interested in
showing their high status, eloquence, and passion for politics with long comments and stylistic
devices. This is consistent with Leung (2009) who characterized bloggers as an empowered elite
with the knowledge and interpersonal skills for blogging. The partly high usage of references that
resemble a high degree of interaction (Cluster 1) and the long narrative posts (overall) could be
ascribed to the blogs ideological affiliation (left-wing) we are analyzing (Shaw & Benkler, 2012).

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Greuling and Kilian 233

Moreover, the extent of participation (frequency of postings) varies among the clusters and is highest
for the political networkers and the political campaigners but the concentration of participation
(number of actively participating bloggers) is moderate because 21% are generating the content that
is similar to the findings of Shaw and Benkler (2012).
According to previous studies that analyzed communication roles in the spread of rumors and
came up with communication roles, such as ‘‘messengers,’’ ‘‘interpreters’’ (Shibutani, 1966, p.
15), or ‘‘skeptical disbelievers,’’ ‘‘investigators,’’ and ‘‘information providers’’ (Bordia & Di Fonzo,
2004, p. 39; Bordia & Rosnow, 1998, p. 172), we find some parallels: Cluster 1 could represent
‘‘positivistic communicators,’’ who justify their own commentaries by facts and references, for
example, to the media, news, or experts, because they are highest in using references. Cluster 2 could
refer to ‘‘messengers and information providers,’’ because they bring the most information and
examples into the discussion, and Cluster 3 could represent the ‘‘interpreters,’’ who deliver contexts,
evaluate the information (verifying, falsifying, and accepting), and speculate on implications for the
future. We also found a counterpart for ‘‘skeptical and apprehensive disbelievers,’’ who do not
believe in the rumor and question the given information and commentaries, the yes-men, who do
not question anything. Thus, we find some parallels in communication roles and information
processes in discussions on rumors and political issues that probably both serve as a mean to reduce
uncertainty and distrust. A theoretically underpinning for this assumption comes from explanation
theory and the corresponding social explanation processes, which posits that the reduction of uncer-
tainty and distrust are the main drivers for communication in general. Accordingly, the dynamics of
problem solving follow various steps: If a person notices a problem or an uncertain event he or she
first searches for some explanation, for example, by turning to other people. Second, he/she engages
(if the motivation is high enough) in problem formulation and the collection of further information
by mainly automatic mechanisms and by heuristic approaches (e.g., prior blog usage, prior experi-
ences). Third, the problem is interpreted and solutions are generated and evaluated (Krull & Ander-
son, 1997). Consequently, communication processes and roles should not differ substantially across
contexts as we can support by our data. However, this issue requires further research.

Implications for Politics

The cluster solution can be also used as a first step in segmenting target groups to be addressed by
political actors (politicians, parties, or nongovernment organizations) to convince them of their
political ideas and to use them to disseminate those ideas (e.g., Sæbø et al., 2010). The first cluster,
the ‘‘skeptical populace,’’ can be described as the least factual and analytical segment that is less
interested and participating in politics compared to ‘‘political networkers’’ or ‘‘political cam-
paigner.’’ Cluster 1 refers the most to other references and sources and thereby shows a high degree
of interaction bloggers on the left are characterized by. Cluster 1 writes the shortest comments prob-
ably because they are less politically involved and they have less political expertise. Thus, they
could be an interesting ‘‘new’’ target group for political campaigns since they could be influenced
or convinced more easily because they seem to have weaker political attitudes compared to Clusters
2 and 3. However, political actors should probably first concentrate on bloggers in Clusters 2 and 3,
since the ‘‘political networkers’’ and ‘‘political campaigners’’ are more politically engaged and iden-
tify themselves through politics. Moreover, the main motive for active participation on political
blogs for ‘‘political networkers’’ is social interaction with other politically engaged persons. Thus,
they communicate a lot and could be actively used to spread political ideas. The ‘‘political cam-
paigners’’ (Cluster 3) like to express their opinion, analyze, and enrich their conversations with sty-
listic devices and personalization by name-dropping of politicians. They are talented in
campaigning. Moreover, they also provide information and examples and are together with Cluster
2 the most active. This group of blog readers could contain important opinion leaders and could help

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234 Social Science Computer Review 32(2)

political actors to not only spread but also generate support for their ideas since they analyze more
and therefore are likely to come up with more elaborated argumentations. Against that, the ‘‘yes-
men’’ play an inferior role for the dissemination of political ideas but nevertheless could be seen
as supportive political members since they do not disagree with authorities. The last cluster includes
the most inactive fraction of political blog readers. The ‘‘unsuspicious mass’’ can be seen as the least
important target group for political campaigns since they are rarely participating (lowest mean val-
ues in sum of codes and amount of comments, see Table 3), but maybe they could be convinced to
passively support political ideas or to become the voters of tomorrow.
Furthermore, prior research has shown that individual characteristics, such as political competence
or knowledge, which the ‘‘political networkers and the political campaigners’’ seem to be character-
ized by, are highly correlated with offline political engagement (Kwak et al., 2006; McLeod et al.,
1999; Rojas, 2008; Shah et al., 2005; Taveesin & Brown, 2006). Besides, studies suggest that political
blog use enhances (online) political participation, such as online campaigning (De Zúñiga et al., 2009;
Farrell, & Drezner, 2008; Lawrence et al., 2010). Moreover, psychological empowerment, which the
above-mentioned cluster members likely exhibit, is linked to civic engagement (Katz & Rice, 2002;
Price, 1990; Zhang et al., 2010; Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988). In other countries, especially in the
United States, the proportion of blog users is far higher than in Germany and is still growing; hence,
defining blog users as target groups for political campaigns is even more relevant in those countries
(De Zúñiga et al., 2009; Ward, Owen, Davis, & Taras, 2008). By following blogs and actively parti-
cipating in blogs, political actors could be able to govern the transmission of information in a better
way and could intervene in the discussion at the right moment, for example, to clarify issues, reduce
the possibility of negative word of mouth, or to fasten the dissemination of political ideas (Sobkowicz
& Sobkowicz, 2012). They could thereby promote their political ideas to an additional and most likely
opinion-leading and mobilizing audience that is hard or harder to reach with traditional media (e.g.,
Leung, 2009). Given that, in the future, politics and democratic processes increasingly move online
in all countries, the Internet and blogs will gain relevance. A broadened knowledge concerning
motives behind active participation can help encourage bloggers and users to comment and use those
platforms (e.g., Leung, 2009). Thus, the diversity of political information and perspectives can be
increased to foster democracy (e.g., Meraz, 2013).

Implications for Future Research

Future, survey-based quantitative research should test the findings of our qualitative study: Are
social interaction, self-expression, and enlightenment really the main motives for getting involved
in political discussions? Are entertainment needs really rather unimportant for political blog users?
Further investigations could compare the communication style that we found to be rather civilized in
German political blog discussions to other kind of blogs (e.g., sports or fashion) and political blogs
in other countries. Our coding scheme derived in the qualitative analysis could be enriched by
coding for positive and negative connotations, especially in the expression of opinion and analysis
and further information categories. This could help determine whether comments with positive or
negative connotations generate increased participation in blog discussions and would add another
facet to the cluster analysis. Moreover, the diversity of political issues and variety in the comments
represent a challenging database when determining similarities and communication roles. The data
set was limited to 8 blogs, 12 blog entries, and 191 bloggers, a small part of the blogosphere. Further
research is needed to address those limitations.
Future studies could also focus on the chronological sequence in blog discussions to find patterns
in the political discussions within social networks to derive deeper information about the informa-
tion transmission process in blogs. Additionally, the original blog entry and the first few posted com-
ments seem to play an important role, and therefore the early commenters and comments could be

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Greuling and Kilian 235

included in future studies to clarify roles and patterns. Another interesting issue for further research
could be a psychological approach, in which the relationship between the personal characteristics or
prerequisites of being a ‘‘political campaigner’’ and/ or a ‘‘political networker’’ are investigated and
related to other individual characteristics, such as empowerment, self-efficacy, or self-esteem.
Future research could focus on the role of credibility in blogs compared to other media formats.
Trust in the blog author and trust in the political system and its politicians could be a consequence
of interacting on political blogs. Thereby, it will be possible to further clarify the role of political
blogs in the process of forming political opinion and their possible influence on political trust.

Authors’ Notes
The article has not been published or simultaneously submitted for other publications.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article.

Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: Our work on this article was supported by the Research Network Communication, Media and
Politics (KoMePol) at the University of Koblenz-Landau.

Notes
1. In the meanwhile, wikio.org is called ebuzzing and can be found at http://labs.ebuzzing.co.uk/top-blogs/pol-
itics. Another ranking is http://www.deutscheblogcharts.de/archiv/2011-8.html
2. http://www.freewebsitereport.org/www.spiegelfechter.com; http://www.seethestats.com/site/duckhome.de/
STSUv0HdDWG
3. For detailed information, see also http://www.maxqda.com/max3/b.htm

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Author Biographies
Kathrin Greuling is a research assistant in the Institute for Management, University of Koblenz-Landau,
Germany. Her research interests include media psychology especially nostalgia in media products. She may
be reached at greuling@uni-koblenz.de.
Thomas Kilian is an assistant professor for Media and Service Management in the Institute for Management,
University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. His research interests include media and service psychology and the
management of social media. He may be reached at kilian@uni-koblenz.de.

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