“According to Merriam-Webster, the most requested online definition of 2004 was ‘blog’ – a word that had yet to officially enter the dictionary,” according to BBC News (2004) (as cited in Drezner & Farrell, 2007, p.1). The dictionary proved to be far behind this new trend; the blogosphere was an estimated 1 million strong in 2004 and grew to over 112 million by 2007 ( Karpf, 2008b, p.6). That is a staggering increase, if only the job market and the value of homes could grow at that rate, one can dream.
Those who follow politics have certainly heard about blogs throughout the political discourse, on the internet and from main stream media outlets, yet only ten years ago blogs were practically non-existent in politics. They were about as influential as the lavish drapes that hang in the offices’ of capital hill. In fact, one could argue that the drapes were more influential as they probably out number blogs, which were estimated at less than fifty, total, in 1999 (Drezner & Farrell, 2008). Some political pundints have claimed that blogs have impacted political events ranging from the immigration debate under George W. Bush, the resignation of former Senate majority leader Trent Lott, to the 2008 Presidential elections. However, the question still remains, what impact do they really have on politics? Which party has an edge in the blogosphere? Lastly, are they overtly partisan? These are the questions which will be considered throughout this paper.
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