Responses to Politically Biased Blog Posts. An Analysis of Comments on a Romanian Journalist’s Blog
Responses to Politically Biased Blog Posts. An Analysis of Comments on a Romanian Journalist’s Blog

Summary/Abstract: This paper proposes to examine some discursive strategies through which ideological bias is negotiated on the journalist’s blog. Blogging is a suitable medium to propagate biased ideas, being recommended by its interactional qualities, as a catalyst of journalist-readers contact. The journalist’s blog “personalizes” the journalist and secondly promotes the media institution that s/he represents (Boicu, 2011c). Essential conditions for efficient political communication attested by statistics are detailed in the analytic framework section: the communicator’s opinion leader ethos, a numerous and consensual community of practice under the communicator’s influence, an ideal communication medium. Given the fact that “Harsh Words” (“Vorbe grele”), Victor Ciutacu’s personal blog, is read both as a means of promoting “Intact Media Group” “ideology” (an informal type of corporate blog) and, as the blogger/journalist’s space of personal marketing, I decided to use this blog as the research corpus (monitoring one blog category for one year). In terms of methodological approach, this study relies on content and discourse analysis, in the sense that verbal interaction within the blogging community is interpreted in the complexity of context (both virtual and real preconditions of communication).The objective of the research is to expose the mechanisms of manipulation through biased communication, under the appearance of dictating strict moral and communication rules specific to blogging.

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