Self-Segregation or Deliberation? Blog Readership, Participation, and Polarization in American Politics

Political scientists and political theorists debate the relationship between participation and deliberation among citizens with different political viewpoints. Blogs provide an important testing ground for their claims. We examine deliberation, polarization, and political participation among blog readers. We find that blog readers gravitate toward blogs that accord with their political beliefs. Few read blogs on both the left and right of the ideological spectrum. Furthermore, those who read leftwing blogs and those who read rightwing blogs are ideologically far apart. Blog readers are more polarized than either non-blog-readers or consumers of various television news programs, and roughly as polarized as US Senators. Blog readers also participate more in politics than non-blog readers. Readers of blogs of different ideological dispositions do not participate less than those who read only blogs of one ideological disposition. Instead, readers of both leftand rightwing blogs and readers of exclusively leftwing blogs participate at similar levels, and both participate more than readers of exclusively rightwing blogs. This may reflect social movement-building efforts by leftwing bloggers. What is the relationship between blogs—regularly updated web pages consisting of posts in reverse chronological order—and political behavior? This has been the topic of much debate among commentators and increasingly among political scientists (Farrell and Drezner 2008). These debates have focused on two key questions. First, do political blogs—blogs that focus on the daily ebb and flow of national, state, and local politics–facilitate deliberation? Some political theorists (Cohen 1989, Fishkin 1995) idealize deliberation among individuals with diverse perspectives. They claim that deliberation may help individuals refine their own opinions, develop greater tolerance for different opinions, and perhaps identify common ends and means. Deliberation theorists often deplore the perceived polarization of American politics, which they believe leads to hardened opinions, diminishing tolerance for opposing points of view, and increasing dissensus (Fishkin and Ackerman 2004). Second, do blogs stimulate political participation? High levels of political participation are routinely lauded as a vital element of healthy democracy (e.g., Putnam 2000, Skocpol 2003). As Macedo et al. (2005) contend, increased participation and civic engagement are likely to lead to more responsive politics, more legitimate politics, and improvements in the quality of citizens’ lives. The problem, however, is that deliberation and participation may be at odds. Mutz (2006) finds that exposure to competing points of view in one’s personal network is associated with increased tolerance for opposing views but decreased levels of political participation. This poses a “disturbing dilemma” for notions of citizenship: we would like citizens both to be enthusiastic participants in politics and to respect diverse perspectives. Mutz suggests that there may be no good way to accomplish both ends. This dilemma is more acute in this age of expanding media choice, which as Prior (2007) argues, affects both political polarization and participation. Individuals with little interest in politics can more easily avoid political news and are therefore less politically knowledgeable and less likely to participate in politics. In contrast, those interested in politics will consume news and become more politically informed by doing so. Politics as a whole becomes more polarized because those with little interest in politics—those who are now becoming less and less involved in politics—tend to be less partisan and more ideologically moderate. If this polarization is