The Singapore Political Blogosphere:

What form of public sphere?

cssem@leeds.ac.ukSteven McDermottInstitute of Communications Studies

Arbitrarily Combining the Social Network Approach with the Ethnographic Approach

Steven McDermottInstitute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds

Communication Networks on the Web, 18-19 Dec 2008.

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Outline

• Introduction – Social Network Analysis & Ethnography

• Methodological Issues• Structuralism & Culture• Formal Technique• American Social Network Analysis• Actor-Network Theory• Castells’ Position• Hardt and Negri• The Case Study - Singapore blogosphere• Using Technology in Social Research• Ethnography• My Current Position• Discussion

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Introduction

• Combining the structural approach of network analysis with the ethnographic approach is laden with dangers and potentiality.

• Lin et al (2006) – using structural social network approach have defined the Singapore blogosphere as a “community with no obvious central topic”.

• Closed off from the wider global network of bloggers.• Rarely do we find a community or network that is

absolutely isolated, having no outside contact.• It is hoped that combining SNA with Ethnography, in

this case study of the Singapore blogosphere, will help to highlight the theoretical and methodological dangers and potentiality.

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Methodological Issues

• Deleuze and Guattari (2004) present us with a model of knowledge and perception known as rhizome.

• The rhizomatic model of knowledge according to Cavanagh (2007:43) results in a network model that appears to be chaotic.

• The rhizomatic network works on the principles that any point in the network can be and is connected to every other point in the network.

• The logic of the connection in the rhizomatic network is movement.

• There is no hierarchy; no node takes precedence over another. The order is in constant flux with total inclusiveness. 4

Structuralism & Culture

• The main concern regarding the utility of Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizomatic network is that it is a philosophical position rather than a method for studying hyperlinks.

• Knox et al. (2006) argue that network methods map roles comprehensibly and this results in the incorrect assumption that they have delineated the ‘real’ social structures.

• Social Network Analysis’ focus on structuralism has in recent years shifted to attempts at developing a cultural approach. Influenced by social movements researchers such as Ansell (1997), Bearman (1995), Gould (1995), and Mische (2003).

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Formal Technique

• SNA is a formal mathematical technique for analysing relational data.

• The relations are not properties of the agents themselves, but of systems of parts that connect the pairs of agent into bigger relational systems (Scott, 2000).

• Regions are regarded as constraints or boundaries. The boundaries are the ‘forces’ that determine group behaviour.

• I prefer to argue that these emergent properties may or may not appear in a given context.

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American Social Network Analysis

• The same ‘emergent properties’ that Scott (2000) refers to are under ASNA regarded not as constraints but as facilitators.

• Social capital in this instance is seen as the emergent property, that facilitates agency.

• However, individual components retain their pre-existing identities.

• Agents are not shaped by the structural properties.

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Actor-Network Theory

• Again the network is said to facilitate the flow of information.

• The nodes of a network are potentially equal in terms of power or influence.

• The ‘forces’ (emergent properties) that shape the network are generated by the network via the interplay of the parts of the network.

• The network as a whole, is an agent, it does not contain fixed properties but rather emergent properties.

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Castells’ Position

• Networks are exclusionary and particular, not universal.• The network is regarded as an agent in its own right.• Yet it is still dependent on all parts according to Castells

(2000).• It is this dependence on all parts that is vital for its

continuation.• The heterogeneity is essential/vital for its continued

existence.• These global networks operate according to global

imperatives that make them globally orientated in order to maintain the interests of the elite.

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Hardt and Negri

• The network form is the form of power in contemporary society.

• They argue that the network is plural, inclusive and yet always contested.

• They argue that it is the component parts that act not the network as a whole.

• Power is distributed variably, unevenly and indefinitely.• Communication is not top-down but between the various

component parts.• It is a network that acts and yet it is agency without an

agent.

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The Case Study

• The Singapore Blogosphere

• I extracted the Social Network using Hyperlink Network Analysis.

• I extracted a corpus of 29 blog posts. Using the social network approach I ask, which blogs are the key players?

• Using the ethnographic approach, I ask what discourses and styles of discourse appear in the Singapore blogosphere?

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The ‘real’ Singapore Blogosphere?

• Lin et al (2006) discovered blogging ‘communities’ based on mutual awareness.

• Using blog ranking and social connections, via hyper links such as comments and trackbacks.

• They have defined the Singapore blogosphere in 2006 as a “community with no obvious central topic”.

• It is also described as rather closed off from the wider global blogging community.

• Using issuecrawler and an initial list of self-declared Singapore political bloggers I generated the following graph.

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Figure 1

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Using Technology in Social Research

• Technology can aid my research however, I am concerned that rather than simply aiding it that the ‘imperatives’ of the technology determine my direction.

• Rather than facilitating my research it might form a boundary that limits my imagination or ability to envisage different understandings.

• Once technology, whether that be issuecrawler, Pajek or the techniques of analysis become fixed in design. The debate might then shift to one regarding the goals of the engineers of that technology.

• The use of blogging technology in Singapore requires at the very least an understanding of the cultural emergent properties that may or may not be operating.

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Ethnography

• Enables the researcher to work out the boundaries of the network by going through the process of gaining access.

• Uncovering the meanings that are pertinent to the individuals involved.

• The political culture of Singapore is framed within the ‘discourse of communitarianism’ (appendix 1, table 1).

• That is ‘shared values’, ‘national interest’, ‘good government’, ‘survivalism’, ‘pragmatism’, ‘political stability, ‘collective interests, ‘social stability’, ‘conservative’ and, ‘economic growth’ (Chua, 1997).

• This style of speech was evident in the textual data I gathered from the self-declared political bloggers.

• I was assigning the boundary of the network based on the discourse of the self-proclaimed political elite.

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• Over time, while I continue as an active member of the Singapore blogosphere, I encounter blogs that are political in nature and yet do not appear on the initial list of self-proclaimed political blogs.

• Individuals have approached me via email and I have co-authored blogs with people before they finally set up blogs on their own.

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From Left to right: Singapore Gay and Lesbian blogosphere 2007: Closeness Centralisation = 0.38918, Betweenness Centralisation = 0.16183; Singapore Social blogosphere 2007: Closeness Centralisation = 0.34469, Betweenness Centralisation = 0.08866.

Figure 2

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My Current Position

• Combining the Singapore gay and lesbian blogosphere, Singapore social blogosphere, a Malaysian speaking group and a Christian group. I used the websites http addresses as seeds.

• I then initiated a crawl, using issuecrawler again.• Which generated the following graph, that contains 1,239

nodes.

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Figure 3 The Singapore Blogosphere 2008: Contains 1,239 nodes. The size of the node represents the Betweenness Centrality (BC), the larger the node the larger the BC score. The black lines are the hyperlink connections between the nodes. 19

Figure 4. The list of 1,239 blogs is in the graph above. The red nodes to the left represent faction 2 in Appendix 2 and are the English-speaking linked blogs. The blue nodes to the right are faction 1 from Appendix 2 and represent the Malay-speaking blogs. The red lines between nodes are hyperlinks between the two factions. Size of node represents Betweenness Centrality score.

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Discussion

• The cultural emergent property of Singapore in 2008 is represented by the two distinct factions – ethnicity.

• English-speaking and Malay-speaking bloggers.• The Singapore blogosphere is not a “community with no

central topic” (Lin et at., 2006).• What appeared in figure 1 was more akin to an

ego-network. It appears isolated from the wider global blogosphere with no links to blogs of other countries appearing.

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• The so-called quantitative elements of social network analysis runs the risk of reducing the network into a metaphor for ‘the masses’, when conducting hyperlink analysis.

• The shift in focus to a cultural approach within Social Network Analysis will undermine the structural dominance.

• However, it will not overcome the problem of upward conflation and the reduction of the agent to that of an epiphenomenon.

• Social structures are emergent properties. Although created by individual actors in the past, they then exert causal influence over individuals.

• Cultural emergent properties are belief systems of individuals of the past but are not reducible to the preferences and actions of individuals acting today.

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• The Social Network Analysis and Ethnographic approaches that I have utilised to date have reduced the agency of individuals to that of mere epiphenomenon.

• Over time individuals may effect changes in social structures and cultural structures.

• The theoretical abstraction of social structure and culture; and agency may prove fruitful.

• Past actions influence future actions by influencing the social context which either enables or constrains others at a later time (Cruickshank, 2000).

• In this paper I have assigned ethnicity as an emergent property in the Singapore blogosphere of 2008.

• My research conflates agency with the wider social structural elements, be they structures resulting from the technology and institutional generative mechanisms or cultural forces, be they ethnicity, race or nationalism.

• The order of the blogs in the ranking in the appendix is in constant flux, with movement and chaos the only position over time that I could commit myself to. 23