The Singapore

Arbitrarily Politicalthe
Combining Blogosphere:
Social
Network
What formApproach
of publicwith the
sphere?
Ethnographic Approach

Steven McDermott Communication Networks on the

cssem@leeds.ac.uk
Institute of Communications Web,Steven
18-19 Dec 2008.
McDermott
Studies, University of Leeds Institute of Communications Studies 1
 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
2
 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 3
methodological dangers and potentiality.
 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).
5
 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.

6
 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.

7
 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.

8
 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.

9
 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.

10
 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?
11
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.

12
Figure 1
13
 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.
14
 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 15
data I gathered from the self-declared political
• 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.

16
 Figure 2

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.

17
 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.

18
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
20
hyperlinks between the two factions. Size of node represents Betweenness
Centrality score.
 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.

21
• 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.
22
• 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 23
chaos the only position over time that I could