NEW YORK, May 16, 2005 -- Experimental research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and BuzzMetrics suggests that political bloggers can make an impact on politics, but they often follow the lead of politicians and journalists.

A preliminary report released today, entitled "Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004," employed new word-of-mouth tracking and cross-media correspondence techniques to examine the impact of online buzz on the national agenda during the last two months of the 2004 presidential election. PIP and BuzzMetrics examined the interplay of blogs, online citizen chatter in newsgroups, the mainstream news media and official political spin from the Democrat and Republican election camps. They also conducted a case study of the "Rathergate" scandal involving CBS News and unauthenticated memos about George W. Bush's record in the National Guard.

"The blogosphere is clearly a major addition to the national discourse," said Dr. Michael Cornfield, senior research consultant to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "But we need to be cautious with respect to the power of particular political bloggers. That power waxes and wanes depending on the sort of information available, the behavior of other public voices, and the tendency of Internet forms and formats to evolve in a very short time."

"The Pew and BuzzMetrics multi-channel study on this remarkable period in American politics is the first of its kind, and is helping to build a new framework for understanding buzz and its underlying impact on society," said Jonathan Carson, president and CEO of BuzzMetrics. "With social and media fragmentation, as well as the rapid rise of digital networks, we must ask ourselves what impact is being made on societal institutions like politics, media and our national agenda. We hope our findings will fuel debate and spawn further analysis to better understand these newly observable phenomena."

Political Bloggers Were Buzz Followers as Much as Makers
The researchers charted the popularity of certain topics which attracted buzz during the fall campaign across four channels of communication: blogs, citizen chat rooms, the mainstream media, and the national campaigns. The blog and citizen chat room channels were subdivided into conservative, general, and liberal groupings.

No recurrent pattern indicative of blogger influence was detected. The researchers also coded topics of discussion to see whether preferences in one channel or subdivision corresponded with those in the others. Strong correspondences existed throughout the discourse. However, the analysis also suggests that the bloggers may have been positioned in the fall of 2004 as a sort of guide for the mainstream media to the rest of the Internet.

Bloggers' Key Contribution: Open Forum During the "Rathergate"
For a case study, PIP and BuzzMetrics examined the cross-channel popularity of the "Rathergate" scandal and a set of 396 political blog posts. The research found that a combination of factors - some Internet- and blog-related, some not - created the buzz which spurred CBS News to retract its claim that the memos were authentic and commission an independent review of its journalistic performance. The key contribution from the political bloggers in this case consisted of providing forums accessible to all Internet users in which facsimiles of the memos could be examined and discussed.

About the Report and Research Methodology
The Pew/BuzzMetrics report, titled "Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004," analyzed not only blogs, but their intersection with online citizen chat forums, the mainstream news media and official political spin from the Democrat and Republican election camps. Pew and BuzzMetrics examined the political issues most frequently discussed from September 27, 2004 through October 31, 2004.

The study relied on BuzzMetrics' proprietary Discussion Miner technology to analyze: discussion on 40 top political pundit blogs comprising nearly 20,000 posts; and over two million posts of citizen chatter within liberal, conservative and neutral message boards. In addition, Pew and BuzzMetrics monitored key online sources of output from the Bush and Kerry campaigns as well as DNC and GOP; and sampled 16 major media outlets as a proxy for the mainstream media segment.

Dr. Michael Cornfield of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and Jonathan Carson of BuzzMetrics will present the research at the 2005 Personal Democracy Forum Conference in New York City. Dan Gillmor of Grassroots Media Inc. will respond. The full report will be made available at the Pew Web Site.

About the Pew Internet & American Life Project
The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a non-partisan, non-profit initiative of the Pew Research Center that examines the social impact of the Internet. It does not take policy positions.

Press Contact: Sandra Parrelli; Sandra.Parrelli@nielsen.com; 646-654-7772

Sales Inquiries: sales@buzzmetrics.com; 1.877.999.7335

About Nielsen Online:

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, delivers comprehensive, independent measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior, and includes products previously marketed under the Nielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen Online enables clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet, digital and marketing strategies. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-online.com.

About The Nielsen Company:

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.