eJournalist - A Refereed Media Journal

Volume 10, Number 2, 2010

Abstracts

Measuring the Effectiveness of TV Station Blogs With the Conversational Index

Dr Ray Niekamp

The Conversational Index (CI) is a simple measure to gauge the effectiveness of blogs. The number of comments to blog posts is added to the number of trackbacks, and that sum is divided by the number of posts. The result suggests how much conversation is taking place between the blogger and audience. This paper applies the Conversational Index to blogs on local U. S. television station web sites. Blogs dealing with items in the news registered the highest CI's, while weather blogs had the lowest. While measuring the quantity of responses to blog posts, the CI does not measure quality of the comments, opening the potential for further refinements to this metric in the future.

Book review

Mass-Media and Terrorism: fringe reflections for a central issue.

Reviewed by Korstanje Maximiliano: Terrorism and the Politics of Fear. Authored by David Altheide. 2006. Altamira Press. Oxford. Pp. 247.


volume one number one number two volume two number one volume three number one number two volume four number one number two volume five number one number two volume six number one number two volume eight number one number two volume nine number one number two volume ten number one number two style notes submit an article	Volume 10, Number 2, 2010 Abstracts Measuring the Effectiveness of TV Station Blogs With the Conversational Index Dr Ray Niekamp The Conversational Index (CI) is a simple measure to gauge the effectiveness of blogs. The number of comments to blog posts is added to the number of trackbacks, and that sum is divided by the number of posts. The result suggests how much conversation is taking place between the blogger and audience. This paper applies the Conversational Index to blogs on local U. S. television station web sites. Blogs dealing with items in the news registered the highest CI's, while weather blogs had the lowest. While measuring the quantity of responses to blog posts, the CI does not measure quality of the comments, opening the potential for further refinements to this metric in the future. Book review Mass-Media and Terrorism: fringe reflections for a central issue. Reviewed by Korstanje Maximiliano: Terrorism and the Politics of Fear. Authored by David Altheide. 2006. Altamira Press. Oxford. Pp. 247.	Editor Professor Alan Knight, Queensland University of Technology Advisory Panel Dr Judith Clarke, Baptist University, Hong Kong Elliott S. Parker, Central Michigan University, USA Dr Lee Richard Duffield, Queensland University of Technology Jim Tully, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Dr Kasun Ubayasiri, Queensland University of Technology Dr Stephen Stockwell, Griffith University Philip Cass, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates Dr Steve Quinn, Deakin University, Deakin University