Separate Spaces Discourse About the 2007 Scottish Elections on a National Newspaper Web Site

Jane B. Singer, University of Iowa

Abstract

In May 2007, Scots voted into office a party and a political leader publicly committed to holding a referendum on independence from Great Britain within four years. This study analyzes nearly forty-eight hundred comments appended to stories on the scotsman.com Web site, offering one of the first detailed looks at user-generated content on a newspaper-affiliated Web site in the context of a national election. It explores the evolving nature of online political community and the ways in which newspapers are accommodating a networked environment in their political coverage, addressing issues of citizen and journalistic engagement within a communal space