We present a longitudinal study of Georgian blogosphere. The data has been collected on all Georgian blogs in three rounds - December 2010, December 2011 and December 2012. We identify citations each blog makes to the content of every other blog. Using this information we construct a network representation of the Georgian blogosphere. More precisely we construct three separate snapshots of the Georgian blogosphere. Important feature of the time span covered is that it includes pre and post-election periods. Election under the discussion is the landmark in Georgian democratic development (October 1 2012), which saw the first power transition through elections.
We employ the tools of social network analysis to study the structure of the three networks constructed from the data. First observation is that blogging practice has been becoming popular in Georgia – number of active blogs has more than doubled over the two year period covered. The second observation is that structure of the Georgian blogosphere has been changing dramatically from year to year. Although the network conforms to all the aggregate observations in the literature on blogging networks, microscopic structure has been changing from year to year. If in 2010 the structure of the network implied only small diversity in public opinion, in 2011 (10 month before the election) it consisted of two clearly separated camps. Each of the camps being densely interconnected within itself and only loosely connected to the blogs in the other camp. In 2012 the overall picture is not much different from that of 2011, but the size of the camps is significantly larger. Quantitative measures imply yet larger polarization of public opinion in 2012.
Further text-mining exercises (that will be performed before the conference) should reveal more intricate changes that have took place in Georgian blogosphere before and after elections.
