Blogs & Bullets: Mapping the Russian Blogosphere

Hosted by USIP’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology & Peacebuilding, experts from Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Morningside Analytics presented their new research on the Russian blogosphere, while prominent Russia experts and notable bloggers responded. The research team mapped this extensive social network, analyzing over 11,000 Russian language blogs to understand how politics is discussed, by whom, and if there is evidence of political and social mobilization in the blogosphere.  The team also analyzed the blogosphere’s place within the overall Russian online and traditional media ecology, including discussion of top political YouTube videos.

• Read a USIP Peace Brief about the event
• Read the full Berkman Center Report "Public Discourse in the Russian Blogosphere: Mapping RuNet Politics and Mobilization"

Research Team

• Karina Alexanyan
  Researcher and Analyst
  Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• Bruce Etling
  Director, Internet & Democracy Project
  Berkman Center for Internet & Society
• John Kelly
  Founder and Chief Scientist
  Morningside Analytics

 Respondents

• Alexey Navalny
  Yale World Fellow and prominent Russian blogger
• Ivan Sigal
  Executive Director
  Global Voices
• Angela Stent
  Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian & East European Studies
  Georgetown University
• Sheldon Himelfarb, Moderator
  Associate Vice President, Center of Innovation for Science, Technology & Peacebuilding
  United States Institute of Peace