Score one point for Cass Sunstein

One of the arguments that Cass Sunstein makes in republic.com is that the Internet allows people to filter their information flows so that they buttress to their prior ideological beliefs. Blogs call this “cocooning.” The extent to which this effect is more concentrated in online activity than offline activity is open to debate, but it’s ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

One of the arguments that Cass Sunstein makes in republic.com is that the Internet allows people to filter their information flows so that they buttress to their prior ideological beliefs. Blogs call this "cocooning." The extent to which this effect is more concentrated in online activity than offline activity is open to debate, but it's an interresting argument. I believe Ann Althouse's divalog exchange with Garance Franke-Ruta on bloggingheads.tv qualifies as a data point for Sunstein's argument. Click here to see the video, in which I think it's safe to say that Ann gets angry. That's not the main point of this post, however. Compare and contrast the comments on Ann's words and behavior at the bloggingheads site with the reactions at Althouse's blog post. Everyone watched the same video -- but the reactions are very, very different (on the backstory for what sparked this in the first place, click here). [You're treading on veeeerrrry dangerous ground here!--ed. Oh, relax.] UPDATE: In comments here, Althouse points out one source for this disparity in comments: "I moderate and delete really insulting comments on my blog. That's skewing that data." I hope it's not skewing it too much. ANOTHER UPDATE: Lots and lots of blog reactions -- and Franke-Ruta posts her take here. One additional note -- if you watch the video, I think it's clear that Garance was genuinely startled by Ann's anger. This has the effect of making Ann's outburst seem... disproportionate. In fairness to Althouse, however, it should be pointed out that when taping a bloggingheads segment, the participants cannot see each other. I suspect if Ann had been able to see Garance, her reaction might have been different.

One of the arguments that Cass Sunstein makes in republic.com is that the Internet allows people to filter their information flows so that they buttress to their prior ideological beliefs. Blogs call this “cocooning.” The extent to which this effect is more concentrated in online activity than offline activity is open to debate, but it’s an interresting argument. I believe Ann Althouse’s divalog exchange with Garance Franke-Ruta on bloggingheads.tv qualifies as a data point for Sunstein’s argument. Click here to see the video, in which I think it’s safe to say that Ann gets angry. That’s not the main point of this post, however. Compare and contrast the comments on Ann’s words and behavior at the bloggingheads site with the reactions at Althouse’s blog post. Everyone watched the same video — but the reactions are very, very different (on the backstory for what sparked this in the first place, click here). [You’re treading on veeeerrrry dangerous ground here!–ed. Oh, relax.] UPDATE: In comments here, Althouse points out one source for this disparity in comments: “I moderate and delete really insulting comments on my blog. That’s skewing that data.” I hope it’s not skewing it too much. ANOTHER UPDATE: Lots and lots of blog reactions — and Franke-Ruta posts her take here. One additional note — if you watch the video, I think it’s clear that Garance was genuinely startled by Ann’s anger. This has the effect of making Ann’s outburst seem… disproportionate. In fairness to Althouse, however, it should be pointed out that when taping a bloggingheads segment, the participants cannot see each other. I suspect if Ann had been able to see Garance, her reaction might have been different.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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