Analyzing Linking Practices: Candidate Sites in the 2002 US Electoral Web Sphere

Abstract

This article offers preliminary insights and a possible empirical model for managing the conceptual, methodological, and technological challenges entailed in developmental analysis of link‐mediated relations. We offer a “mid‐range” approach to making sense of linking practices, midway between close rhetorical/ethnographic analysis of links and large‐scale link mapping. We suggest that systematic human coding and interpretation of linked‐to producer types affords a more concrete and specific basis for hypothesizing about linking strategies than machine mapping, while providing a more robust attempt to generalize across the universe of candidate Web sites than ethnographic analysis. To illustrate this two‐pronged approach to link analysis, we examine the linking practices exhibited on Web sites produced by U.S. Congressional candidates during the 2002 campaign season, focusing on the extent and development of links from candidate Web sites to other types of political Web sites during the three months prior to the November, 2002 election.