Sunday, February 17, 2013

Small Neighborhood

DeLong (with the help of an angel buddy) tracks the "internet neighborhood" of Ezra Klein, together with the neighborhoods of those who appear in Klein's neighborhood.    I guess it is interesting but I wonder what I am supposed to make of this?  I suppose there are several possible readings but I should think that one is: it is pretty damning evidence of the internet as "Daily Me"--a small circle of friends who provide good and interesting stuff to read but also go a long way to firm up each others' prejudices intuitions or convictions. Think of it: Klein, Yglesias, DeLong, Krugman, Drum, etc.--how long since you have seen any in this  crowd in a real ding-dong face-ripping cage match with any of the others?  Hah?  I ask you!  Perhaps the exception is Sullivan who always seems to get a bye for--I forget why Sullivan gets a bye; although in fact, his list may be the most diverse: he picks up Frum, Fallow and Greenwald, three of my own favorite stops who do not (unless I missed something) appear anywhere else in the magic circle.  

And BTW, where is Mark Thoma, or is he just the soup in which everybody else gets to swim (aka, Thoma's world, we just live in it)?

3 comments:

brad said...

My guess is that Thoma is #9 and #10 on a bunch of lists...

Note that this is not a list saying that EK reads MY the most, but that those who search for EK are more likely to also search for MY than for anybody else...

Buce said...

I wouldn't quarrel with that second point, Brad. It's the readers who seem ingrown. I suppose a more telling critique of me is that the readers' "other" choices are so diffuse that no short list of sources shows up in everybody's ranking--but that a more microscopic view would disclose a broad range of interests. If in fact it would.

I have no special reason to quarrel with the first point, either.

Kaleberg said...

Now, why would someone read one pundit and SEARCH for another? Could it be a mention without an adequate link?