The Iranian Blogosphere Mapped
Intelfusion posts on the Harvard study of the Persian blogosphere. Found at Jeffreycarr on Twitter.
(I figured that so long as my margin was temporarily messed up on Explorer from Cameron’s text file – why not go with a big visual? In for a penny, in for a pound! Should be ok on Firefox etc.)
April 8th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I would find it very helpful if this sort of keyword analysis could be used to "take the pulse" of Mahdist expectation. It would be useful to focus in on the religious "quarter" of the blogosphere and note the frequency of the appearance of the word Mahdi, and also of titles frequently applied to him, such as Qaim, Muntazar, Zaman, Hujjat, — and by the same token, of various associated terms such as Mahdaviyat, ghayba, alam al-mithal, qiyama, Jamkaran (the Masjid), Khorasan, Ayandeh Roshan (the Institute in Qom), and Dajjal. There are naturally going to be some references to Mahdi which are of interest, not as markers of Mahdist expectation but of current affairs awareness focusing on Iraq: thus references to Mahdi in close proximity to Jaish, Moqtada or Sadr are liable to refer to Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi’s Army of Jaish al-Mahdi — a group which is less conspicuous for its keen Mahdist expectation than for its military and political say in nearby Iraq. There are a couple of Mahdist groups in Iraq, however, which may receive some "play time" on the Iranian blogosphere, and it would be enlightening to know whether there are many links to http://www.almahdyoon.org which is the website of one of them, or mentions of Ahmad al-Hasan, or of Jund al-Samaa. I suppose it would also be helpful to know whether the word nuclear is found at all frequently in blogs which also frequently reference the Mahdist-related terms listed above.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
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