It's called the Instapundit Test and I came across it here which is a blog by Amit Varma. An excerpt:
I was a bit surprised by Amit's assertion that Instapundit increased the diversity of his reading. I too am a regular Instapundit reader - I go there normally after finishing Talking Points Memo and Slate. One could jump merrily through a majority of links in Instapundit's posts and not find a dissenting voice - unless the dissenting voice is being given a hard time by myriad other voices.
There is a collection of blog links on the sidebar - but who has the time after going through the blog itself and its various links and their follow-ups and so on, to explore them? It would be safe to bet that a majority of those are like-minded (read reddish) blogs anyway.
So, funnily, Instapundit seems to fail the Instapundit test. Could Cass Sunstein be right?
'He' being James Miller and the quote from The Depolarizing Power of the Blogosphere. The discussion is about whether people visit only blogs which agree with their views or whether they choose a diversity of views by going to other kinds of blogs also.
He writes: "The links on Instapundit.com represent the most popular filter used in the Blogosphere. If you click regularly on Instapundit's links then a good test of how filters affect polarization is whether Instapundit causes you to read more or less diverse material."
I'm an Instapundit junkie, and there is no question that the most popular blog on the internet has certainly increased, by far, the diversity of my reading. QED.
I was a bit surprised by Amit's assertion that Instapundit increased the diversity of his reading. I too am a regular Instapundit reader - I go there normally after finishing Talking Points Memo and Slate. One could jump merrily through a majority of links in Instapundit's posts and not find a dissenting voice - unless the dissenting voice is being given a hard time by myriad other voices.
There is a collection of blog links on the sidebar - but who has the time after going through the blog itself and its various links and their follow-ups and so on, to explore them? It would be safe to bet that a majority of those are like-minded (read reddish) blogs anyway.
So, funnily, Instapundit seems to fail the Instapundit test. Could Cass Sunstein be right?
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