Exploring the relationships between media and political parties through web hyperlink analysis: The case of Spain

Authors

E. Romero-Frías, Romero-Frías, E.; Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business Studies., University of Granada, Granada 18071, Spain; email: erf@ugr.es
L. Vaughan

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Volume

63

Journal

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

First Page

967

URL with Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22625

Last Page

976

Abstract

The study focuses on the web presence of the main Spanish media and seeks to determine whether hyperlink analysis of media and political parties can provide insight into their political orientation. The research included all major national media and political parties in Spain. Inlink and co-link data about these organizations were collected and analyzed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) and other statistical methods. In the MDS map, media are clustered based on their political orientation. There are significantly more co-links between media and parties with the same political orientation than there are between those with different political orientations. Findings from the study suggest the potential of using link analysis to gain new insights into the interactions among media and political parties. © 2012 ASIS&T.