2009 Awards for Excellence

Article Type: Editorial From: Internet Research, Volume 19, Issue 5

The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award for Internet Research

"Exploring individual communication power in the blogosphere"

Hsiu-Chia KoDepartment of Information Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Wufeng, TaiwanChun-Po YinDepartment of Data Processing, Haiching Vocational High School of Technology and Commerce, Kaohsiung, TaiwanFeng-Yang KuoDepartment of Information Management, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Purpose - Viewing the blog technology as an integral part of the current social-technical environment, this research aims to investigate whether the main influences on message diffusion within a blog community originate from external mass media channels or internal interpersonal communication channels.Design/methodology/approach - The authors employed the innovation-diffusion model and the OLS estimating method to study message diffusion of two documentary films on the Wretch, the largest blog community in Taiwan.Findings - The results indicate that the mass media is the main source of message diffusion and that the internal communication power may increase as the opinion leader promotes these messages.Research limitations/implications - Other factors that may influence message diffusion such as topic, design characteristics, and the existing social network have not been included.Practical implications - For practice, the result indicates that the mass media and the blog might complement each other.Originality/value- This research is one of the first attempts to apply the innovation-diffusion model to analyze message diffusion within the blog community.

Keywords Communication, Social networks, Worldwide web

www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/10662240810912774This article originally appeared in Volume 18 Number 5, 2008, pp. 541-61,Internet Research

The following articles were selected for this year's Highly Commended Award

Taking sides: user classification for informal online political discourse

Robert MaloufTony Mullen

This article originally appeared in Volume 18 Number 2, 2008, Internet Research

Connecting P2P to the web: lessons from a prototype Gnutella-WWW gateway

Brian D. DavisonWei ZhangBaoning Wu

This article originally appeared in Volume 18 Number 3, 2008, Internet Research

The effectiveness of online customer relations tools: comparing the perspectives of organizations and customers

Lior FinkAviv ZeeviDov Te'eni

This article originally appeared in Volume 18 Number 3, 2008, Internet Research