Date of Award

5-12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Nitin Agarwal

Abstract

This study presents BlogTracker, a comprehensive web-based platform designed to address the growing complexities of analyzing the modern blogosphere. We detail BlogTracker's evolution from earlier blog analysis tools, highlighting its innovative integration of features including real-time data collection, advanced content analysis, sentiment analysis, influence tracking, and narrative analysis. At the core of our contribution is a robust content extraction system that achieves 91.33% accuracy across diverse blog formats, providing a reliable foundation for all analytical functions. This extraction system effectively distinguishes between primary content and peripheral elements, ensuring high-quality inputs for downstream analysis regardless of source blog structure. The platform's architecture combines sophisticated data processing capabilities with an intuitive user interface, making advanced blog analysis accessible to researchers across disciplines. To demonstrate BlogTracker's capabilities, we present a case study analyzing NATO-related discourse in the blogosphere, processing over 482,759 posts from 82 blogs authored by more than 25,408 unique bloggers. This case study showcases BlogTracker's ability to handle large-scale data analysis, identify influence patterns, track topic evolution, and reveal complex narrative structures in blog content. The results demonstrate BlogTracker's effectiveness in supporting detailed academic research through its unique combination of quantitative metrics and qualitative analytical tools. Our work contributes to the field of digital content analysis by introducing a powerful, integrated platform that addresses many limitations of existing blog analysis tools. BlogTracker's comprehensive approach and innovative features, built upon our accurate content extraction system, provide researchers with unprecedented capabilities for studying online discourse, making it a valuable tool for understanding the dynamics of the modern blogosphere.

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