ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on a method of how to identify and analyze specific hyperlink networks that contain actors that deal with the issue under consideration for sociological meaning of hyperlinks and whose properties regarding alliances and brokerage can be analyzed by means of social network analysis. It specifies hyperlink issue network, based on the linking activities of US climate change civil society organizations, to make methodological contribution tangible. Web-crawling software helps collecting all hyperlinks within a domain that point to other domains. Web-indexing software is employed determines the keywords with an issue defined are present on the crawled pages. By combining crawling and indexing software, we are able to generate hyperlink issue networks in which actors are involved that actually deal with the issue under consideration. The strength of our approach is to reduce the noise in issue networks making networks better interpretable, hyperlink research can be connected to theories with an issue-focus and interpretation of links.
