Blogging - does it feel like we have the whole wide world in our hands or that we are consumed by the world wide web.. hmmm?
Bloggers are driven to document their lives, provide commentary and opinions, express deeply felt emotions, articulate ideas through writing, and form and maintain community forums.
(Nardi et al 2004, p.41)
Is blogging a new “grassroots” form of journalism where “citizen journalists” shape democracy outside the mass media and conventional politics? This is what Nardi et al (2004) ask in the opening paragraph of their article, “Should we Blog?”
The vast majority of blogs are by ordinary people, however, not all whom think of as a form of citizen journalism but as a modern way of keeping a journal. So, is blogging a craze in personal communication or something more? And just what motivations lie beneath the art of blogging?
Nardi et al conducted numerous in-depth surveys to help determine why people blog. They interviewed 23 people altogether (16 men and 7 women, aged 19 to 60). All were well educated middle class adults living in the same geographic: California.
Some of the things Nardi et al discovered were:
PRACTICES:
- “The informants typically found blogs through other blogs they were reading”. So, through the blogs of friends and colleagues, as well as through links, “most blog pages reserve space for linking to other blogs” (Nardi et al 2004, p. 42).
- "Some bloggers post multiple times a day, others as infrequently as once a month”. Some bloggers found they suffered “blog burnout” and would stop and start. (Nardi et a 2004, p.42).
- They found “tremendous diversity” in content from scientific commentaries to personal revelations (Nardi et a 2004, p.42).
- Most bloggers are “actually aware of their readers” and have “a personal code of ethics dictating what goes into their blogs” (Nardi et a 2004, p.43).
- Blogging “provides scope for an enormous variety of expression within a simple, restricted format” (Nardi et a 2004, p.43).
MOTIVATIONS:
The research showed that “bloggers sometimes poured out their feelings or ideas and sometimes struggled to find something to say” (Nardi et al 2004, p.43).
Nardi et al categorized the motivations into the following:
- Blogs to ‘document my life’ – to record activities and events
- Blogs as ‘commentary’ – to express their opinions
- Blogs as ‘catharis’ – as an outlet for thoughts and feelings
- Blogs as ‘muse’ – “thinking with computers” (Bonne et a 2004, p.44)
- Blogs as ‘community forum’ – a place to express views to one another in a community setting
Based on this study Bonne et al found that “part of the allure of blogs is the easy way they move between the personal and the profound” (Nardi et a 2004, p.46).
There are a range of motivations for blogging, where blogs “combine information and modulated interactivity”. Bloggers appreciate the medium because they can “post and share their thoughts without the extensive feedback associated with other forms of communication” (Nardi et a 2004, p.46).
From this paper I have come to view the versatility of blogging as a medium for journals of day to day life to those of serious commentary. Blogging has become a mainstream use of the internet.
Still, I’m not completely convinced. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a blog Nazi or technology cynic, I just prefer to sit and chat with my friends (face to face) whilst enjoying a coffee or a drink. However, I think the two can compliment each other. Who knows, maybe I too will get caught up in this “flourishing phenomenon” (Nardi et al 2004, p.46).
No comments:
Post a Comment