diary weblogs as genre
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Diary Weblogs as GenreQualifying Paper Defense
Lois Ann ScheidtMay 7, 2009
Purpose
This literature review is to explore how researchers have constructed genre and subgenre of single-author diary weblogs within their research and to situation these formats in relation to established genres of paper diaries.
Organization of Presentation
Genre Weblogs Diary weblogs
› Characteristics of producers› Characteristics of artifacts
test
Scholarly Interest
Weblogs are creating hybrid forms that transcend the paper and html forms from which they are descended.
Weblogs have become a major source of information› Acting as news sources› Acting as repositories of news-making
events Weblogs are being archived
Genres are
classes of communication that typically possess features known to their users, common forms and purposes, and name recognition (Swales, 1990).
“typified rhetorical actions based in recurrent situations” (Miller, 1984, p. 156).
Characterizing the Genres of Webpages(Crowston and Williams, 2000)
Reproduced Genres
Paper academic articles
Reproduced online
Electronic academic articles
Adapted Genres
Newspapers
Affordances of the web
Online news sites
Emergent GenresHotlists of
Links
Personal Homepages
FAQs
Genre Theory Limitations
Too much emphasis can be placed on similarities at the potential expense of differences (Frow, 2005).
It is impossible to typify all possible combinations of characteristics (Kwasnik & Crowston, 2005).› Evolving (Yates & Orlikowski, 1992)› Emerging (Crowston & Williams, 2000)
Alternative to Genre Classification
5W1H Who What Where When Why How
(Yoshika, Herman, Yates, & Orlikowski, 2001)
Faceted Classification
Medium factors Situation factors
(Herring, 2007)
Medium Factors
Synchronicity Message transmission (1-way vs. 2-way) Persistence of transcript Size of message buffer Channels of communication Anonymous messaging Private messaging Filtering Quoting Message format
Situation Factor (2 of 8) Participation structure
› One-to-one› One-to-many› Many-to-many › Public/private › Degree of anonymity/pseudonymity › Group size; number of active participants › Amount, rate, and balance of participation
Participant characteristics › Demographics: gender, age, occupation, etc. › Proficiency: with language/computers/CMC › Experience: with addressee/group/topic › Role/status: in “real life”; of online personae › Pre-existing sociocultural knowledge and interactional norms › Attitudes, beliefs, ideologies, and motivations
Limitations to Alternatives
5W1H› Gives additional framing to genre
“recurrent situations”› Has the same limitations as genre
Faceted Classification› Detailed scheme
May lead users to think it is all inclusive Fictional vs. Real author
Weblogs
Definition
A weblog, or blog, is a frequently updated website consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order.... Typically, weblogs are published by individuals and their style is personal and informal…. Examples of the genre exist on a continuum from confessional online diaries to logs tracking specific topics or activities through links and commentary (Walker, 2003, n.p.).
Weblog Lineage can be Traced Through
Web log› Computer logs› Referrer logs› Software to mine various logs
Weblog› Jorn Barger (1997) Robot Wisdom› Peter Merholz (1999) peterme
Predecessors
Log books Clipping services Commonplace books Personal webpages Cam websites
(Miller and Shepherd, 2004)
Diary Weblogs Defined
Meets the definition of a weblog (Walker, 2003)
Posts explore the producers inner terrain and life as it is lived in the first person.
Post may be text or multimedia, or any combination there of.
First Diary Weblogs
Carolyn L Burke – January 3, 1995› Carolyn’s Diary› Original a filter weblog› Became a diary over time
Justin Hall – January 1994 or late 1994› Justin’s Home Page &
Links from the Underground› Originally a filter weblog› Became a diary over time then returned to
being a filter before leaving the web
Development of Weblog Creation Tools
HTML (pre-1999) LiveJournal (March 1999 – present)
› Website using proprietary software› Originally diary weblogs only (until 2003)
Blogger (August 1999-present)› Website using proprietary software› Proprietary software to use on the bloggers
site› Any subgenre of weblogs
Weblog Growth (in millions)
2004 2007 20080.0
20.0
40.0
60.0
80.0
100.0
120.0
4.0
70.0
112.8
Myths and Fallacies
•Diarists and Diaries•Bloggers and Weblogs
Diary Myths Debunked
Written by a single author› While many diaries have a single author, others have
been written collaboratively. In secret
› Many are not secret, friends and relatives may be encouraged to read and comment in the diary itself
For him- or herself only› Written to present the author’s life to an audience
outside themselves Confessional mode
› Many diaries are not confessional For example: Travel Diaries
Privacy and Diary Weblogs
Homosexual writers› Identified through purposeful sampling› Queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual
Used full names Cities of residence Photographs Protect others privacy, more than their
own(Rak, 2005)
Privacy and Diary Weblogs
Participants choose not to password protect entries (Schiano, Nardi, Gumbrecht, & Swartz, 2004).
Participants express concerns about privacy but their online activities overshadow their concerns (Viseu, Clements, & Asinall, 2003).
Diarists feel protected by the size of the internet (Serfaty, 2004).
Interactivity
Diary weblogs can create connection between readers and writers› Reader as
Passive Active
› Comments› Linking› Trackback
Why do Readers Read Diary Weblogs?
Similarities between the readers and the writer› Karlsson (2007)
Female Chinese ancestry 25-35 years old
› McNeill (2003) When I find a diary I like…I engage in a
marathon reading session to get caught up, then frequent the site daily, anxious for new entries (p.24).
Genres of Diary Weblogs
Characteristics of weblog producersvs. Characteristics of the artifact (the weblog)
Literature Describes Two-Differing Populations
General user population› Characterized by their use of the
technology Younger user population
› Characterized by 1. age 2. use of the technology
Estimates of Non-English Languages use in Weblogs Through Automated Language Identification
2004 – 38.1% (NITLE) 2005 - 31.3% (NITLE) April 2006 – 1/3 of all posts (Technorati) 2007 (Technorati)
1. Japanese 37%2. English 36%3. Chinese 8%
Adolescent Diary Weblogs
Many come down on these blogs as trivial, but they are in fact one of the most amazing facets of the blogging
phenomenon. Teenagers talk about what interest them, what’s on their minds, and what issues they are having (Stone, 2004,
pp. 53-54).
Teens are Blogging Polish bloggers (Cywinska-Milonas, 2003)
› 75% are less than 21› 40% are between 15-17 years old
English-language weblogs (Herring, Kouper et al. 2004)› 39% are under 20 years of age
American teenagers (12 – 17 years old) (Lenhart & Madden, 2005)› 22% of respondent keep a weblog› 18% of those younger than 15 years of age
Gender
To date, scholarly studies have focused on both boys and girls (two papers), or on girls only (two papers).
Studies on boys use of blogging and diary blogging are lacking.
Boys
Use more active and resolute language Huffaker & Calvert, 2005)
Used more emoticons (Huffaker & Calvert, 2005)
Produce more Witness to the Experience entries (Scheidt, 2006)
Girls
Produce more Unconditional support entries (Scheidt, 2006).
Use ingratiation strategies to gain affection and approval (Bortree, 2005).
Use direct and indirect expressions of self to gain acceptance (Bortree, 2005).
Adolescent queer female diarists join discussions without disclosing self (Driver, 2006).
Boys and Girls
Did not differ in the use of› Passive (Huffaker & Calvert, 2005) › Accommodating (Huffaker & Calvert, 2005) › Cooperative language (Huffaker & Calvert,
2005) Gender differences in word frequency
disappear when the weblog type is taken into account (Herring & Paolillo, 2006)
Multimedia Diary Weblogs
Diary Weblogs
Text-based
Still-image
Sound
Video
Photobloggers
Orchestrate their presentations by› Taking› Selecting› Annotating› Viewing their photographs (Cohen, 2005)
Usually do not post daily (Meyer, Rosenbaum, & Hara, 2005).
Moblogs
Blending of mobile and weblog Usually produced and uploaded via cell
phone (Sit, Hollan, & Griswold, 2005). Sites come and go very quickly, with
93.2% of users abandoning their moblogs in 30 weeks or less (Adar, 2004).
Initial posts average to eight posts the first week, dropping to one per week after five weeks (Adar, 2004)
CyborgLogs
First-person recording of an activity with the content creator as active participant.
Perspective changes from participant to observer, unless using wearable recording equipment (Dickie, Vertegaal et al., 2004).
Can be produced with cell phone cameras
Audioblogs
Least often utilized genre (Trammell & Gasser, 2004)
One of the more personal forms of blogging, since the “audioblogger’s voice transmits the message” (Trammell & Gasser, 2004).
Podcasts
Are becoming staples in › Classrooms (Richardson, 2006)› Political campaigns (Johnson, 2006)
Is used for diary blogging but has not been studied as such.
Videologs
Distinctions between terms› Videolog or vog – edited footage (Hoem,
2004).› Moblog – raw footage (Hoem, 2004).› Vlog – uses compressed video context
(Miles, 2005).
Lifelogs
Capturing all or parts of a lived life from first-person perspective
Most often streaming video
Methodological Issues
Content Analysis
Method of choice for weblogs research, to date
Research technique for making replicable and valid inference from data to their context
Can be done by hand, by machine, or by combination
Limitation
Focuses on manifest content and inferences
Does not get at › motivation for production› Reaction to the content produced
Ethnographic Methods
Participant Observer Observation Only Interview Only Combination of Observation and
Interview
Limitations
The effect of the researcher’s presence on the study› Particularly when the researcher is marked
as different from the participants Documentation to support findings Preservation of documentation
Surveys
Online/offline Sampling
› Viral› Snowball› Convenience› Computer-assisted telephone interviewing
Limitations
Standardization/consistency Lack of social context
Ethical Issues with Adolescents
Permission Informed consent Are they really teens? Access to the population
› In the wild› Structured environments› Researchers children
Relevance of Genre and Weblog Studies to IS?Particularly to HCI
Relevance to HCI
Genre can be › Social practice
Embedded clues to Community practices Cultural practices
› Classificatory categories Search and Retrieval
› Conventions of form and structure Cognitive and mental modeling
As LIS is interested in how knowledge in documents and other artifacts is organized, genre theory is a productive perspective.
Anderson, 208, p. 340
Directions for Future Research into Diary Weblogs
Adolescent Diary Weblogs
On –the-go diary weblog post creation› Technological issues› Selection
Multimedia particularly lifelogging› Who› Where› When› Why› How
Adolescent Diary Weblogs
Generation Net› Use and developmental stage
Changes over time Gender development
› Reputation management› Longitudinal studies
Dissertation Research
Boys production of diary weblogs› Technological affordances used› Why they create diary weblogs› How they coordinate their online and
offline lives
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