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