I consider myself a tech-savvy guy; yet, a brief five years ago, I could be found asking my friends, "What the hell is a blog?" After hearing the word mentioned so much on NPR and the like--blogs were becoming a major issue during the 2004 Presidential race-- I felt like I had totally missed out on something that a complete nerd like me should have been fully aware of. Little did I know, I had actually ran my own psuedo-blog as one of the many websites I started and abandoned during the late 90s and early 00s; I had also been reading blogs and blog-like things long before that famed neologism entered my brain.
I may have been unaware of the word, but I was aware of the practices and writing of bloggers; this eased me into started my own blog a few years later, which launched me straight into the humiliating world of professional writing. Fast forward to today, and you'll find that blogs and blogging take up a rather shameful chunk of my life. In fact, I had to request time off at one of my blogging gigs just to get projects like this one completed on time; and, considering that I make far more for from freelance writing than I do in academia, you can clearly see that I have mixed priorities. But I digress.
So, when approaching the idea for a creating a research project in my Writing Technologies class, blogs were obviously on my mind. One major motivation for this is the fact that staring at a Word document for hours on end--with its soul-crushing whiteness, Times New Roman, and abohorrent double-spacing--is not a proposition I'm too keen on these days. Since academic writing is the only space I see this particluar format, its mere appearance produces a Pavlovian response caused by memories of the headaches, back pain, and black coffee-induced ulcers that come with the production of any formal, academic research paper. So, with avoiding prolonged pain as my inspiration, I conned another professor into letting me do my final research paper as a blog. Since it's the genre I'm most comfortable in--and most used to writing in--I figured having to work in the blog writing space would be much more comfortable than trudging through the constraints of formality.
My plan ended up working--to the detriment of my free time. An essay I had originally planned on limiting to 4000 words (and at first I was unsure that I would even make this point), soon ballooned to almost 6000. For some reason, when I'm blogging, I can't stop the words from a-comin'; and this fact is largely responsible for rambling and inappropriate sentences, like the one you're reading right now. At first, I was a little unsure of how to broach my original, planned research question, "How does blogging change writing?" until I saw a clear response to this question with how comfortable and easy blogging made academic writing for me.
It could be that, yes, blogging is where I practice writing for entertainment (with brief nods to the betterment of society), so the mode I enter when I blog is far different that sitting down with the blank canvas of a Word screen, mountains of books, a bottomless cup of coffee, and a nearby loaded revolver. It's like the academic monster who made my writing into a thick slurry of academic nonsense suddenly disappeared, leaving me remembering that I actually like to write.
This, of course, brings me to what I plan on doing in this very blog post. Having already raised the issue of how blogs change writing, I first want to define what a blog actually is. Looking at the different elements of a blog will move us nicely into our next topic: the practices of bloggers. Finally, with these two areas of knowledge elucidated, I'll be providing a video comparison of two Internet compositions: a web site, and a blog. These compositions will feature the same type of content, but the blog will obviously reflect the genre of blogs and the practices of bloggers. Word of warning: you are going to see the word "blog" and its derivative forms about 9000 times in this project. Try not to let it lose all meaning.
I'm also hoping this composition itself will reflect the genre of blogs, and the practices of bloggers. While I'll by no means be following the prescribed features of blogs and practices of bloggers prescribed by my research, my presence in the genre brings about some inevitabilities that come about unconsciously. And, working in a format where I have many multi-modal options available to me, I'll be using video to make some of the denser research a little more clear--and possibly entertaining. After reading this work, you should have a good foundation of knowledge about the genre of blogs, the practices of bloggers, and why I'll probably never be able to do something like this again. But I regret nothing.
Blogs - More Than Just a Stupid Word My Parents Don't Understand
Recently, on a standard parental squalor check (I rated very high), I told my mom about the various jobs I was working to get by. When the subject of blogging came up, she--like me five years ago--asked me, "What's a blog?" My mom is not a very tech savvy person. I could have responded to her question by pulling out a Polaroid of me in my underwear, playing with LEGOs on a cold basement floor, and she'd just be happy that I wasn't asking her for gas money. This made me think, "How, exactly, can I explain what I do?" Telling my mom that I do things for the Internet and am later sent money could lead her to believe that I'm a pornographer. I was inspired to create something--anything--to define just what blogs are to the uninitiated. And the following video is what I came up with:
This video draws upon the findings of Carolyn R. Miller and Dawn Shepherd's "Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog," as well as multiple other sources cited in this work; the original article can be accessed by clicking its title in this sentence. For the sake of completeness and productivity, I'll now go into a little more detail about the some of the basic facts presented in this video. The video has some obvious deficiencies due to my desire to keep it short--not to mention the lousy text placement options in the wholly worthless Windows Movie maker--but after watching it, you should have some basic knowledge that will aid you in understanding the discussion to follow.
So, what, exactly, are the implications behind the different elements of blogs? The videos briefly explained the various parts of blogs and their functions, but not how they lend to the general, personalized blogging atmosphere. Below, I'll move through a list of the aforementioned features and give you more of a sense of their function, and how their function makes blogging a unique genre. What follows are my interpretations of the research I've done which I've already summarized in the videos. Please refer to my bibliography for research credits.
The Header: This contains various features mentioned in the video, such as the title of a post, the date and time the post was made live, and also the author's name. Depending on the type of blog used, this information can sometimes be found at the bottom of the page. The display of a name--or at least a psuedonym--allows a reader to immediately associate the work displayed with a single writer; this is different than non-blog sites, which commonly hide descriptions of authors on "About" pages.
The listing of the time and date of the posting also falls in line with the typical blog protocol of showing content posted in order from oldest to newest; web sites often hide their updates behind a "What's New" section, which can make it unclear as to when the site was last updated. But a blog will always inform the reader as to when it was last updated, which can cause the reader to aniticipate new content. And this anticipation of new content is expected; many kinds of blog software allow the reader to "poke" or "nudge" a writer in order to get them to produce more content. Various tags can be used to index a piece of writing and, along with the permanent link to each and every blog post, this keeps a writer's work alive in a larger discussion that can later be linked to or referenced by the writer of the post in question, or other writers.
Comments: This feature makes blogs unique in that the perceived audience for the piece is real and can actually respond to a piece of writing and have their response appear in tandem with the post. Websites often offer contact information for their writers, but, this method is contact is generally private (which you'll see in the next video on blogging practices), and typically won't be addressed on a web site itself, barring some sort of "letters to the editor" feature. Comments also allow a piece of writing to require the upkeep from a writer after its publication; a writer may continue to address questions, problems, and unseen issues in their post through the use of their comments section. Since comments are typically included at the bottom of a post, these author additions can be seen as an addendum to their original work.
Blogroll: Mentioned various times throughout this project, a blogroll is a list of links bloggers choose to associate themselves with by posting them on their blog. The sharing of these links can be reciprocal--authors may choose to link to each other under the agreement that the linkee will also link to the linker--or it can just be the presentation of linked content that a blogger reads or likes to associate themselves with. This inspires a sense of community in online writers as they link and are linked to one another.
The next issue the video addresses is just why people blog. It's a complicated subject, but it can be boiled down to some basic factors. Self-expression and self-validation are two major inspirations for a blogger to begin blogging; speaking from highly-valued anecdotal evidence, I became a blogger for these factors alone--I wanted my work to be appreciated and enjoyed by like-minded people. But, speaking generally, people blog about their personal interests--including themselves--and enter into communities of bloggers that will help reinforce these interests. This isn't to say that every blogger is successful in this area, as the regular upkeep of a blog can be a daunting task for someone not used to the burden of having to write every day; but the bloggers out there who are productive and have an audience have fully realized the opportunity that blogging can provide them with.
Also important is the use of personality in blog writing, sometimes achieved by including personal information--as seen in the very introduction to this blog post. Some of the most popular blogs out there feature authors with strong personalities about the subjects they address; this is by no means a feature exclusive to blogs alone, but there's a certain ironic and snarky bitchiness that seems to be a necessary quality of popular blogs. A brief look at the most popular blogs on the web reveals that, no matter if the subject ranges from mousepads to celebrity nipple slips, a strong, personality-laden sense of writing is apparent, even if you only look at the headers. Quite possibly, in this blog, you can feel my obnoxious and overbearing personality radiating from your computer monitor. Hate the genre, not the sinner.
What Do Bloggers Do? The Answer May Surprise You.
Obviously, bloggers blog. But if things were as simple as that, studying blogs would hardly be a way to advance an academic career. One person who has struck such academic gold is Jan Schmidt, with her article, "Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework" from the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. Using the structure of this article, as well as the many, many sources it draws upon (seriously, the bibliography is nearly as long as the article itself), I decided once again to frame this information in a user-friendly video much like the previous one. For the purposes of thoroughness, clarity and, perhaps most importantly, lengthening this blog post, I will go into further detail about some of the terminology made and points used in the video below. Again, please turn to (or rather, page down to) my special bibliography section for research credits. The limits of free video editing programs provide me with certain difficulties. Ones you will undoubtedly notice below:
So, let's shed some more detail on some of the that terminology, eh? Namely, the ideas of rules, relations, and code.
Rules: First, rules are broke up into two different types: Adequacy Rules, and Procedural Rules. As I did in the video, I'll break them down here.
Adequacy Rules: These rules determine a blog as the most appropriate outlet for a writer's needs. People seeking the gratification that blogs can supply (already detailed above) will find the benefits a blog offers more appealing than another format or outlet for writing.
Procedural Rules: These rules frame the use of blogs, and can be broken down into three separate areas:
Selection Rules: These rules define what online sources a user decides to read; basically, selection rules are all about input. A reader chooses their reading selection based on such motivations as personal interest in a topic, the desire to meet people, and many other factors, depending on the temperament of the actual reader.
Publication Rules: Where Selection Rules were all about reading, publication rules are concerned with the production of content. A blogger has to make many decisions about their role as a producer of content: choice of topic, what methods to use to present the topic, and design of the blog itself. As discussed above, this content is most often presented in an informal, conversational style. All of these factors were podered upon by me for the very creation of this blog: the topic was one I feel most comfortable writing about, I'm choosing to present it in a multimodal fashion, and I'm using the Blogger software, as it's something I'm familiar with and also because Blogger makes it extremely easy to produce new content. And I'm presenting all of this information in a conversational, informal tone, except in instances like this when I'm trying to describe dry, objective facts. My apologies.
Networking Rules: Neworking rules are concerned primarily with the establishment of social ties, both to other blogs and to actual people. As with the other rules, what happens here is also fueled by routines and expectations. Some of the ways to gain these social links are obvious, like by linking to another blog, or featuring a certain blog or blogs in a blogroll. More on this in the next section.
Relations: Since I've already talked extensively about social relations, I'll now move onto the social relations made possible by blogging. Obviously, since there are actual people behind blogs, blogging network are comprised of more than just a network of hyperlinks. Social relations can be developed and maintained out of the blogging environment with techniques like face-to-face meetings, instant messenger conversations, personal e-mails, and other techniques. Obviously, these approaches are judged appropriate based on the routines and expectations of bloggers. For example, seeking out a face-to-face meeting with someone whose blog you just started reading would probably be considered a tad creepy. But some sites foster personal ties to where this kind of meeting could eventually be considered appropriate. Certain blogging sites, like LiveJournal, allow you to seek out other bloggers in your general area, and even allow you to restrict your content to a select group of people you decide upon. Approaches like this encourage relationships of bloggers on more than just the superficial, hypertextual level. Also, this is a good way to meet girls.
Code: Our final element of blogging practices, code is the technical and nerdy side of blogs. To frame the use of code through example, I'll explain the software and architecture of this blog on Blogger. Basically, Blogger allows for many things that I didn't take advantage of, given the limited readership of this project. Features like a blogroll and tagging my posts were available, but I chose not to use them, as this blog will not be consistantly updated, or a means for networking. On other Blogger blogs (I'll try to stop using those two words in tandem so much) I've created, like this one for the first college writing class I taught, I took advantage of the blogroll and a few other features to better maintain online social relationships with my students, and to make it clear that the blog would be updated at least once a week. With both this blog and my class blog, I did take advantage of Blogger's template feature, which allowed me to choose a quick, attractive (though derivative) design without any real work from me. This feature is important to me, as paying close attention to design is not my most important priority for a project like this. Therefore, I chose Blogger because its architecture works best for my limited plans.
So now, what exactly do you do with all of this information firmly planted in your head? A segue to our final topic is in order; and there's no better way to do that than through, once again, the magic of embedded video. The following should do a nice job of wrapping up my points so far and move us to looking at the blog/website comparison promised so many paragraphs so far. And since you're in this deep, there's really no point to turn back; sort of like seagulls when they fly out to sea to die.
Comparison videos hosted here some time before the fall of man.
In keeping with the friendliness of the format, I chose to reserve this section at the end for research credits. Some of the reasons have already been detailed (like the general awfulness of Windows Movie Maker), but I also felt that traditional research-style writing would disrupt the flow of a composition I'm trying to create in the blog genre; and, part of this project--if you didn't notice by now--was to stick to the tenets of the blog genre by producing an entertaining and informative piece of writing. It's a research blog about blogs that's written like a blog and hosted on Blogger. Also, blogs.
Since the videos are a distillation of my research, below I will give research credits for these videos in the standard MLA format. To prevent any possible plagiarism scandals, under each citation I will list what information is contained in the source. Rest assured that all other information came out of my head and my head alone. Well, I assume I picked it up just by existing in this world, but most of the things I absorb are in the public domain of knowledge. Except any food I eat that's shaped like Disney characters.
Miller, C. & Shepherd, D (2004). Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog. In L. J. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratliff, & J. Reyman (Eds.), Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action.html
This served as the basis of my construction of the blog genre. The following sources were used to aid in this construction:
Blood, R. (2000, September 7). Weblogs: A History and Perspective. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
Contains information regarding the implications of the reverse-chronological order in which blogs present their content, and how blogs serve as a tool for the self-expression and self-validation of a blogger.
Clark, J. (2002, 28 December). Deconstructing 'You've Got Blog'. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://fawny.org/decon-blog.html
Discusses in detail the importance of comminity-building in the blog genre.
Kelleher, T. & Miller, B (2006). Organizational Blogs and the Human Voice: Relational Strategies and Relational Outcomes. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 11, 395-414.
Contains information regarding the importance and prevalnce of conversational, informal writing in the blog genre.
Schmidt, J (2007). Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12, 1409-1424.
This served as the basis of my blogging practice discussion. The following sources were used to aid in this discussion:
Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers. A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers. Washington: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved November 22, 2008 from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf
Discusses the goals that motivate the use of a blog.
Efimova, L., & de Moor, A. (2005). Beyond personal webpublishing: An exploratory study of conversational blogging practices. Proceedings of the Thirty-Eigth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-38). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press.
Discusses the different procedures related to Networking Rules.
Hodkinson, P. (2006). Subcultural blogging? Online journals and group involvement among U.K. Goths. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://www.paulhodkinson.co.uk/publications/hodkinsonsubculturalblogging.pdf
Discusses the importance and implications of hypertextual and social relationships of blogging.
Lievrouw, L. A., & Livingstone, S. (2002). The social shaping and consequences of ICTs. In L.A. Lievrouw & S. Livingstone (Eds.), Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Consequences of ICTs. (pp. 1–15). London: Sage.
Contains information about codes, i.e., how people use technology to suit certain needs.
No researchers were harmed in the writing of this project. At least not physically.
That's a solid B
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This article DID need more of the truth about Barack Obama. Writing an appendix now. Cheers.
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