Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs

1
Bridging the Gap A Genre Analysis of Weblogs

• Susan C. Herring
• Lois A. Scheidt
• Elijah Wright
• Sabrina Bonus
• Indiana University, Bloomington

2
Operational definition

• Weblog a frequently modified web page in which
  dated entries are listed in reverse chronological
  sequence

3
Size

• 1,454,524 weblogs indexed by the NITLE Weblog
  Census as of 10/31/03
• 959,985 (66) estimated active
• Including online journal sites brings the
  estimated total to 4.12 million (Perseus, October
  2003), of which 34 are active

4
Exponential growth of blogs
5
Popular view of blogs

• Blogs are filters of Web content (Blood, 2002)
• Blog authors are typically well-educated adult
  males (cf. Glenn, 2003)
• Blogs are interactive, attracting multiple
  comments from readers (Cavanaugh, 2002)
• Blogs are heavily interlinked (Halavais, 2003)
• Blogs are socially transformative (Burg, 2003)

6
Research study

• Blog Research on Genre project (BROG)
• Goal to characterize empirically the average
  blog
• A snapshot of the present as a benchmark for
  future comparison

7
Data sample

• Core blogs (excl. online journals and
  community weblogs)
• Minimum 2 entries
• Random sampling from blo.gs site
• Tracking 866,394 blogs as of 10/31/03
• Sources antville.org, blogger.com,
  pitas.com,weblogs.com
• Excluded non-English blogs blogs with no text in
  first entry blog software used for non-blog
  purpose blog not updated within two weeks
• 203 blogs collected and coded March-May 2003

8
Methodology

• Web genre analysis (Crowston Williams, 1997
  Chandler, 1998 Dillon Gushrowski, 2000)
• Purpose
• Structure
• Producers (cf. Swales, 1991)
• Content analysis (Bates Lu, 1997 cf. Bauer,
  2000)
• Coded 44 features in each blog quantified results

9
Findings Blog content
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
Findings Blog authors
14
Findings Comments

• Percent of blogs allowing comments 43
• Related to default settings in blogging software
• Number of comments per newest entry
• mean .3
• mode 0
• range 0-6
• Number of comments per oldest entry
• mean .3
• mode 0
• range 0-7

15
Findings Links

• Percent of blogs containing external links
  (excluding badges) 69.5
• Number of links per newest entry
• mean .65
• mode 0
• range 0-11
• Percent of newest entries that link to a news
  source 8.2
• Percent of newest entries that link to another
  blog 6.7

16
Summary of findings

• Blog content is mostly personal (and often
  intimate)
• Blog authors are roughly equally split between
  male and female, adult and teen
• Most blog entries receive no comments
• Most blog entries contain no links

17
Implication

• The typical weblog is unlikely to be
  intellectually and socially transformative

18
The blog as hybrid

• Mixed content within a single blog
• Shares features of online and offline genres
• Multiple functional antecedents
• Intermediate between standard Web documents and
  interactive computer-mediated communication (CMC)

19
Binary feature comparison of blogs with written
and computer-mediated genres
20
Weblogs on a continuum between standard Web pages
and CMC
21
Conclusion

• Blogs featured in contemporary public discourses
  about blogging are the exception, rather than the
  rule
• Important to look at average blogs as well as
  interesting/unusual ones
• Socio-political, social-psychological, and
  technical implications
• Blogs may ultimately prove transformative, but
  not in favoring a specific content, audience, or
  quality
• Rather, they create new affordances that will be
  open to a variety of uses (cf. email)

22
The BROG blog
http//www.blogninja.com