Blogging

Summary

Blogging has profoundly influenced not only the nature of the internet today, but also the nature of modern communication, despite being a genre invented less than a decade ago. This book-length study of a now everyday phenomenon provides a close look at blogging while placing it in a historical, theoretical and contemporary context. Scholars, students and bloggers will find a lively survey of blogging that contextualises blogs in terms of critical theory and the history of digital media. Authored by a scholar-blogger, the book is packed with examples that show how blogging and related genres are changing media and communication. It gives definitions and explains how blogs work, shows how blogs relate to the historical development of publishing and communication and looks at the ways blogs structure social networks and at how social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook incorporate blogging in their design. Specific kinds of blogs discussed include political blogs, citizen journalism, confessional blogs and commercial blogs.

Author Biography

Jill Walker Rettberg is Associate Professor at the University of Bergen.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
What is a Blog?
How to Blog
Three Blogs
Personal Blogs: Dooce.com
Filter blogs: Kottke.org
Topic-driven Blogs: Daily Kos
Defining Blogs
A Brief History of Weblogs
From Bards to Blogs
Orality and Literacy
The Introduction of Print
Print, Blogging and Reading
Printed Precedents of Blogs
The Late Age of Print
A Modern Public Sphere?
Hypertext and Computer Lib
Technological Determinism or Cultural Shaping of Technology?
Blogs, Communities and Networks
Social Network Theory
Distributed Conversations
Technology for Distributed Communities
Other Social Networks
Publicly Articulated Relationships
Colliding Networks
Emerging Social Networks
Citizen Journalists?
Bloggers' Perception of Themselves
When it Matters Whether a Blogger is a Journalist
Objectivity, Authority and Credibility
First-hand Reports: Blogging from a War Zone
First-hand Reports: Chance witnesses
Bloggers as Independent Journalists and Opinionists
Gatewatching
Symbiosis
Blogs as Narratives
Fragmented Narratives
Goal-Oriented Narrative
Ongoing Narration
Blogs as Self-Exploration
Fictions or Hoaxes? Kaycee Nicole and lonelygirl
Blogging Brands
The Human Voice
Advertisements on Blogs
Micropatronage
Sponsored Posts and Pay-to-Post
Corporate Blogs
Engaging Bloggers
Corporate Blogging Gone Wrong
The Future of Blogging
Implicit Participation
Perils of Personalised Media
References
Blogs mentioned
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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