Blogging

by Jill Walker Rettberg (University of Bergen)

• ISBN13: 9780745641331
• ISBN10: 0745641334
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Polity

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, Associate Professor, University of Bergen

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
What is a Blog?	p. 4
How to Blog	p. 5
Three Blogs	p. 9
Defining Blogs	p. 17
A Brief History of Weblogs	p. 22
From Bards to Blogs	p. 31
Orality and Literacy	p. 32
The Introduction of Print	p. 36
Print, Blogging and Reading	p. 39
Printed Precedents of Blogs	p. 40
The Late Age of Print	p. 42
A Modern Public Sphere?	p. 46
Hypertext and Computer Lib	p. 48
Technological Determinism or Cultural Shaping of Technology?	p. 52
Blogs, Communities and Networks	p. 57
Social Network Theory	p. 59
Distributed Conversations	p. 61
Technology for Distributed Communities	p. 64
Other Social Networks	p. 68
Publicly Articulated Relationships	p. 75
Colliding Networks	p. 77
Emerging Social Networks	p. 80
Citizen Journalists?	p. 84
Bloggers' Perception of Themselves	p. 87
When it Matters Whether a Blogger is a Journalist	p. 89
Objectivity, Authority and Credibility	p. 91
First-hand Reports: Blogging from a War Zone	p. 95
First-hand Reports: Chance Witnesses	p. 98
Bloggers as Independent Journalists and Opinionists	p. 101
Gatewatching	p. 103
Symbiosis	p. 108
Blogs as Narratives	p. 111
Fragmented Narratives	p. 111
Goal-oriented Narratives	p. 113
Ongoing Narratives	p. 115
Blogs as Self- exploration	p. 120
Fictions or Hoaxes? Kaycee Nicole and lonelygirl15	p. 121
Blogging Brands	p. 127
The Human Voic	p. 128
Advertisements on Blogs	p. 131
Micropatronage	p. 135
Sponsored Posts and Pay-to-Post	p. 137
Corporate Blogs	p. 141
Engaging Bloggers	p. 147
Corporate Blogging Gone Wrong	p. 150
The Future of Blogging	p. 155
Implicit Participation	p. 156
Perils of Personalized Media	p. 157
References	p. 161
Blogs Mentioned	p. 170
Index	p. 173
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