Citizens, Pundits & Scholars:In Defense of Blogs

Kalina GrewalMark Robertson

Scott LibraryYork University

Overview

What is a blog? A global phenomenon Why read blogs? Blogs and the academy Blogs and the library Discussion

Blogs?

What are they?

Definitions

One definition: “frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence” (Herring, 2004)

Creates an environment that fosters dialogue

Used for various purposes – personal, professional or commercial

Features: A read/write medium

Comments

-readers respond by writing comments

Trackbacks– Links to other blogs that

cite the posting– Incoming links

Blogrolls– Outgoing links to other

blogs of interest

Features: RSS feeds

• RSS feeds – Really Simple

Syndication– Allows readers to

subscribe to a website

– New postings are delivered to an RSS reader in standardized format

Blogs in a global perspective

Blog growth

Estimated total number of blogs:

Technorati tracks 63 million blogs

Gartner Group tech analysts estimates 100 million by middle of 2007 (BBC News, Dec. 14, 2006)

Blog growth

from Dave Sifry, State of the Blogosphere, 2006

Blog postings per day

from Dave Sifry, State of the Blogosphere, 2006

Blog readership by country

Blogs by language

Case study: Iran

• Population: 69 million people• 7.5 million web users (largest group in Middle

East)• 700,000 bloggers?• Substitute for suppressed, reformist press

Case study: China

• Population: 1.3 billion• 123 million internet users• 20.8 million blogs?• Most popular blog in the world: Xu Jinglei• Alternative to state controlled press• Relatively high level of trust in web-based media

Why Blogs?

What’s the value for researchers?

The potential of blogs

Citizen journalism • Agenda Setting vs.• Grassroots Perspective

Creation of communities As primary sources

Citizen journalism

• Defined as the act of citizens playing an active role in the production and dissemination of news

• The trend has been fed by technologies such as: blogs, mobile phone cameras, YouTube, etc.

Agenda setting

• Agenda setting a common critique of mainstream media

• Bernard Cohen in 1963 stated:“the press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is strongly successful in telling its readers what to think about”

• Mainstream media have practices that privilege certain stories and certain people

Grassroots perspective

• People who are generally ignored or misrepresented by the media are attracted to blogging for several reasons:

• safe space to express identity• communication between citizens in closed

societies or repressive regimes • mainstream media do not accommodate

discussion and collective action

Citizen Journalism: Global Voices

Bangladesh

Mission Statement:

www.globalvoicesonline.org

Global Voices website

Citizen journalism

January 11, 2007

State of Emergency Declared in Bangladesh

Violence claims more than 40 lives and media freedoms curtailed.

“Amid the chaos, the government has been cracking down on media freedoms -- but some Bangladeshi bloggers have not been cowed.” Mark Oliver, Internet

World News

Ethos of Citizen Journalism

Drishtipat:

“hear, speak out and help”

Creation of communities

Many-to-many communicationPlatform for discussionBlogrolls create networks of blogsMultiple blogospheresBloggers share knowledge and collaborate

Communities of interest

An example from

Six Months in Hanoi

Blogs as primary sources

• Historical value• Document events as they happen• More likely to provide a personal perspective on an

event

• Sociological value• Linguistic analysis• First-person narratives• Eg. Narratives of girls with eating disorders;

suidical behaviour

What is the academic value of blogs?

Pedagogical tool

Object of study (primary source)

A means to stay informed

The role of communities in scholarly communication

Academic researchers embedded in communities

The expert research model “requires a long process of acculturation…participation in a system of informal scholarly communication, and a view of research as a non-sequential, non-linear process….”

Gloria Leckie, “Desperately Seeking Citations”

A means to a scholarly end…

Not themselves scholarlyProvides opportunities for information sharing

and debateRole in informal scholarly communicationAwareness and alert system

Blogs and the role of libraries:a discussion

• Organization

• Access

• Preservation

• Teaching

Del.icio.us webliography

http://del.icio.us/citizensandpundits

Contact

Mark RobertsonScott Library, York University

markr@yorku.ca

Kalina GrewalScott Library, York University

kgrewal@yorku.ca

Webliography: http://del.icio.us/citizensandpundits