the adolescent diary blog and its audiences
TRANSCRIPT
The Adolescent Diary Blog and Its Audiences: An External Focus
Lois Ann ScheidtSchool of Library and Information Science (SLIS)
Indiana University
What is a blog?
Weblogs (blogs) are frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004).
What makes a weblog a diary blog1?
Usually has a single author (Fothergill, 1974). Usually written in first person (Mcneill, 2003). Tell an episodic story (Walker, 2003) that may
be fragmentary (Hogan, 1991) and is always in process (Culley, 1985).
Open-ended and terminates when writer ceases to make entries (Bunkers, 2001).
1 Also referred to as personal journal blogs (Blood, 2002).
How do diary blogs differ from their paper-based antecedents?
Two time-worn assumptions related to paper diaries fall by the wayside when looking at diary weblogs:– That the diaries are kept only for personal
consumption. – That diary keeping is a private and secret effort.
(Bunkers, 2001)
How do you define adolescence?
Adolescence is defined as the second decade of life – ages 10-19 (Steinberg, 2002).
Adolescent diary blogs
Two studies by the SLIS BROG project have found that adolescents bloggers account for:– 34.3% (Herring et al., 2004) and – 39.0% (Herring, Kouper, Scheidt, & Wright, under
review).
Orlowski (2003) goes further, asserting that a majority of bloggers are teenage girls.
Situating Diary Blogs as Personal Narrative Performance
Diaries are personal narrative Personal narrative performance is most often
applied to spoken arts such as storytelling. Blogs show characteristics of:
– Written communication with text entries which are similar to informal oral style ( Cho, in press).
– Verbal art as performance with artistic action and artistic event (Bauman, 1977).
Langellier’s Audiences for Personal Narrative Performance (1998)
As a witness testifying to the experience. As a therapist unconditionally supporting emotions. As a cultural theorist assessing the contestation of
meanings, values, and identities in the performance. As a narrative analyst examining genre, truth or
strategy. A critic appraising the display of performance
knowledge and skill.
Methodology
Content Analysis and Ethnographic Methods Opportunity sample
– EatonWeb Portal (http://portal.eatonweb.com) Originally a hand coded list of all the weblogs available
online (Rhodes, 2002). Now a JavaScript file that aggregates self-submission and
keywording (Rhodes, 2002).
As a witness testifying to the experience
Available: http://www.skybeat.net/
As a therapist unconditionally supporting emotions
Available: http://bellissima-x.com/
As a cultural theorist assessing the contestation of meanings, values, and identities in the performance
Available: http://anonymuse.blogspot.com/
As a narrative analyst examining genre, truth or strategy
Available: http://www.martinbourqui.com/home.htm
A critic appraising the display of performance knowledge and skill
Available: http://www.jezzy.homestead.com/read.html
Contact Information for Lois Ann Scheidt
Email: [email protected] Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Personal Weblog:
http://www.professional-lurker.com BROG Weblog: http://www.blogninja.com