Social media - Blogs, social networks (Facebook), micro-blogging (Twitter), You Tube, Flickr, Maps, and Mashups (combinations) - has changed the way we work and communicate. Social media are experiencing explosive growth rates and new prominence, not only in the lives of individuals but as tools in democratic processes and social change (Clark 2009, Gilmor 2004). Social media have been used for democratic campaigns in the US (Obama ), reporting natural disasters (Haiti , Tsunami ), responding to conflict and democratic crises (Kenya , Iran , Burma ) emergency fundraising (Haiti ) and others. Activists, NGOs and those in the development field are also using social media for social change. They offer a multiplicity of channels, easier and cheaper creation of content, and allow local and global linkages for those in this field. An innovative example of how social media are being used for fundraising is WildlifeDirect, a group of conservation blogs. Started in 2004, it provides an opportunity to secure funds for wildlife conservation through online giving, while at the same time providing a forum for like-minded people to discuss wildlife conservation. Limited funding for conservation contributes, alongside poaching, severe climatic conditions, and reduction of the conservation area, to declines in wildlife and habitats. Kenya has a natural resource-based economy, and its people depend on the environment for basic needs. Conservation of these resources and funding to carry it out is a key concern for Government, NGOs and Communities. WildlifeDirect has collaborated with organizations to help boost conservation funds by providing a platform through which people can support conservation.My involvement with WildlifeDirect begun about three years ago when I started using this platform to blog and attempt to fundraise for the organization I worked for - the Kenya Forests Working Group (part of the East African Wildlife Society). I am still today part of WildlifeDirect community, currently blogging at savingparadise.wildlifedirect.org for my current employer, although our blog is not used actively for fundraising. Through my involvement I witnessed firsthand how this media was being utilised for publicity and fundraising. I also became aware of the challenges intrinsic in the choice of blogs for fundraising. At the same time through my studies at Malmo on New Media and Development, and particularly our exploration of Social media, I became aware of just how powerful Social media can be for social change.My study’s principal purpose therefore is to explore the benefits of social media, while looking at its challenges. It places this effort within the context of conservation funding and improvements in the ICTs environment in Kenya. A limited number of research and theories shape this emerging and rapidly shifting media. Because the social/new media field keeps evolving, it is difficult to find a theoretical framework for its analysis. (Hassan and Thomas (eds) 2006:xviii). The study has therefore assumed that the media landscape has changed and attempted not to take an old versus new stance whose discourse found in most literature has been critiqued (by authors such as Holmes 2005). Instead, the dialectical view advanced by Fuchs is considered. In his seminal work, Internet and Society, Fuchs (2008) notes that the research field of ICT&S (Information and Communication Technologies and Society) deals with two interconnected aspects – society and technology. Fuchs posits that the relation of the two is inherently dynamic; the two are mutually connected and have constructive effects onto each other. Fuchs avoids the technological determinist view that sees technology as the driving force of society or the social shaping approaches, which consider technology as being invented, designed, changed, and used by humans and influenced by an overall societal context. Fuchs concludes that neither is appropriate because both have deterministic understandings of technology and society. On the one hand, ICTs are embedded into social systems and overall society; social forces and relations shape them. On the other hand, ICTs enable and constrain human social action. This relationship is an endless dynamical evolving loop (2008:345). Within the development field, there has been an equal application of optimism – (ICTs as freeing and democratising) and pessimism (ICTs as isolationist and elitists). A middle ground has however begun to emerge, one that sees the potential of ICTs while acknowledging their shortcomings. Case studies of how ICTs influence societies and how societies are shaping ICTs are also beginning to emerge (e.g Ushahidi and Mpesa in Kenya).The study is limited to Kenya although WildlifeDirect has blogs from the rest of Africa, Latin America and Asia. The following broad questions were asked: 1.What impact has social media had on fundraising for conservation? 2.Can it be an alternative to traditional sources or help in diversification of sources of funding? 3.Can it address the sustainability question? 4.What attracts donations – species, language, relationships, transparency, location?5.To what extent are the blogs affecting policies, publics and mainstream media?6.What offline communication practices are bloggers engaged in, if any? 7.Is social media replacing traditional media? Are they used together?8.What are the inherent power positions in peer to peer giving? and9.An exploration of the technology – its freedoms and limitations, the state and media regulations, and who governs new media.The study found that WildlifeDirect is an innovative platform. It has appropriated a relatively new technology for its use. It has had relative success in fundraising, has provided a voice for conservationists, and has served as alternative media bringing news about species and conservation areas from people working directly in the field. It is used to advocate for important issues affecting wildlife conservation. Success in fundraising has not been across the board, bringing the issue of return on investment of using the technology to the fore. Connectivity is still a challenge in rural areas even with the introduction of the fibre optics cable and so is transacting with Africa. Even then, bloggers acknowledge the role the blogs play for their publicity and raising profiles. The study is divided into an introduction (conceptual framework); existing research; theories and methodology; analysis of findings; emerging picture (interpretation of data); discussion of results vis a vis theories; and a conclusion based on other new media/ICTS theories, followed by references and appendices.

<p>The experience of infertility and its associated treatments, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), can have a profound impact on the emotional health and well-being of women desiring to become mothers. While researchers have measured the impact of infertility or described the experience and processes related to infertility and its treatment, what remained to be explored was a virtually pre-packaged collection of rich descriptions of the IVF experience as captured in women’s blogs. This discourse analysis sought to describe the blogging practices of women undergoing IVF for treatment of infertility, exploring both the content and function of the IVF blog discourse. Data were collected from the text of seven women’s blogs and resulted in four main functions of the discourse: creation of and connection to a community, emotional support, blogging as therapy, and creation of an IVF resource. Findings suggest that blogging can have a positive impact on the psychosocial consequences experienced by women in fertility treatment. Findings of this study also have methodological implications for researchers considering blogs as a data source in qualitative research.</p> / Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

A modified grounded theory approach was used to analyze 200 parenting blog posts for instances of conforming to or deviating from gender stereotypes. A plethora of research recognizes the negative effects of perpetuating stereotypes on such aspects of life and culture as self-concepts, concepts of others, opportunities, obstacles, and occupations. Social cognitive theory informs how these gender stereotypes can affect parents even through blogs and how parents can then affect their children. Thus, research question one asked: Are there gendered instances in parenting blogs that deviate from or conform to a gender stereotype? and research question two asked: What categories and themes of gendered instances that deviate from or conform to a gender stereotype are present in the blogs? What categories and themes are most prevalent in the blogs? Findings indicated that there were gendered instance in the parenting blogs. Although only 30% of the analyzed blog posts contained gendered instances of deviating from or conforming to stereotypes, 75.6% of those instances were found to conform to a gender stereotype rather than deviate. Moreover, the categories that were present in the blog were as follows: Unrealistic Domestic Goddess, Perceived Gender Conformity of Children, Part-time Domestic Father, Realistic Domestic Mother, Normalizing Feminine Characteristics and Interests in Sons, Full-time Domestic Father, Negative Stereotypes Against Women, and Perceived Gender Nonconformity of Children. The category that was by far the most prevalent was the Unrealistic Domestic Goddess as 75.6% of the gendered instances fell under this category. / Master of Arts / Social media have become important communication media in the last several years with more than 252 million people from the United States utilizing at least one social networking site in 2016, and an estimated 2.95 billion users worldwide in 2020 (Statista, 2016) This is no less true for one form of social media called the blog, as evidenced by the 67% of Internet users who read blogs several times a week and 46% of Internet users reading blogs more than once a day (Marketpath, 2017). An impressive number of these Internet users are parents reading parenting blogs. Although exact statistics of how many parents read parenting blogs are not available, in 2010 more than 17 million mothers read blogs monthly (eMarket, 2010). A plethora of research recognizes the negative effects of perpetuating stereotypes on such aspects of life and culture as self-concepts, concepts of others, opportunities, obstacles, and occupations. Social cognitive theory informs how these gender stereotypes can affect parents even through blogs and how parents can then affect their children. Therefore, this study examined 200 blog posts from parenting blogs to determine if instances of conforming to or deviating from gender stereotypes were present in the blogs, what categories embodied these instances, and what categories were most prevalent. Although only 30% of the analyzed blog posts contained gendered instances of deviating from or conforming to stereotypes, 75.6% of those instances were found to conform to a gender stereotype rather than deviate. Moreover, the categories that were present in the blog were as follows: Unrealistic Domestic Goddess, Perceived Gender Conformity of Children, Part-time Domestic Father, Realistic Domestic Mother, Normalizing Feminine Characteristics and Interests in Sons, Full-time Domestic Father, Negative Stereotypes Against Women, and Perceived Gender Nonconformity of Children. The category that was by far the most prevalent was the Unrealistic Domestic Goddess as 75.6% of the gendered instances fell under this category.

This dissertation theorizes the food blog as an instance of “habitual new media” (Chun, Habitual New Media). A familiar Web 2.0 genre, food blogs have played a prominent role in rendering the Internet as a source of always-available culinary know-how. At the same time, they have long been and continue to be components of a broader “food-related media convergence” (Lofgren), as bloggers engage with other media formats and industries—cookbooks, television, photography, journalism—and rework their content to meet the demands of a “platformized creative economy” (Duffy et al. 1). Engaging with food blogging’s simultaneous persistence and transformation within a post-digital and post-foodie media landscape, I consider how the unfolding relationality of home cooking is “stabilized” (Kember and Zylinska 75) into demonstrable, shareable, and archivable food knowledges—a process I term culinary experience. While digital modalities provide an important “automedial” (Smith and Watson 168) venue for putting home cooking “on the record” (Couser 181), food blogs are never ‘just’ digital but instead speak to the entanglement of digital technologies, platforms, and discourses with legacy media forms, food and plant matter, and the agential ‘stuff’ and spaces of everyday life. I argue that culinary experience is enacted with, and complexified by, these overlapping materialities. My analysis is organized into three substantial chapters, which trace the materialization of culinary experience throughout the photographic practices of the blogging studio-kitchen, the blog-to-(cook)book pipeline of the 2010s, and the everyday soundscapes of short-form recipe videos. Calling for a deeper dialogue between food studies and feminist media studies in the wake of the material turn, I demonstrate that an attention to food blogging assemblages opens up questions about how certain food stories, and certain culinary agencies, come to “matter” (Poletti, Stories 7)—and explore how we might reorient the workings of culinary experience toward more equitable digital food futures. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / First emerging in the early Internet cultures of the new millennium, food blogs have developed into a familiar online genre and a reliable source of culinary knowledge. This dissertation argues that, to understand the food blog’s embeddedness in everyday digital food cultures, we must account for the manifold technical and material agencies with which food stories and recipes are shared, circulated, and stored. Turning my attention to bloggers’ home photography studios, the relationship between blogs and cookbooks, and the soundscapes of recipe videos found across social media platforms, I position food blogs as a key mechanism by which culinary experiences are formed and understood, but also reformed and contested. In their dual function as autobiographical and archival media, food blogs contribute to a culinary public record which, I argue, is as shaped by analogue media and ‘IRL’ kitchens as it is by digital norms and infrastructures.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to investigate Afrikaner identity in the Afrikaans blogosphere on the basis of the Afrikaner nasionalist identity that was forged during the twentieth century. The environment within which blogs function and its characteristics are discussed, after which the circumstances that led to the development of Afrikaner identity as well as the current sociopolitical position of Afrikaners are traced. Through quantitative analysis, the Afrikaans blogosphere is compared to this identity to discover too what extent the identity is still remnant in Afrikaans bloggers. It is concluded that Afrikaner nationalism is virtually extinct in the Afrikaans blogosphere and that the plurality of identities hosted by it are fragmented and paradoxical. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om identiteitsvorming in die Afrikaanse blogosfeer te ondersoek aan die hand van die Afrikaner-nasionalistiese identiteitskonstruk van die twintigste eeu. Aandag word geskenk aan die milieu waarbinne blogs funksioneer en hul aard, waarna die omstandighede waaronder Afrikaneridentiteit ontstaan sowel as die huidige sosio-politiese posisie van Afrikaners nagespeur word. Aan die hand van kwantitatiewe ondersoekmetodes word Afrikaanse blogs dan met die voorafgenoemde identiteit vergelyk in 'n poging om agter te kom in watter mate dit nog by Afrikaanse bloggers teenwoordig is. Die gevolgtrekking word gemaak dat Afrikaner-nasionalisme bykans afwesig is in die Afrikaanse blogosfeer en dat die pluraliteit van identiteite daarop gefragmenteerd en paradoksaal daar uitsien.

Esta tese investiga e procura responder a duas hipóteses de pesquisa: a) Os profissionais do jornalismo estão migrando das mídias tradicionais (impresso, rádio e TV) para novas mídias, principalmente para os blogs. b) Os jornalistas adotaram e estão migrando para os blogs em busca de maior autonomia, independência, liberdade de expressão e realização profissional. O referencial teórico que orientou este estudo conceitua o trabalho e a comunicação como atividade humana, ergológica (Schwartz), constitutiva da ontologia do ser social (Marx). O trabalho jornalístico é abordado a partir desse referencial teórico, para destacar como os processos produtivos nessa área profissional foram transformados pelas tecnologias, técnicas e organização diferenciadas das rotinas produtivas. Toma-se o conceito clássico de jornalismo e de sua deontologia e analisa-se seu desenvolvimento ao longo do século XX e início de XXI à luz das mudanças ocorridas a partir da globalização, do mundo do trabalho do jornalista e da organização das empresas de comunicação na contemporaneidade. Os valores humanistas que fundam o campo jornalístico são questionados em relação aos valores da sociedade de consumo, da informação e do espetáculo. Do ponto de vista metodológico, os procedimentos são: levantamento bibliográfico pertinente aos conceitos envolvidos e, também, o estudo empírico de casos e a observação de jornalistas experientes que migraram para os blogs como nova opção profissional. Como resultado, foi constatado que os jornalistas migraram para os blogs em busca de autonomia, entre outros motivos, mas encontraram obstáculos que os impede de exercer a plena liberdade de expressão no novo meio, como o cerceamento financeiro e o judicial. Além disso, estão em busca de novos arranjos econômicos que possibilite o pleno exercício da profissão nos blogs. / This thesis investigates and seeks to answer two research hypotheses: a) The journalism professionals are migrating from traditional media (print, radio and TV) to new media, especially for blogs. b) Journalists have adopted and are migrating to blogs in search of greater autonomy, independence, freedom of expression and professional achievement. The theoretical framework that guided this study conceptualizes the work and communication as a human activity, ergologic (Schwartz), a constituent of the ontology of social being (Marx). The journalistic work is approached from this theoretical framework, to highlight how the production processes in this professional area were transformed by technology, techniques and differentiated organization of productive routines. One takes the classical concept of journalism and its ethics and analyzes its development throughout the twentieth century and early twenty-first in the light of the changes brought about by the globalization, the journalist\'s job in the world and the organization of communication companies in the contemporaneity. The humanist values that founded the journalistic field are questioned in relation to the values of the consumer society, information and spectacle. From a methodological point of view, the procedures are: relevant literature to concepts involved and also the empirical case studies and observation of experienced journalists who migrated to blogs as a new career option. As a result, it was found that journalists migrated to the blogs in search of independence, among other reasons, but found obstacles that prevent them from exercising full freedom of expression in the new medium, as the financial restriction and the judicial. They are also looking for new economic arrangements that will allow the full exercise of the profession in blogs.

Submitted by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-08-08T19:07:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - dorama de miranda carvalho.pdf: 34743082 bytes, checksum: c652cc08cbb08eb0bb78c4dc4da01705 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-08-08T19:08:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - dorama de miranda carvalho.pdf: 34743082 bytes, checksum: c652cc08cbb08eb0bb78c4dc4da01705 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Cristina Ropero (ana@espm.br) on 2018-08-16T16:05:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - dorama de miranda carvalho.pdf: 34743082 bytes, checksum: c652cc08cbb08eb0bb78c4dc4da01705 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Cristina Ropero (ana@espm.br) on 2018-08-16T16:05:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - dorama de miranda carvalho.pdf: 34743082 bytes, checksum: c652cc08cbb08eb0bb78c4dc4da01705 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T16:06:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ppgcom - dorama de miranda carvalho.pdf: 34743082 bytes, checksum: c652cc08cbb08eb0bb78c4dc4da01705 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-28 / The purpose of this study is to present the formation of a reader-protagonist in the current Brazilian literary scene, based on the analysis of the discourses generated in blogs about literature and the intersection with other social networks, especially YouTube. The goal is to show that there are new ways of accessing reading and that bloggers and youtubers are representatives of various literary consumption practices. The course of research and the discursive analysis of 12 blogs indicated the emergence of subjects that are transforming the dynamics of the book sector, with reviews and commentaries in social networks, both on book launches and on classical works. The printed book is highlighted even in a scenario of sales retraction and allows the emergence of new actors in literary criticism. The work resulted in some points that deserve to be highlighted: the current reading scenario in Brazil; the reader in a universe of media consumption of literature; convergence of media platforms as a generator of new identity formations; the discourses aimed at specific audiences and, as a consequence, the rise of authors, genres and literary styles. / A proposta deste estudo é apresentar como ocorre a formação de um leitor-protagonista na atual cena literária brasileira, a partir da análise dos discursos gerados em blogs sobre literatura e o entrecruzamento com outras redes sociais, em especial, o YouTube. O objetivo é mostrar que há novos modos de acesso à leitura e que blogueiros e youtubers são representantes de variadas práticas de consumo literário. O percurso de pesquisa e as análises discursivas de 12 blogs indicaram a emergência de sujeitos que estão transformando a dinâmica do setor livreiro, com a realização de resenhas e comentários em redes sociais tanto sobre lançamentos de livros quanto de obras clássicas. O livro impresso ganha destaque mesmo em um cenário de retração das vendas de exemplares e permite o surgimento de novos atores no que se refere à crítica literária. O trabalho resultou em alguns pontos que merecem destaque: o cenário atual de leitura no Brasil; o leitor em um universo de consumo midiático de literatura; convergência das plataformas midiáticas como fator gerador de novas formações identitárias; os discursos voltados para públicos específicos e, como consequência, a ascensão de autores, gêneros e estilos literários.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T18:47:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Celina Dias Azevedo.pdf: 6803662 bytes, checksum: 119370d2ac4513c6057b6cf474587386 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-15 / The computer, allied with the Internet-based communication process, is the center of a transformation that involves and intermediates actions of communication, economy, work, and access to information in the globalized society. This study reflects on how this technology started to mediate our daily life, configuring the social relations. Our aim was to investigate how the elderly use the new communication technologies to experiment new social spaces. The theorists whose ideas supported this work are Manuel Castells and Pierre Levy, who understand cyberspace as an important territory for communication and social interaction. The focus selected for the research was the Weblog, a kind of website that has the characteristic of strong interactivity. Using search sites on the Internet we looked for examples of blogs that had in the profile/blogger identification (over 60 years of age) posts with keywords (old person; elderly; maturity; aging; third age), indication of blogs, blogs of elderly people disseminated in the media and others, with the same characteristics, found in the blogroll of the bloggers who are the subjects of this study. The sample is composed of seven blogs, of which four were monitored from December 2007 to September 2008. The examples do not intend to be a statistic parameter; rather, they indicate a tendency. Three criteria were defined to choose the blogs that would be analyzed, by means of non-participatory research: the blog is/has remained on the air or has been updated for at least six months; the blogger/author is 60 years old or more and the age is informed in his blog profile; and blog of any category. The blogs were classified as Individual expression blogs, created by a single blogger; Collective or group expression blogs, created by more than one blogger; and Mixed, created by one single blogger which publishes posts whose authorship is not the blogger s. Analyzing the meaning of the expressions used by the elderly in cyberspace, we observed that there are examples of action in the cyberspace that gives visibility to the elderly and to aging; the elderly person uses the blog as a socialization and individual expression space; the elderly manifest their autonomy when they create an independent socialization space; and the utilization of the blog creates opportunities to access other environments on the net. We noticed an extension of the use of the blog beyond the resource of virtual diary , configuring a multiple and complex social space of individual expression, but also of learning and informative, cooperative and literary convergence / O computador aliado ao processo comunicacional via internet é o centro de uma transformação que envolve e intermedia ações de comunicação, da economia, do trabalho, do acesso à informação na sociedade globalizada. Ao refletir como essa tecnologia passou a mediar nosso cotidiano configurando as relações sociais, buscou-se investigar como os velhos apoderam-se das novas tecnologias comunicacionais para a experimentação de novos espaços sociais, fundamentados em teóricos como Manuel Castells e Pierre Levy, que entendem o ciberespaço como terreno importante de comunicação e de interação social. O foco escolhido para a pesquisa foi o Weblog, uma espécie de website, com a característica da forte interatividade. Utilizando sítios de buscas na Internet procuramos exemplos de blogs que traziam no perfil/identificação do blogueiro (acima de 60 anos), posts com palavras-chaves (velho; idoso; maturidade; envelhecimento; terceira idade), indicação de blogs, blogs de idosos divulgados na mídia e outros, com as mesmas características, encontrados no blogroll dos blogueiros sujeitos desta pesquisa. Chegou-se a uma amostra de sete blogs, dos quais quatro foram acompanhados de dezembro 2007 a setembro 2008. Os exemplos não pretendem ser um parâmetro estatístico e sim indicar uma tendência. Definiu-se três critérios para escolha dos blogs que seriam analisados, optando-se pela pesquisa não participativa: Blog estar/ter permanecido no ar ou ser atualizado pelo menos há seis meses; Blogueiro/autor ter 60 anos ou mais, informados em seu perfil no blog; e Blog de qualquer categoria. Os blogs foram classificados em Blogs de expressão individual, criados por um único blogueiro; Blogs de expressão coletiva ou de grupos, criados por mais de um blogueiro; e Misto, criados por único blogueiro que publica posts que não são de sua autoria. Ao analisar o significado das expressões protagonizadas no ciberespaço pelo velho, constatamos que há exemplos de atuação no ciberespaço que dá visibilidade ao velho e ao envelhecimento; o velho utiliza o blog como espaço de sociabilização e expressão individual; o velho manifesta sua autonomia ao criar um espaço de sociabilização independente; e a utilização do blog cria oportunidade para acesso a outros ambientes na rede. Percebe-se uma ampliação do uso do blog para além do recurso do diário virtual configurando um espaço social múltiplo e complexo de expressão individual, mas também de aprendizado e convergência informativa, cooperativa e literária

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcia Siqueira Costa Marques.pdf: 1713734 bytes, checksum: 456926b9d16c990d832698fe47cae1f0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-24 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This research project focuses on a study of the origins, nature, social importance, reception scheme, cultural dynamics and scope of blogs. In this context, the blog will be considered as the primary means of communication of the emerging era of cyberculture. The project examines the role of this new media and this universe of blogs and bloggers the blogosphere as a new means of political resistance to the information monopoly of major international media groups. Fundamentally, it seeks to understand the dynamics of this new relationship and its economic and cultural appropriation. This objective, in particular, contextualizes the research question: How are blogs are situated in this new communication scenario? And further, what role does this new means of production, circulation and exchange of information play vis-à-vis mass media? The research problem includes questions concerning the motivational factors underlying the blogging experience, aiming to determine if blogs are indeed the main media of this new generation; if they are actually opposed to traditional media or simply update them in a different way; their functional models; and their social and economic appropriation. The working hypotheses are as follows: the social relevance of blogs obfuscates the importance of the traditional means of communication, prevailing as a means to obstruct the hegemony of the large media conglomerates; cyberspace promotes new categories of communication and culture and modifies categories of analysis of the communication process; due to its specificity and underlying proposal, the cyclical and structural characteristics of the bloggers universe may render the general theory of communications outdated in many respects. The theoretical framework of this research is based on the epistemology of cybercultural dromocracy, especially with regard to the concepts of glocal and glocalization proposed by Trivinho (2007); Castells s (2003, 2006, 2009) concepts of networks, flows and mass self-communication; La Boétie s (2009) idea of voluntary servitude; and Searle s (2002) concept of intentionality. The methodology encompasses a bibliographic review based on the most recent national and international publications on the subject, as well as on magazine and newspaper articles, specific websites and blogs, while the corpus of analysis is composed of the Brazilian blogosphere, its readers/producers and their interrelationships. With these elements, the research aims to discover and grasp what lies behind the act of blogging and of reading blogs. The collected and summarized data will serve as the basis for a comparison of the various aspects of blogs and for an analysis of the blogosphere culture, in order to test the validity of the aforementioned hypotheses / O Projeto de Pesquisa está consagrado ao estudo das origens, da natureza, da importância social, do esquema de recepção, da dinâmica cultural e dos horizontes dos blogs. Nesse contexto, o blog será considerado como principal meio de comunicação de uma nova era emergente, a cibercultura. O Projeto visa explorar o papel desta nova mídia e deste universo dos blogs e dos blogueiros a blogosfera como um novo meio de resistência política ao monopólio da informação de grandes grupos internacionais de mídia. Fundamentalmente, busca compreender a dinâmica dessa nova relação e suas apropriações culturais e econômicas. Esse objetivo, em particular, contextualiza a problemática da pesquisa: como os blogs se situam nesse novo cenário comunicacional? E, de forma conexa, qual o papel deste novo veículo de produção, circulação e troca de informação perante a mídia de massa? O problema de pesquisa também inclui indagações sobre quais fatores motivacionais subjazem à experiência de blogar; se os blogs são de fato a principal mídia dessa nova geração; se eles se opõem realmente às mídias tradicionais ou apenas atualizam, de modo diferenciado, os seus modelos de funcionamento; e suas apropriações sociais e econômicas. As hipóteses de trabalho são as seguintes: a relevância social dos blogs descaracteriza a importância dos meios de comunicação tradicionais, prevalecendo como meio de combate à hegemonia dos grandes conglomerados; o ciberespaço promove novas categorias de comunicação e de cultura, e modifica categorias de análise do processo comunicacional; as características estruturais e conjunturais do universo dos blogs, por sua especificidade e proposta subjacente, podem tornar, em muitos aspectos, a teoria geral da comunicação desatualizada. O quadro teórico de referência da pesquisa é baseado na epistemologia da dromocracia cibercultural, em especial no que diz respeito ao conceito de glocal e de glocalização, de Trivinho (2007); nos conceitos de redes, fluxos e mass self-communication, de Castells (2003, 2006, 2009); na ideia de servidão voluntária, de La Boétie (2009) e de intencionalidade de Searle(2002). A metodologia adotada encerra levantamento bibliográfico com base na literatura ensaística nacional e estrangeira mais recente sobre o assunto, bem como em revistas, jornais, sites e blogs específicos; e análise de corpus, formado pela blogosfera brasileira, com seus leitores/produtores e relações entre eles. Com esses traços, a pesquisa pretende alcançar e apreender o que está por trás do ato de blogar e ler blogs. Os dados obtidos e sintetizados servirão de base comparativa entre os aspectos dos blogs e para análise da cultura da blogosfera, com a finalidade de checagem das hipóteses previstas

Cette thèse est un travail sur les dispositifs sociotechniques de communication. A partir de l’observation des pratiques médiatiques des adolescents et plus particulièrement, de leurs productions énonciatives sur deux supports, que sont les blogs et les journaux collégiens et lycéens, l’analyse comparative de la matérialité langagière a permis d’aborder ce corpus d’énoncés avec une démarche scientifique. C’est le thème de l’amour qui a été retenu comme fédérateur pour aborder les productions de jeunes. Notre analyse a fait émerger certains points de convergence entre les deux dispositifs, traduisant la présence de pratiques discursives communes à cette génération, mais elle a également mis en avant des variantes au niveau des conditions discursives, permettant ainsi d’aborder les pratiques communicationnelles spécifiques à chaque situation de communication de communication, en fonction des contraintes et des possibilités offertes par les différents supports. Une première partie de l’analyse vise à aborder les énoncés à partir des thématiques et des genres de textes privilégiés sur chacun des dispositifs. La seconde partie traite plus en détails des spécificités énonciatives, par le biais de l’analyse des configurations actantielles et des modalités énonciatives. Ainsi, le journal est un dispositif relevant d’un contexte institutionnalisé,inspiré par des modèles traditionnels, mais également par une volonté d’originalité et une dimension communautaire visant à renforcer les liens au sein de la collectivité scolaire. Le blog, pour sa part, est un espace ouvert, offrant une liberté de publication, favorisant l’émergence de discours plus individualisés,interactifs et centrés sur l’expérience personnelle du bloggeur. Entre expression semi-publique et privée,les blogs, en tant qu’espaces personnels servent la construction identitaire et l’expression personnelle des jeunes. Pour finir, notre travail met en avant les pratiques effectives des jeunes à propos de la lecture et de l’écriture, plus ou moins éloignées des formes traditionnelles et du modèle scolaire, mais qui attestent bien de leur volonté d’expression et de médiatisation de leurs discours. / This thesis is about sociological and technical devices of communication. From the observation of mediatics practices from teenagers, and more specifically their enunciatives productions on two different devices, represented by blogs and newspapers produced at school, the comparison of language materiality enabled us to approach this corpus of utterances with a scientific process. The theme of love was retained as the more unifying to rally both devices and take an interest about teenagers’ productions. Our analyze made up some convergence points between these devices, reflecting the existence of discursive practices specific to teenagers, but it also rose some differences in terms of discursive conditions, enabling to approach the communicative specific practices related to each situation, according to the constrains and possibilities offered by each device. The first part of analyze was dealing with speeches in terms of thematic and genre to see which kind was privileged on which device. The second part of analyze is more centered on enunciative specificities, by the analyze of acting configurations and enunciatives modalities.Thus, the newspaper is a device under institutional context, inspired by traditional models but also by awill of originality and a community dimension in order to strengthening ties between scholar collectivity. Blogs is a more opened space, giving the freedom of publication and privileging more individual discourses, more interactive, and more centered on blogger’s self-experience. Between semi-public and semi-private expression, the blog, as a personal space, helps identity and personal construction of teenagers.To conclude, our work highlights efficient practices of writing and reading from teenagers, more or less distant from traditional and scholar model, but which proves their willingness of expressing and spreading their discourses.