The blog is a typical content production platform after BBS and QQ. Despite the launches of the Micro-blog, WeChat, and other emerging social media applications, blogs possess the basic features and mode of operation of social media in general. To study the environment of the blog, the relationship between bloggers, followers, online media and the changes in blogging practices have important theoretical and practical significance. These reveal the influential factors of contemporary online content production; reflect the logic of practices of content producers, the relationships between content producers and consumers, and development trends; and have theoretical and practical significance. Scholars have mainly focused on typical problems in the blogosphere, such as blogging behaviour and the influential factors impacting this. It is important to position the blog into a social context and comprehensively analyse it. Except political and economic field mentioned in this Bourdieu's field theory, this research added media ecology as an additional macro environment factor. Meanwhile, motivations theory and Uses and Gratifications theory were used to support micro-level analysis. This research holistically and systematically investigated the social environment, blogging practices and key relationships within the blogosphere by employing interviews and content analysis of blog posts. It reflected on the features and patterns of content production, dissemination and consumption. Moreover, it provided a new paradigm in studying content production in the social media era. This study found that as key content producers, bloggers' practices are not only influenced by political and economic factors but also constrained by the Internet and media technology. The features of the relationships between bloggers and the political field centre on dialogue and compromise, the relationships between bloggers and economic field involve support and integration, and the relationships between bloggers and media ecology are essentially interdependence and symbiosis. This study pointed out that the field is constantly changing and full of choices and the change of the field itself determines changes in blogging practices. It is a dynamic relationship. The motivations for blogging impact on blogging strategies. Extrinsic stimulation, intrinsic motivations and emotional reasons all influence blogging practices and strategies. The changes of blogging practices are influenced by the macro environment and the agency of bloggers. The basic blogging strategy is to assess the gain and loss. The research sorted out the relationships between the three main groups in the blogosphere, i.e. bloggers, followers, and online media. Blogger-to-blogger relationships are moving from competition towards cooperative relationships. Blogger-to-follower relationships have developed from a "writer-reader" relationship to "producer-customer" relationship. Blogger-to-online-media is transiting from dependence to the diversification of content operations. The primary contributions of this work are as follows. First, it has extended the application of field theory. When analysing the field of cultural production, Bourdieu only discusses political and economic influences. However, this study considers media ecology as the most important and direct factor. Second, it has revealed the paradigm of text-based content production by analysing blogging practices. The blogosphere is dynamic. Bloggers exert their agencies in response to the environment. The common features of the blogosphere and even the field of content production itself are changing from simple to complex and from simplification to diversification. Third, it has perfected the application of the concept of "cultural capital". Bourdieu noted that cultural capital is basically represented by educational qualification. This study found that in contemporary online content production, prior experience of working in media should be regarded as a vital indicator of cultural capital and assessing content production as it directly influences bloggers' content production. Fourth, it has emphasised the relationship between content producers and consumers. Field theory only focuses on the relationship among cultural producers and between cultural producers and brokers (publishers). However, the relationship between content producers and consumers is an essential interdependent and contradictory relationship. Therefore, by adding this relationship, this study holistically elucidated relational paradigms within the blogosphere. Key words: blogging practices, motivations, social milieu, dynamic relationships, capital. 博客是继BBS、QQ之后出现的具有社交功能的内容生产平台。虽然微博、微信等社交媒体应用相继出现，但博客已具备了社交媒体的基本特征和运作模式，在社群中有一定的影响力。本论文主要研究博客生存、发展环境，博主与博主、博主与粉丝、博主与平台之间的关系及互动，以及博主行为变化的规律，并对当下内容生产的影响因素、生产者的行为逻辑、生产者及受众间的相互关系及其发展趋势进行分析，具有重要的理论价值和现实意义。学界围绕博客使用的行为特征及其影响因素等问题，进行了有价值的探讨，其中多是针对博客的某一具体议题进行分析。而将博客作为内容生产媒介，并放在社会大背景下，进行全方位、多角度分析的研究，并不多见。本研究以布尔迪厄的场域理论为基础，除了本理论强调的政治场域和经济场域以外，还加上媒介生态作为宏观环境的因素，加上动机理论及使用与满足等相关理论作为微观理论。通过深度访谈法及内容分析法，访谈博主、分析博文、检阅文献，对博客所处的宏观社会环境、博客的写作行为、场域内的主要关系进行了较为全面、系统及深入地研究，分析内容生产、传播、消费的特征和规律，进而为社交媒体下的内容生产研究提供新的范式。本研究发现，博主作为内容生产的主体，其写作内容不仅受到社会政治、经济场域的影响，同时还受互联网和媒体技术场域的制约。主要关系特征表现为：与政治场域的对话与妥协，与经济场域的支撑与融合，以及与媒介生态的依存与共生。本研究指出，场域是一个不断变化且充满不定项选择的空间。场域的发展变化，决定博主写作行为的演化，是一个动态关系。博主的不同动机决定相应的行为策略。从场域刺激到情感内化是博主选择写作主题和决策的过程，这一过程既受客观环境的影响，又受主观能动性的制约，权衡得失是基本策略。研究也发现，在博客场域的三大主体,即博主、粉丝与平台的关系方面，博客主之间的关系由单纯的竞争关系向竞争与合作关系发展；博客主与粉丝的关系由单纯的"作者--读者"关系向"生产者--客户"关系转化；博客主与在线媒体的关系由单纯的依赖关系向多元化运作过渡。本文主要贡献有以下几点：一、拓展了场域理论。传统的场域理论在研究文化产业场域时，仅考虑到政治和经济两大因素，而本文将媒介生态作为一个重要的直接的因素来考量。二、通过分析博客场域，揭示了基于文字的内容生产的发展范式。博客场域具有动态变化的特征，博客的写作行为具有能动性。由简单到复杂，由单一到多元，是博客乃至所有内容生产场域的共同特征。三、完善了布迪厄"文化资本"概念的内涵。布尔迪厄强调文化资本主要是以教育资质为形式的制度化资本。而本研究发现，在当下的网络内容生产中，不仅要考虑到学历，媒介工作的经历，也是评估内容生产、文化资本的一个重要指标，直接影响博主的内容生产与传播。四、强调了内容的生产者与消费者的主体关系。场域理论仅关注了文化生产者之间、文化生产者与中间商（出版社）的关系。而内容的生产者与消费者是内容生产场域或传播领域最基本的依存及矛盾关系。因此，本文增加了这一主体关系，使得场域内各主体关系的分析更加全面。关键词：博客行为，动机，社会环境，动态关系，资本

This study explores the use of humor among bloggers coping with cancer. Framed by health communication literature on stress and coping and literature on humor styles, I analyzed the use of humor by individuals coping with various types of cancer. Using content analysis, I investigated 600 blog posts from 85 cancer bloggers for humor use. I adapted the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), a scale assessing four different uses of humor, into a codebook to use for content analysis within the blog posts. The different styles of humor included affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Individually, I tested the relationships between the style of humor a blogger used and the blogger’s gender, age, type of cancer, and point in the cancer trajectory. I also tested the relationships between the frequency of humor use within each blog post and the blogger’s gender, age, type of cancer, and point in the cancer trajectory. Every humorous remark was categorized into at least one of the four humor style categories. Overall, I found no significant relationships among the variables tested. However, each of the humor styles was used multiple times throughout the sample. This study provides future researchers with a new way to operationalize humor use based on the HSQ and with relevant examples from cancer blogs. The findings also suggest that humor is a common communicative device among those coping with cancer, and further research into how humor is used among more specific samples of cancer patients may provide more significant results. / text

Exercising to maintain a healthy lifestyle is significant to our modern society, and more and more aids such as blogs on the internet dedicated to training are there to help us. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze three Swedish female bloggers all of them dedicated to training and health, with the aim to find the secular sacred among their descriptions, in relation to Kim Knott and her theory of the secular sacred. The analysis was based on twelve blog posts, categorized after exercising, workouts or health, with the intention to answer the questions “How is the concept of exercise and health described in the selected blogs?”, and“How could these descriptions be understood according to Kim Knott’s theory of secular sacred, based on three categories: sacred, profane and unidentifiable?”. Based on an abductive method the blog posts were analyzed with a qualitative text analyzing approach. Using Knott’s theory, I categorized the posts in to three groups: sacred, profane and unidentifiable. The result showed that many of the posts could be categorized as sacred due to its content. Therefore, I concluded that it was possible to find content that could be seen as sacred based on Knott’s reasoning, which indicates that sacredness is not only placed within the religious context, but can also be found in the secular.

In July 2008, the UK Information Commissioner launched a review of EU Directive 95/46/EC on the basis that: “European data protection law is increasingly seen as out of date, bureaucratic and excessively prescriptive. It is showing its age and is failing to meet new challenges to privacy, such as the transfer of personal details across international borders and the huge growth in personal information online. It is high time the law is reviewed and updated for the modern world.” Legal practitioners such as Bergkamp have expressed a similar sense of dissatisfaction with the current legislative approach: “Data Protection as currently conceived by the EU is a fallacy. It is a shotgun remedy against an incompletely conceptualised problem. It is an emotional, rather than rational reaction to feelings of discomfort with expanding data flows. The EU regime is not supported by any empirical data on privacy risks and demand…A future EU privacy program should focus on actual harms and apply targeted remedies.” Accordingly, this thesis critiques key concepts of existing data protection legislation, namely ‘personal’ and ‘sensitive’ data, in order to explore whether current data protection laws can simply be amended and supplemented to manage privacy in the information society. The findings from empirical research will demonstrate that a more radical change in EU law and policy is required to effectively address privacy in the digital economy. To this end, proposed definitions of data privacy and private data was developed and tested through semi-structured interviews with privacy and data protection experts. The expert responses indicate that Bergkamp et al have indeed identified a potential future direction for privacy and data protection, but that further research is required in order to develop a coherent definition of privacy protection based on managing risks to personal data, and harm from misuse of such information.

A modified grounded theory approach was used to analyze the 2016 Target #NOFOMO swimwear campaign in which Target partnered with top bloggers and social media influencers to promote their inclusive swimwear line. Public and public prioritization as well as message themes, message styles, and message consistency were analyzed in research questions one A through F. Relationship management theory emphasizes that the organization-public relationship is key to organizational success. Constructs of trust, openness, and transparency are important measures of this organization-public relationship. Thus, research question two analyzed the frequencies of these constructs in public commentary on Target and blogger related content. Findings indicate that there was overall campaign consistency in both message themes and message styles across Target, the bloggers, and their publics. Moreover, the campaign prioritized the social media platform Instagram and, in doing so, created an intentional online social community of strategic publics that helped facilitate trust between Target, the bloggers, and their publics. Trust was the most frequently used construct of relationship management theory in public commentary, transparency seemed to be assumed in trust, despite the low frequency findings. Target mainly prioritized small-bodied white models/bloggers despite the campaign's inclusive messages and the greater opportunities for public interaction when medium- and large-bodied, non-white models/bloggers were featured. Finally, campaign disclosure and disclosure placement by Target partners were inconsistent across social media platforms which remains troubling in light of FTC requirements and Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Code of Ethics guidelines. / Master of Arts / In 2016, Target partnered with top bloggers and social media influencers to promote their #NOFOMO swimwear campaign, which emphasized their inclusive message and extended swimwear sizes. The analysis examined publics, public prioritization, message themes, message styles, and message consistency through an examination of press releases, blog posts, and related posts on social media platforms. In addition, comments on these same platforms were analyzed to determine if constructs of trust, transparency, and openness were apparent between Target, the bloggers, and their publics. Findings indicate that there was overall campaign consistency in both message themes and message styles across Target, the bloggers, and their publics. Moreover, the campaign prioritized the social media platform Instagram and, in doing so, created an intentional online social community of strategic publics that helped facilitate trust between Target, the bloggers, and their publics. In examining trust, the analysis also showed that commenters assumed transparency in their trust of Target and the bloggers. Target mainly prioritized smallbodied white models/bloggers despite the campaign’s inclusive messages and the greater opportunities for public interaction when medium- and large-bodied, non-white models/bloggers were featured. Finally, campaign disclosure and disclosure placement by Target partners were inconsistent across social media platforms which remains troubling in light of FTC requirements and Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Code of Ethics guidelines.

Nowadays rapid development of information and communication technologies induced changes in many spheres of society. Digital media gives an access to diverse information sources ensuring vast available information. However, it became more difficult to evaluate credibility of these sources and quality of information provided by them. Issues of source credibility and information quality are particularly important in the context of online shopping. Consumers have to rely on information provided by online retailers and other sources in order to make a right purchase decision. The purpose of this master thesis is to examine effects of source credibility and information quality on attitude toward using the information source and purchase intention. Previous research investigated these effects only for one information source, thus, this study addresses this gap by exploring three online information sources: retailer source, eWOM source and neutral source. Furthermore, the theoretical framework is applied to the context of online apparel shopping, as no similar studies have beenconducted in this area before. We have formulated the following research question: What kind of effects do source credibility and information quality have on attitude toward using information source and purchase intention of apparel products? We used Theory of Reasoned Action and Information Adoption Model to develop a conceptual model. Data was collected from a sample of 180 respondents, who completed the online survey. Empirical findings demonstrate that factors of source credibility such as trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness have positive effects on the attitude toward using eWOM source, while only trustworthiness and expertise positively affect the attitude toward using neutral source. For eWOM and neutral source relationships between factors of information quality and the attitude toward using the information source were found insignificant. On the contrary, for retailer source only factors ofinformation quality, accuracy and relevance, show positive effects on the attitude toward using retailer source. For all three sources attitudes toward using the information source and subjective norms positively affect purchase intentions. This work contributes to the existing knowledge by examining three online information sources in one study, which enables to discover differences in effects of source credibility and information quality on the attitude toward using the information source and purchase intention among sources. Furthermore, this paper provides recommendations for practitioners regarding improvement of perceived credibility and information quality ofeach information source in order to increase the number of consumers willing to use the source during information search.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka aktiva bloggares syn på yrket bloggare, sin egen blogg och bloggandet i allmänhet. Bloggen som yrke är ett område där tidigare forskning undersöker läsarnas och företagens interaktion med bloggaren. Det saknas dock ännu forskning som undersöker bloggarnas perspektiv på yrket och vad yrket kan innebära. Undersökningen fokuserar på den professionella sidan av bloggandet och utgörs av en kvalitativ intervjustudie med 13 respondenter. Resultaten diskuteras utifrån tidigare forskning samt teorier med utgångspunkt från olika marknadsföringsbegrepp. Resultaten visar att bloggarna är glada och stolta över vad de gör, men samtidigt upplever de att det finns en skepsis och oförstående från många. Bloggen ses inte som ett riktigt yrke, men i realiteten bevisar bloggarna att det kan vara allt från ens huvudsakliga yrke, till en hobby eller till ens digitala CV. Bloggen blir ett CV då det är en översikt över allt man gör samlat på ett ställe med kontinuerlig uppdatering. Enligt respondenterna ses bloggare som yrke fortfarande på med tveksamma ögon från stora delar av samhället. Det framkommer även att det ännu råder mycket okunskap, såväl bland bloggare som hos företag, kring hur man förhåller sig inom lagen när man arbetar med marknadsföring via bloggar. / The purpose of this study was to investigate and account for active bloggers view of the blogging profession, their blog and blogging in general. Previous research has been made about blogging and the interaction with the readers. This study revolves around the blogging profession and professional parts of working as a blogger and a qualitative selection of respondents led to 13 interviews. We discuss our results by applying marketing concepts as a point of departure. Looking closely into the subject makes it easy to see that the bloggers are happy with and proud of what they do, but they feel that the profession is still seen with skepticism and incomprehension from a lot of people. The blog is not considered as a real job, but in reality it can be anything from one's main occupation, just a hobby to one´s digital CV. The blog becomes a CV since it´s a place where you can store and display what you do and have done, with continual update. The study also concluded that even amongst the bloggers and the companies working alongside them, the industry is still evolving. Especially when it comes to advertising and marketing through blogs and maintaining legal working boundaries between blogger and company. According to our respondents the blogging profession still struggles when being scrutinized by bystanders.

Title: Blogs as a new tool of communication and promotion of fashion brands. Research question: How do fashion companies make use of bloggers as a new tool of communication to promote their brands? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to observe and explore how the fashion brands use bloggers and their blogs as a new method to advertise and communicate about them and their products to consumers. The study is conducted from an external point of view. Design/methodology/approach: This study is exploratory and descriptive and uses a qualitative method, with non-randomly method where the sample is composed of six international fashion blogs. To collect data the authors used guideline to conduct the content analysis of these selected blogs. Findings: This study shows that brands use the blogger as human being with the phenomenon of the word-of-mouth and opinion formers/leaders and they also make us of the blog content to incorporate ads to directly communicate to the online communities.

Assumindo como base teórico-metodológica, os estudos da Arqueologia da Mídia e a perspectiva arqueológica de Michel Foucault, nosso objeto de estudo corresponde à caracterização de um novo perfil profissional no campo da Comunicação, o de blogueira de moda. Estabelecemos, então, como objetivo principal de nossa pesquisa, definir como se deu o processo de profissionalização dos blogs de moda no Brasil. Para tal, ao longo da pesquisa apontamos características próprias das blogueiras de moda e de sua prática, assim como definimos etapas de profissionalização da blogosfera brasileira. A escolha pela pesquisa acerca dos blogs de moda e, mais especificamente, das blogueiras se dá pelo fato de que formatos e modelos de negócio que hoje fazem parte da rotina de outros produtores de conteúdo da internet foram desenhados por essas profissionais-amadoras. Para compreender como se deu esse processo de profissionalização, acompanhamos a produção de 52 blogueiras (por meio de posts nos blogs, vídeos no YouTube e publicações no Instagram), entre os anos de 2014 e 2018, em busca de enunciações sobre sua atividade profissional. Entre os resultados obtidos na pesquisa está a caracterização de quatro etapas de profissionalização da blogosfera de moda: vanguarda, legitimação, institucionalização e profissional. Também pudemos desvelar um ethos profissional das blogueiras que evidencia diferenças entre as profissionais, seus percursos na carreira, motivações e produção. / Assuming as a theoretical and methodological basis the studies of Media Archeology and the archaeological perspective of Michel Foucault, our object of study corresponds to the characterization of a new professional profile in the field of Communication; the fashion bloggers. Therefore, we established as the main objective of our research the definition of how the professionalization process of fashion blogs in Brazil took place. Throughout the research we identified characteristics of the fashion bloggers and their practices, as professionals. This research focuses on fashion bloggers because of their importance in establishing new formats and business models for other internet producers. To understand how this process takes place, we analyzed the discursive enunciation of 52 bloggers (through blog posts, YouTube videos and Instagram publications) between 2014 and 2018, searching for statements about their professional activity. Among the results is the characterization of four stages of the process of professionalization in the fashion blogosphere: vanguard, legitimation, institutionalization and professional. We have also been able to unveil a professional ethos of bloggers that shows differences among professionals, their career paths, motivations and production.

Assumindo como base teórico-metodológica, os estudos da Arqueologia da Mídia e a perspectiva arqueológica de Michel Foucault, nosso objeto de estudo corresponde à caracterização de um novo perfil profissional no campo da Comunicação, o de blogueira de moda. Estabelecemos, então, como objetivo principal de nossa pesquisa, definir como se deu o processo de profissionalização dos blogs de moda no Brasil. Para tal, ao longo da pesquisa apontamos características próprias das blogueiras de moda e de sua prática, assim como definimos etapas de profissionalização da blogosfera brasileira. A escolha pela pesquisa acerca dos blogs de moda e, mais especificamente, das blogueiras se dá pelo fato de que formatos e modelos de negócio que hoje fazem parte da rotina de outros produtores de conteúdo da internet foram desenhados por essas profissionais-amadoras. Para compreender como se deu esse processo de profissionalização, acompanhamos a produção de 52 blogueiras (por meio de posts nos blogs, vídeos no YouTube e publicações no Instagram), entre os anos de 2014 e 2018, em busca de enunciações sobre sua atividade profissional. Entre os resultados obtidos na pesquisa está a caracterização de quatro etapas de profissionalização da blogosfera de moda: vanguarda, legitimação, institucionalização e profissional. Também pudemos desvelar um ethos profissional das blogueiras que evidencia diferenças entre as profissionais, seus percursos na carreira, motivações e produção. / Assuming as a theoretical and methodological basis the studies of Media Archeology and the archaeological perspective of Michel Foucault, our object of study corresponds to the characterization of a new professional profile in the field of Communication; the fashion bloggers. Therefore, we established as the main objective of our research the definition of how the professionalization process of fashion blogs in Brazil took place. Throughout the research we identified characteristics of the fashion bloggers and their practices, as professionals. This research focuses on fashion bloggers because of their importance in establishing new formats and business models for other internet producers. To understand how this process takes place, we analyzed the discursive enunciation of 52 bloggers (through blog posts, YouTube videos and Instagram publications) between 2014 and 2018, searching for statements about their professional activity. Among the results is the characterization of four stages of the process of professionalization in the fashion blogosphere: vanguard, legitimation, institutionalization and professional. We have also been able to unveil a professional ethos of bloggers that shows differences among professionals, their career paths, motivations and production.