This thesis explores weblogs and, for purposes of comparison, their paper near-equivalent, the personal diary. The analysis demonstrates the values that weblogs hold as potential archival records, in and of themselves and in comparison to their diary “equivalents,” and then suggests appraisal concepts and strategies for archivists in collecting weblogs. The emphasis of this study is on women’s diaries and weblogs, and gender analysis is incorporated into the discussion. / October 2007

This thesis explores weblogs and, for purposes of comparison, their paper near-equivalent, the personal diary. The analysis demonstrates the values that weblogs hold as potential archival records, in and of themselves and in comparison to their diary “equivalents,” and then suggests appraisal concepts and strategies for archivists in collecting weblogs. The emphasis of this study is on women’s diaries and weblogs, and gender analysis is incorporated into the discussion.

This thesis explores weblogs and, for purposes of comparison, their paper near-equivalent, the personal diary. The analysis demonstrates the values that weblogs hold as potential archival records, in and of themselves and in comparison to their diary “equivalents,” and then suggests appraisal concepts and strategies for archivists in collecting weblogs. The emphasis of this study is on women’s diaries and weblogs, and gender analysis is incorporated into the discussion.

This thesis describes a linguistic investigation of individual differences in online personal diaries, or 'blogs.' There is substantial evidence of gender differences in language (Lakoff, 1975), and to a lesser extent linguistic projection of personality (Pennebaker & King, 1999). Recent work has investigated these latter differences in the area of computer-mediated communication (CMC), specifically e-mail (Gill, 2004). This thesis employs a number of analytic techniques, both top-down (dictionary-based) and bottom-up (data-driven), in order to explore personality and gender differences in the language of blogs. A corpus was constructed by asking authors to submit a month of text and complete a sociobiographic questionnaire. The corpus consists of over 400,000 words and five-factor personality data (Buchanan, 2001) for 71 subjects. The thesis begins by framing blogs in the context of other genres, both CMC and traditional, in order to show both the distinctiveness and representativeness of the genre. Top-down content analysis techniques are then employed to investigate the relationship between personality and linguistic features. A number of features correlate with each trait, but upon regression, very little variance is explained. Bottom-up techniques are more successful. The corpus was stratified into high, low and neutral personality groups to identify distinctive collocations for each. Returning to the raw personality scores, it becomes clear that even a small amount of n-gram context helps account for much more variance in personality. A measure of contextuality (Heylighen & Dewaele, 2002) shows that authors considered high in Agreeableness pay more attention to differences between their extra-linguistic context and that of their audience. Attention turns to gender, where similar methods are applied to investigate gender differences in language. Many previous findings are confirmed in the blog corpus. In addition, women are found to write more in their blogs than men. More generally, using the British National Corpus, it is shown that women are more contextual, except in the least contextual of genres (academic writing) where there is no difference. The study concludes by confirming that both gender and personality are projected by language in blogs; furthermore, approaches which take the context of language features into account can be used to detect more variation than those which do not.

The once private traditional written diary is shifting to an electronic storytelling tradition. Online diaries or weblogs are a growing phenomenon that scholars have ignored until recently. This qualitative project uses narrative and rhetorical analysis to focus on storytelling themes in weblogs, rituals in storytelling and the similarities and differences from traditional written diaries. In this study, 30 weblogs were chosen from three web domains: livejournal.com, blogger.com and diarest.net. The findings show that weblogs are filled with rich storytelling that emulates many qualities of traditional diaries. In general, weblogs authors are communicating stories online to an interactive mass audience and forming new rituals in a new electronic forum.

Introduction. The ‘blogosphere’ is a space with digital information in which social networks form that offer countless application possibilities. In this technology-mediated context, it is feasible to study the performance and approaches of production, diffusion, relationship and use of information from different perspectives.. Method. Quantitative data were obtained through the regular examination of the blogs maintained by students and qualitative data were obtained from reports by the students and self-assessment questionnaires. Analysis. Simple counts of quantitative data were obtained, without further statistical analysis. The qualitative data were reviewed for insights into the motivations of students. Results. Given a free choice, most students adopted the Blogger platform for their blogs. Most blogs consisted of content reported from elsewhere and were not continued by the students following the end of the exercise. Conclusions. Students adopted an instrumental approach to the exercise, doing enough to complete the course requirements but not being sufficiently engaged to continue their blogs. Preliminary work based on basic competences is necessary in both collaboration processes and Web 2.0 technology to obtain satisfactory results in the use of Weblogs as teaching and learning tools.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Met lit.opg. en een samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:53:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OLIRA SARAIVA RODRIGUES.pdf: 570210 bytes, checksum: a59d57273d7a2e1592a6832b94a06eed (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-09-01 / This study investigates the Network Society, as a society that assumes new discursive processes, cognitive, social and cultural, because, as Castells (2005), is in constant movement, virtual in essence. It can be seen in cyberspace, specifically the blogosphere, discursive corpus of research, the presence of numerous devices that allow the blogger, author of the weblog, share information and establish virtual links. Among them are the personal weblogs, where the authors provide information they consider important, they describe their daily life and report on them. Discursive operation like writing a diary, in which the self is placed in evidence (LEJEUNE, 2008; SCHITTINE, 2004). Accordingly, it proposed a linguistic and discourse analysis (ORLANDI, PÊCHEUX) in personal weblogs, for understanding this speech, and considering that the discourse on the construction of new identities have been determined by a speech major, which potentiates the existence of new subjectivities and new relationships , to the concepts of cyberspace , cyberculture" and virtual reality (LÉVY, 1999), produced by Computer-Mediated Communications (CMC). This search assumes that weblogs were not only as a simple technical device, but as a social phenomenon, a privileged space for the confirmation of a feeling of existence and used as a resource in the construction of identity that has been called "identity virtual (HALL, 2005; BAUMAN, 2005). Finally, it is to hold some sense and significance processes present in the virtual world, as a way to better understand each other, as student, teacher, colleague, family..., but also himself. The analysis process includes authors such as Lévy (1999), Castells (2005) for the Network Society and Cyberculture; Pêcheux (1988) (1997), Orlandi (1996) (2001) (1987) for discourse analysis, Hall (2005), Bauman (2004) (2005), Turkle (1997) for Identity and Lejeune (2008) and Schittine (2004) for Weblogs. / O presente estudo investiga a Sociedade em Rede, como uma sociedade que pressupõe novos processos discursivos, cognitivos, sociais e culturais, pois, conforme Castells (2005), está em contínuo movimento, virtual em sua essência. É possível observar no ciberespaço, mais especificamente na blogosfera, corpus discursivo da pesquisa, a presença de inúmeros dispositivos que permitem ao blogger, autor de weblog, trocar informações e estabelecer laços virtuais. Dentre eles há os weblogs pessoais, em que seus autores oferecem informações que consideram importantes, descrevem seu cotidiano e relatam sobre si. Operação discursiva semelhante a escrita de um diário íntimo, em que o self é colocado em evidência (LEJEUNE, 2008; SCHITTINE, 2004). Assim sendo, será proposto uma análise linguístico-discursiva (ORLANDI, PÊCHEUX) em weblogs pessoais, que permitam compreender tal discursividade, considerando ainda que o discurso sobre a construção de novas identidades tem sido determinado por um discurso maior, que potencializa a existência de novas subjetividades e novos laços sociais , a partir dos conceitos de ciberespaço , cibercultura e realidade virtual (LÉVY, 1999), produzidos pelas Comunicações Mediadas por Computador (CMC). Este trabalho parte do pressuposto que os weblogs não se constituem apenas como um simples dispositivo técnico, mas sim como um fenômeno social, espaço privilegiado para a confirmação de um sentimento de existência e utilizado como recurso identitário na construção do que vem sendo denominado de identidade virtual (HALL, 2005; BAUMAN, 2005). Enfim, trata-se de apreender alguns dos sentidos e processos de significação presentes no mundo da virtualidade, como um modo de se compreender melhor o outro, seja aluno, professor, colega, familiares..., como também a si próprio. O processo de análise conta com autores como: Lévy (1999), Castells (2005) para Sociedade em Rede e Cibercultura; Pêcheux (1988) (1997), Orlandi (1996) (2001) (2006) para a Análise de Discurso; Hall (2005), Bauman (2004) (2005), Turkle (1997) para Identidade e Lejeune (2008) e Schittine (2004) para Weblogs.

This phenomenological study examines the motivations and experiences of librarians who author professionally-focused Weblogs. I constructed a model of librarianship based on Wilson and Buckland. The results show a close fit between librarian bloggers and the ideals of the field as expressed by two primary library and information science philosophers. A Web survey generated 239 responses to demographic and open-ended questions. Using the results of the survey, I analyzed demographic data and performed a phenomenological analysis of the open-ended questions. A list of category responses was generated from each set of answers via the coding of descriptive words and phrases. Results indicated the motivations of librarian bloggers are based around themes of sharing, participation in community, and enhanced professional development. Respondents reported feeling more connected to the profession and to colleagues across the world because of blogging. Respondents perceived the librarian blogosphere as a community with both positive aspects - feedback, discussion, and support - and negative aspects - insular voices, divides between technologists and librarians, and generational rifts. Respondents also reported an increased ability to keep current, improved writing skills, and opportunities to speak and contribute to professional journals.

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