posted recently on the CITASA list, what looks to be a work of interest to some of us. i’ve added the link to the downloadable file below – haven’t read it myself yet, but if the abstract is anything to go by….
“As if nobody’s reading’?: the imagined audience and socio-technical biases in personal blogging practice in the UK”
David Brake. (2009) PhD thesis, London School of Economics.
Abstract
This thesis examines the understandings and meanings of personal blogging from the perspective of blog authors. The theoretical framework draws on a symbolic interactionist perspective, focusing on how meaning is constructed through blogging practices, supplemented by theories of mediation and critical technology studies. The principal evidence in this study is derived from an analysis of in-depth interviews with bloggers selected to maximise their diversity based on the results of an initial survey. This is supplemented by an analysis of personal blogging’s technical contexts [what i've been wont to call 'affordances' -el] and of various societal influences that appear to influence blogging practices. Bloggers were found to have limited interest in gathering information about their readers, appearing to rely instead on an assumption that readers are sympathetic. Although personal blogging practices have been framed as being a form of radically free expression, they were also shown to be subject to potential biases including social norms [that's us! - el] and the technical characteristics of blogging services ['affordances' again]. Blogs provide a persistent record of a blogger’s practice, but the bloggers in this study did not generally read their archives or expect others to do so, nor did they retrospectively edit their archives to maintain a consistent self-presentation. The empirical results provide a basis for developing a theoretical perspective to account for blogging practices. This emphasises firstly that a blogger’s construction of the meaning of their practice can be based as much on an imagined and desired social context as it is on an informed and reflexive understanding of the communicative situation [sounds as if he has been reading us all this time?]. Secondly, blogging practices include a variety of envisaged audience relationships, and some blogging practices appear to be primarily self-directed with potential audiences playing a marginal role [and, i feel we may be framed here again]. Blogging’s technical characteristics and the social norms surrounding blogging practices appear to enable and reinforce this unanticipated lack of engagement with audiences [indeed]. This perspective contrasts with studies of computer mediated communication that suggest bloggers would monitor their audiences and present themselves strategically to ensure interactions are successful in their terms. The study also points the way towards several avenues for further research including a more in-depth consideration of the neglected structural factors (both social and technical) which potentially influence blogging practices, and an examination of social network site use practices using a similar analytical approach
well, i’m convinced that the work will be worth reading, and very interested in what david proposes.
available with this link
discussion is invited on the blog at: http://groupblog.workasone.net/archives/00389.html
Incidentally, I find old blog posts on all sorts of blogs via searches and google alerts. Then I go check out the blog home and, many times, discover the blog is dead, (no longer being updated.)
I can track blog traffic on my own blogs, as well as ND2.0. So, my delusion is mitigated by the actual data.
(pp 13-14)