Abstract
The number of weblogs has increased exponentially since several weblog
service providers released free and easy-to-use software in late 1999. This
enabled people with a computer, Internet access and a desire to present
themselves and their daily lives, and/or their political views, tech news,
knitting projects for a possible audience to create and keep a blog. Yet, why do
people read blogs, and why and how do they read the blogs they read? I report
the results of an investigation of diary weblog reading practices. The report is
primarily based on a reader survey that I conducted on four independent
diary weblog sites which I have followed for the past three years and whose
authors I have repeatedly interviewed via e-mail. The survey data suggests
that we need to view the diary weblog as a genre, at present stabilized enough
for communities of readers to have a sense of their position in the text, to the
author, the text’s relationship to the “real,” and its use value. The most
evident offline antecedent, the paper diary (and offline autobiographical
writing in general), to a high extent shape these relations.
service providers released free and easy-to-use software in late 1999. This
enabled people with a computer, Internet access and a desire to present
themselves and their daily lives, and/or their political views, tech news,
knitting projects for a possible audience to create and keep a blog. Yet, why do
people read blogs, and why and how do they read the blogs they read? I report
the results of an investigation of diary weblog reading practices. The report is
primarily based on a reader survey that I conducted on four independent
diary weblog sites which I have followed for the past three years and whose
authors I have repeatedly interviewed via e-mail. The survey data suggests
that we need to view the diary weblog as a genre, at present stabilized enough
for communities of readers to have a sense of their position in the text, to the
author, the text’s relationship to the “real,” and its use value. The most
evident offline antecedent, the paper diary (and offline autobiographical
writing in general), to a high extent shape these relations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-59 |
| Journal | Human IT |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
Subject classification (UKÄ)
- Gender Studies
Free keywords
- diary weblogs
- genre
- reading
- autobiographical acts
- interactivity