Addressing the Unseen: The Audience Envisioned for Adolescent Diary

Weblogs

Lois Ann ScheidtSchool of Library and Information Science (SLIS)

Indiana UniversityUSA

What is a blog?

A weblog is a frequently modified website that allows updating with items that are grouped primarily by the time and/or date of posting. Entries usually appear in reverse chronological order. Contents of the weblog may be available publicly or through restricted access. Weblogs may also utilize special software designed for this implementation.

What makes a weblog a diary blog1?

Usually has a single author (Fothergill, 1974). Usually written in first person (Mcneill, 2003). Tell an episodic story (Walker, 2003) that may

be fragmentary (Hogan, 1991) and is always in process (Culley, 1985).

Open-ended and terminates when writer ceases to make entries (Bunkers, 2001).

1 Also referred to as personal journal blogs (Blood, 2002).

How do diary blogs differ from their paper-based antecedents?

Two time-worn assumptions related to paper diaries fall by the wayside when looking at diary weblogs:– That the diaries are kept only for personal

consumption. – That diary keeping is a private and secret effort.

(Bunkers, 2001)

How do you define adolescence?

Adolescence is defined as the second decade of life – ages 10-19 (Steinberg, 2002).

Adolescent diary blogs

Two studies by the SLIS BROG project have found that adolescent bloggers account for:– 34.3% (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004)

and – 39.0% (Herring, Kouper, Scheidt, & Wright, 2005).

Orlowski (2003) goes further, asserting that a majority of bloggers are teenage girls.

Embedded Audience

Formal audience Is constructed by discursive practices Is embedded into the narrative through the

author’s choices during production (Anderson, 1996, p. 78).

Langellier’s Audiences for Personal Narrative Performance (1998)

As a witness testifying to the experience. As a therapist unconditionally supporting emotions. As a cultural theorist assessing the contestation of

meanings, values, and identities in the performance. As a narrative analyst examining genre, truth or

strategy. A critic appraising the display of performance

knowledge and skill.

As a witness testifying to the experience

Available: http://16crayons.blogspot.com/

As a therapist unconditionally supporting emotions

Available: http://anonymuse.blogspot.com/

As a cultural theorist assessing the contestation of meanings, values, and identities in the performance

Available: http://coquet.blogspot.com/

As a narrative analyst examining genre, truth or strategy

Available: http://home.nc.rr.com/benlaz/

A critic appraising the display of performance knowledge and skill

Available: http://www.arador.org/

Methodology

Content Analysis and Ethnographic Methods Opportunity sample (N=12)

– EatonWeb Portal (http://portal.eatonweb.com) Originally a hand coded list of all the weblogs available

online (Rhodes, 2002). Now a JavaScript file that aggregates self-submission and

keywording (Rhodes, 2002).

All original text entries on the first page of the blog were coded.

Demographics

Blogger’s sex: 6 each females & males Ave entries per page = 8.5, range = 4, 21.

– Female ave 6.8 ,range 5, 14– Male ave 10.2, range 4, 21. Removing the

outlier ave = 8, range 4, 14. Ave age = 16.9 years, range = 13 – 19.

Country of origin

USA

Philippines Singapore

UK

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

Posts by Author Sex

Posts = 102 of which 89 could be fully coded

female, 41.6%

male, 58.4%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

Entries by audience type

witness, 50.6%

therapist, 12.4%

cultural theorist, 25.8%

narrative analyst, 7.9%

critic, 3.4%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

Audience Type by Sex of Author

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

witness therapist cultural theorist narrative analyst critic

female male

Number of categories represented within the blogs

1

2

3 4

5

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

Observations on co-occurrence of audience categories

10 of the 12 have witness posts (83.3% of the blogs).

The 2 that don't have witness posts have the same 3 categories (therapist, cultural theorist, narrative analyst)

3 of the 4 with two categories have the same 2 categories (witness and cultural theorist)

All 3 with a single category are witness only.

Conclusion - Females

Females show a tendency toward:– bifurcated audience focus,

internal in requesting support.external via cultural assessment.

Conclusions - Males

Males show a tendency toward:– external focus through narrative analysis. – sharing their world by asking us to witness the event

and comment on their personal performance.

Future Research

Apply the methodology to a larger dataset. Establish who the bloggers believe they are

writing to through interviews and surveys.

Contact Information for Lois Ann Scheidt

Email: lscheidt@indiana.edu Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Personal Weblog:

http://www.professional-lurker.com BROG Weblog: http://www.blogninja.com