Digital Conversations on the Blogosphere

Adeola Abdulateef Elega 1 *
More Detail
1 Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 8, Issue 2, pp. 39-54. https://doi.org/10.12973/ojcmt/2353
OPEN ACCESS   2037 Views   1242 Downloads   Published online: 24 Apr 2018
Download Full Text (PDF)

ABSTRACT

Blogs or weblogs are shared online journals that allow individuals or groups to share entries about their experiences, ideas and opinions. One of its common feature; the comment section, is the major facilitator of digital conversations on the blogosphere and it has earned little scholarly effort unlike news entries. Through a qualitative research technique of in-depth interview among fifteen active blog visitors of Linda Ikeji, a Nigerian A-list blog, this study sought to understand why blog readers involve or engage themselves in digital conversations on blogs. Findings show that that blog visitors seem to be primarily motivated to involve themselves in digital conversation for three main reasons; opinion sharing (Checking other commenters/ blogger and, alternating the dominant flow of conversation) digital conversational perks and interest.

CITATION

Elega, A. A. (2018). Digital Conversations on the Blogosphere. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 8(2), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.12973/ojcmt/2353

REFERENCES

  • Bauer, M., & Gaskell, G. (2000). Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook for Social Research. London, UK: SAGE Publications.
  • Baumer, E., Sueyoshi, M., & Tomlinson, B. (2008). Exploring the Role of the Reader in the Activity of Blogging. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1111-1120). ACM.
  • Bukvova, H., Kalb, H., & Schoop, E. (2010). What we Blog? A Qualitaive Analysis of Researchers' Weblogs. In ELPUB , (pp. 89-97).
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2). pp. 77-101.
  • Burgoon , J. K., & Dunbar, N. E. (2006). Nonverbal Expressions of Dominance and Power in Human Relationships. In V. Manusov, & M. Patterson, The Sage Handbook of Nonverbal Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Efimova, L., & De Moor, A. (2005). Beyond Personal Webpublishing: An Exploratory Study of Conversational Blogging Practices. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 107a-107a). IE.
  • Elega, A. A., & Özad, B. A. (2017). New Media Scholarship in Africa: An Evaluation of Africa-focused Blog Related Research from 2006 to 2016. 2017, Quality & Quantity, 1-16
  • Elega, A. A., & Özad, B. A. (2018). Variety, a Spice of Life: Exploring the Blog Reading Practices of Nigerian General Interest blog, Linda Ikeji’s readers. 2017, Manuscript under Review.
  • Ewins, R. (2005). Who are You? Weblogs and Academic Identity. E-learning and Digital Media: 2(4), 368-377.
  • Fidel, R. (1993). Qualitative Methods in Information Retrieval Research. Library & Information Science Research, 15 (3), 219–247. Retrieved from Fidel, R. (1993). Qualitative Methods in Information Retrieval Research.
  • Graf, H. (2012). Examining Garden Blogs as a Communication System. International Journal of Communication, 6, (22), 2758–2779.
  • Herring, S. C., Kouper, I., Paolillo, J. C., Scheidt, L. A., Tyworth, M., Welsch, P., . . . Ning Yu. (2005). Conversations in the Blogosphere: An Analysis "From the Bottom Up". Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 107b-107b). IEEE.
  • Hookway, N. (2008). ‘Entering the Blogosphere’: Some Strategies for Using Blogs in Social Research. Qualitative Research, 8(1) 91–113.
  • Ifekandu, C. C. (2017, 9 15). The Fallout of Nigeria’s Anti-Gay Law and Opportunities for the Future for LGBTI Persons And CommunitieS. Retrieved from https://hivos.org/sites/default/files/10._the_fallout_of_nigerias_antigay_law_and_opportunities_for_the_future_for_lgbti_persons_and_communities_by_ chiedu_chike_ifekandu.pdf
  • Jayagopi, D. B., Hung, H., Yeo, C., & Gatica-Perez, D. (2009). Modeling Dominance in Group Conversations Using Nonverbal Activity Cues. IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, 17(3), 501-513.
  • Katz, E., Gurevitch, M., & Hass, H. (1973). On the Use of Mass Media for Important Things. American Sociological Review, 38 (2), 164-181.
  • Kaye, B. K., & Johnson, T. J. (2011). Hot Diggity Blog: A Cluster Analysis Examining Motivations and Other Factors for why People Judge Different Types of Blogs as Credible. Mass Communication and Society, 14(2), 236-263.
  • Lehti, L. (2013). Between Public and Private: Conversationalisation in French Politicians’ Blogs. Journal of Language and Politics, 12(4), 508-536.
  • Ludford, P. J., Cosley, D., Frankowski, D., & Terveen., L. (2004). Think Different: Increasing Online Community Participation Using Uniqueness and Group Dissimilarity. Proc. of ACM CHI, (pp. 631-638).
  • McGlohon, M., Leskovec, J., Faloutsos, C., Hurst, M., & Glance, N. (2007). Finding Patterns in Blog Shapes and Blog Evolution. Computer Science Department, 533.
  • Meho, L. (2006). E-Mail Interviewing in Qualitative Research: A Methodological Discussion. Journal Of The American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57 (10), 1284–1295.
  • Nardi, B. A., Schiano, D. J., & Gumbrecht, M. (2004). Blogging as Social Activity, or, Would You let 900 Million People Read Your Diary? Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported Cooperative Work (pp. 222-231). ACM.
  • Reid, A. (2011). Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, 302.
  • Rodi, C. (2002). The Blogs are a Comin’. Blacksburg: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
  • Sankaram, K., & Schober, M. F. (2015). Reading a Blog When Empowered to Comment: Posting, Lurking, and Non-interactive reading. Discourse Processes, 52(5-6), 406- 433.
  • Schmidt , J. (2006). Weblogs. Eine kommunikationssoziologische Studie [Weblogs. A Communication Sociological Study]. Konstanz, Germany: UVK Publishing.
  • Schmidt, J. (2007). Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication,, 12(4), 1409-1427.
  • Siles, I. (2012). The Rise of Blogging: Articulation as a Dynamic of Technological Stabilization. New Media & Society, 14(5), 781-797.
  • Stern, J. (2008). Introduction to Web 2.0 Technologies. Retrieved from http://www.ictliteracy.info/rf.pdf/Web2.0_Introduction.pdf
  • Turnbull, G. (2002). The State of the Blog Part 2: Blogger Present. In J. Rodzvilla , We've Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture (pp. 81-85). Cambridge: MA: Perseus Publishing.
  • Vuorinen, K. (2017, 9 12). Using Weblogs for Discussion (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://www.museumtwo.com/publications/MSI_257-274_simon.pdf
  • Walker, D. M. (2006). Blog Commenting: A New Political Information Space. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 43(1), 1-10.
  • Wei, C. (2004). Formation of Norms in a Blog Community. In L. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratlif, & J. Reyman, Into the Blogosphere. Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/ formation_of_norms.html.
  • Wheeler, M. (2008). How Noninstitutionalized Media Change the Relationship between the Public and Media. Law and Contemporary Problems, 135-153, 71 (4).