Bursty Little Communities: The influence of communities of practice on linguistic choices in individual and communal weblog spaces.

Stephanie Hendrick

April 11, 2008

No community exists in a vacuum and the social meaning(s) of variation…are to be found in their orientation to, use of, and contact across the wider ‘metropolitan’ area.’ –Eckert, 2000

There have been relatively few studies on gender and language in weblogs. Currently, the main study which references women in blogging has shown that although women bloggers network (link to other blogs) with greater frequency, they are conspicuously absent from the ‘top 100 blog’ lists due to differences in writing styles (Herring, et al., 2004). Women are said to favor more diary-like entries, while men favor more list-like posts. These results, however, are over generalized as networking effects, now established as an important aspect of blogging (Efimova, 2006, boyd, 2004, Zylstra, 2005 ), were not considered in the analysis.

This thesis will be comprised of 5 articles and a kappa. (A more detailed description of the articles can be found below). The articles will be separated into two parts: Part I will examine the individual blogger and her relationship to her network. Part II will analyze the influence of the weblog communities of practice, as opposed to other sociolinguistic variables such as gender, on linguistic choice.

Kappa:

The kappa will examine the three general hypothesis of the thesis:

H1: Blogs are perceived as owned, personal spaces which act as carriers of identity, created linguistically, through both text and visual media.

H2: Blogs do form communities of practice based on a common enterprise and ‘ways of talking’. These communities are thematically based and temporally fluid.

H3: Placement in the community of practice has a stronger influence on linguistic choice than gender.

This chapter will position theories of cognitive spaces, gender and language maintenance against theories of power and network structure in order to help us understand how we negotiate conversation - not only between genders, but also in gendered spaces. It will include a brief literature review and discussion of the affordances of the weblog as a linguistic space, as well as how these affordances have changed as this emerging medium has established itself over the past 10 years. The kappa will also introduce and discuss the findings of the following 5 articles in relation to the three hypotheses above.

The kappa will end by discussing the question if blog mediated communication is a genre, or if there is ‘enough’ variation between blog communities of practice to suggest that blogs should not be examined linguistically as a single genre, but rather with regards to how the negotiated practices of the community influences language choices. Current CMC research only takes into account the genre ‘weblog’ – mainly from the perspective of purpose – as well as examines language out of its social context. Placing blogging communication back into a social context may help explain variation between weblog communities – despite their using the same format and tool to communicate.

Part 1: The individual

Article 1: Weblogs as carriers of Identity

This paper will examine the format of the weblog in relation to its author. Weblogs are different from other forms of CMC due to their sense of ownership and space. There is a clear relationship between the design of the weblog and the identity of the author. This strong relationship brings up the question, ‘are weblogs ‘gendered’’? If so, would patterns found in mixed and single-gendered discourses (i.e., conversational dominance, turn taking patterns, etc.) match discourse patterns in the comments of a ‘gendered’ weblog?

Article 2: Other Identities: Rewrite in progress

Abstract: No one ever said that weblogs are a thing of fact rather than fiction, yet when a weblog is discovered to be written by someone other than who he or she says claims to be, readers often experience a sense of shock or outrage. This paper will claim that there are two features that make weblog identity unique and lead to the frustration readers tend to feel upon learning that their favorite weblog is written by an ‘other’ identity. The first feature is the creation of identity over time. Weblog identity is created through the summation of individual posts which develop and change temporally, and as the medium changes. As weblog identity changes, the potential of an identity being exposed as false increases. The second feature that makes the creation of weblog identity different than other online identities is how weblogs are conceptualized. While there seems to be a split between those who use weblogs as journals and those who use them as a journalist, the cognitive blends we use in the description and conceptualization of weblogs are heavily based in journalistic tradition; a tradition that lends itself to the correct identification of the author. Finally, this paper will end with a case study which identifies markers of authorship from a weblog suspected to be written by an author using an ‘other’ identity and by comparing these markers with markers from the potential ‘real’ identity from a second blog.

Alternatively, I would expand on the above description and go deeper into the cognitive domains of weblogs and how these influence identity. This would include the notion of perceived distance between your weblog and your ‘real life’, identity play, and identity as reputation (as in academic blogs).

Article 3: Gender and Power and the Individual: Finished Paper 

(Actual title: Intimacies and Arguments: The public negotiation of gender, power and presentation across weblog community boundaries.)

Abstract: There is a quickly dissipating myth among technophiles that the Internet will lift the poor out of squalor, erase long seeded hate between different nationalities and races, and finally let men and women compete on equal footing – after all, no one knows you are a dog online, right?  But contrary to this utopian expectation, there are clear power differences present online. From cyber-rape to death threats, equality online is nothing more than a digital urban legend.  In many online interactions, anonymity is being abandoned in favor of real profiles, community building and networking.  Once this anonymity has been abandoned, however, members of these communities must negotiate ways of interacting with one another. Often online communication among members of the same community is a seamless discourse between parties. However, exploration of the points at which these interactions break down can provide valuable insight into the underlying culture of the community – and the ways in which it is represented. This paper will explore underlying structures of gender and power through a sociolinguistic analysis of the weblog discourse surrounding the Kathy Sierra death threat case.

Part II: The Group

Article 4: Blogging networks: Finished Paper (written with Lilia Efimova)

(Actual title: In search for a virtual settlement: An exploration of weblog community boundaries)

Abstract: Although weblogs are perceived as low-threshold tools to publish on-line, empowering individual expression in public, there is a growing evidence of social structures evolving around weblogs and their influence on norms and practices of blogging. Emerging from connections between weblogs and their authors, weblog communities often do not have a shared space, clear boundaries and membership, challenging researchers who want to study them. The purpose of this paper is to get an insight into methods of finding “life between buildings”, virtual settlements where weblog communities may reside. We use Jones (1997) theory of a virtual settlement and archaeological metaphor to address research challenges of locating weblog communities, suggest an iterative approach that includes refinement of research methods based on assumptions about community norms, practices and artifacts, and propose which artifacts could serve as indicators of a community presence. A pilot study is presented, where a social network analysis of links between weblogs is used to identify a community of knowledge management bloggers.

Article 5: Gender and Power and the Community (Community Identified, data being gathered)

This paper will compare a sample of blogs written by women professors to a sample of blogs written by male professors from a sociolinguistic perspective. I will begin by exploring the network of blogging professors itself, determining network placement and affiliation, expanding on previous research of blog network behaviors (Efimova, Hendrick 2004). I will continue by comparing two important issues to blogging; that of self-representation, and that of linguistic influence. Is there a correlation to network placement and influence? Is there a link between influence and gender? How are gendered power structures represented in these networks?

Scope:

This thesis will explore the interrelation between identity (play and representation), the influence of the community of practice, and linguistic choices. The underlying question of gender as an influential variable will be compared to influence of the community of practice.

This thesis will not assume that linguistic choices made in one community of practice are true of choices made in all blogs. While the affordances of the weblog as a platform lend themselves better to spontaneous bursts of conversations, rather than a global conversation, communicative choices must be examined in the context of the weblog community of practice.

Status:

Proposed time of completion: October 2008.