Blogging in the Media: Current Research
Ryan Lange, Michigan State University
Abstract
This article provides a brief overview of research on blogging.
There is a great deal of speculative discussion about blogging today, in mainstream and alternative media outlets. Considering the technological affordances of blogging, the medium has the potential to help achieve pedagogical goals, as well as to add diversity and greater depth to our democracy through citizen journalism. We are still in the process of determining how blogging can change traditional political, educational, and interpersonal communication practices. This work is being done by practitioners (bloggers themselves), audiences, and scholars. Much of the attention has been positive, and sometimes overly so, but we do not have a lot of empirical data yet. This will no doubt change over the next year or two.
Current academic research on blogging has focused a great deal of attention on the impact of political and journalistic bloggers. Many authors have been interested in how the interactive nature of blogs changes the way news information is presented. Traditional models of broadcasting assume the journalist as the source of a unidirectional message to the audience. The audience is seen as merely passively consuming information, with few opportunities to provide feedback. However, blogging revolutionizes this model by allowing for bidirectional information flow between the author and the audience. Because readers can leave comments, the author is more accountable to his or her audience and can immediately get feedback about their piece. The article then becomes a living work-in-progress in which errors are corrected "on the fly."
Bloggers can also impact the mainstream media in both positive and negative ways. A recent example of how the grassroots action of the Internet impacted a major media outlet is "Rathergate," (http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3866) in which bloggers debunked a 60 Minutes story by examining the documents used in it and ascertaining they were clever forgeries. The mainstream media has also used ideas created by bloggers to develop news stories, such as when bloggers publicized allegedly racist remarks (http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/09/lott.comment/) made by Trent Lott at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond. These remarks had not been reported by the mainstream media, but when bloggers brought attention to them, the conventional media started covering them in a serious manner.
Blogging may also have an effect on democracy by mobilizing citizens to become active participants in their media environment. Many scholars speak of the ways in which blogging might encourage a sense of virtual empowerment, allowing citizens to feel more connected to their government through online discussion. The potential for blog-enabled activism is large, and in time it may become a significant aspect of public life. Blogging may be especially potent for those who have more restricted access to personal expression. Blogging can help these individuals express their thoughts and feelings about their experiences and connect with people around the world. For instance, there are over one million bloggers (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,67957-0.html?tw=wn_story_mailer) in China today, although their ability to post freely is restricted.
In an article written by Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht and Swartz (2004) (http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1035134.1035163), potential reasons why individuals choose to blog are discussed. The range of responses was very large even within the small group Nardi and her colleagues were able to speak to, ranging from commentaries on serious health-related topics to "blog-as-personal-revelation" personal diary-type blogs. There appear to be almost as many motivations to blog as there are individual bloggers, with each individual pursuing their own gratifications through the blog medium.
Current academic research on blogging has focused a great deal of attention on the impact of political and journalistic bloggers. Many authors have been interested in how the interactive nature of blogs changes the way news information is presented. Traditional models of broadcasting assume the journalist as the source of a unidirectional message to the audience. The audience is seen as merely passively consuming information, with few opportunities to provide feedback. However, blogging revolutionizes this model by allowing for bidirectional information flow between the author and the audience. Because readers can leave comments, the author is more accountable to his or her audience and can immediately get feedback about their piece. The article then becomes a living work-in-progress in which errors are corrected "on the fly."
Bloggers can also impact the mainstream media in both positive and negative ways. A recent example of how the grassroots action of the Internet impacted a major media outlet is "Rathergate," (http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3866) in which bloggers debunked a 60 Minutes story by examining the documents used in it and ascertaining they were clever forgeries. The mainstream media has also used ideas created by bloggers to develop news stories, such as when bloggers publicized allegedly racist remarks (http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/09/lott.comment/) made by Trent Lott at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond. These remarks had not been reported by the mainstream media, but when bloggers brought attention to them, the conventional media started covering them in a serious manner.
Blogging may also have an effect on democracy by mobilizing citizens to become active participants in their media environment. Many scholars speak of the ways in which blogging might encourage a sense of virtual empowerment, allowing citizens to feel more connected to their government through online discussion. The potential for blog-enabled activism is large, and in time it may become a significant aspect of public life. Blogging may be especially potent for those who have more restricted access to personal expression. Blogging can help these individuals express their thoughts and feelings about their experiences and connect with people around the world. For instance, there are over one million bloggers (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,67957-0.html?tw=wn_story_mailer) in China today, although their ability to post freely is restricted.
In an article written by Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht and Swartz (2004) (http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1035134.1035163), potential reasons why individuals choose to blog are discussed. The range of responses was very large even within the small group Nardi and her colleagues were able to speak to, ranging from commentaries on serious health-related topics to "blog-as-personal-revelation" personal diary-type blogs. There appear to be almost as many motivations to blog as there are individual bloggers, with each individual pursuing their own gratifications through the blog medium.