EduBlog Insights

via Kaironews:

Stephanie Nilsson notes on the sum of my parts that she has published her linguistic analysis of the blogosphere. After looking at the table of contents, I know it’s something I’ll definitely be looking forward to reading later on

Here are Stephanie’s conclusions:

“Within the blogosphere, a certain variety of language has developed, one that rationalizes the human need to communicate with the constraints of the medium. These weblogs group into tight social networks that consist of varying degrees of community. Unlike traditional dense social networks, weblog communities do have an outlet, a portal, which allows for the entrance or exit of community members. Each community is anchored around a topic, whether it is job-related, research-related, age, gender, etc. Because of the closeness of the blogging networks, varieties of language can be standardized, strengthening further the sense of group identity. Discourse devices like the monologue and the dialogue come together to create extensive conversations that spread through the blogosphere with an effect not unlike an echo chamber. These threads of conversation use many of the linguistic features found in both oral and written forms of communication. The two major forms of communication have united to produce a variety that utilizes the full capabilities of the Internet environment as a means toconverse and reflect. Because of the constraints of length and the purpose of this essay, this study was approached on a small scale and only within one research community. Further research is needed in order to document the level of standardization within weblogging communities, and the blogosphere as a whole.”

I find this statement fascinating:

“The two major forms of communication have united to

produce a variety that utilizes the full capabilities of the Internet environment as a means to converse and reflect.”

This is definitely a must read and I plan to carve out some time to read and think about the article.  Thanks to Stephanie Nilsson!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2003 at 1:27 pm and is filed under About Weblogs, Imported. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.