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Citizens, Pundits & Scholars:In Defense of Blogs
Kalina GrewalMark Robertson
Scott LibraryYork University
Overview
What is a blog? A global phenomenon Why read blogs? Blogs and the academy Blogs and the library Discussion
Blogs?
What are they?
Definitions
One definition: “frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence” (Herring, 2004)
Creates an environment that fosters dialogue
Used for various purposes – personal, professional or commercial
Features: A read/write medium
Comments
-readers respond by writing comments
Trackbacks– Links to other blogs that
cite the posting– Incoming links
Blogrolls– Outgoing links to other
blogs of interest
Features: RSS feeds
• RSS feeds – Really Simple
Syndication– Allows readers to
subscribe to a website
– New postings are delivered to an RSS reader in standardized format
Blogs in a global perspective
Blog growth
Estimated total number of blogs:
Technorati tracks 63 million blogs
Gartner Group tech analysts estimates 100 million by middle of 2007 (BBC News, Dec. 14, 2006)
Blog growth
from Dave Sifry, State of the Blogosphere, 2006
Blog postings per day
from Dave Sifry, State of the Blogosphere, 2006
Blog readership by country
Blogs by language
Case study: Iran
• Population: 69 million people• 7.5 million web users (largest group in Middle
East)• 700,000 bloggers?• Substitute for suppressed, reformist press
Case study: China
• Population: 1.3 billion• 123 million internet users• 20.8 million blogs?• Most popular blog in the world: Xu Jinglei• Alternative to state controlled press• Relatively high level of trust in web-based media
Why Blogs?
What’s the value for researchers?
The potential of blogs
Citizen journalism • Agenda Setting vs.• Grassroots Perspective
Creation of communities As primary sources
Citizen journalism
• Defined as the act of citizens playing an active role in the production and dissemination of news
• The trend has been fed by technologies such as: blogs, mobile phone cameras, YouTube, etc.
Agenda setting
• Agenda setting a common critique of mainstream media
• Bernard Cohen in 1963 stated:“the press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is strongly successful in telling its readers what to think about”
• Mainstream media have practices that privilege certain stories and certain people
Grassroots perspective
• People who are generally ignored or misrepresented by the media are attracted to blogging for several reasons:
• safe space to express identity• communication between citizens in closed
societies or repressive regimes • mainstream media do not accommodate
discussion and collective action
Citizen Journalism: Global Voices
Bangladesh
Mission Statement:
www.globalvoicesonline.org
Global Voices website
Citizen journalism
January 11, 2007
State of Emergency Declared in Bangladesh
Violence claims more than 40 lives and media freedoms curtailed.
“Amid the chaos, the government has been cracking down on media freedoms -- but some Bangladeshi bloggers have not been cowed.” Mark Oliver, Internet
World News
Ethos of Citizen Journalism
Drishtipat:
“hear, speak out and help”
Creation of communities
Many-to-many communicationPlatform for discussionBlogrolls create networks of blogsMultiple blogospheresBloggers share knowledge and collaborate
Communities of interest
An example from
Six Months in Hanoi
Blogs as primary sources
• Historical value• Document events as they happen• More likely to provide a personal perspective on an
event
• Sociological value• Linguistic analysis• First-person narratives• Eg. Narratives of girls with eating disorders;
suidical behaviour
What is the academic value of blogs?
Pedagogical tool
Object of study (primary source)
A means to stay informed
The role of communities in scholarly communication
Academic researchers embedded in communities
The expert research model “requires a long process of acculturation…participation in a system of informal scholarly communication, and a view of research as a non-sequential, non-linear process….”
Gloria Leckie, “Desperately Seeking Citations”
A means to a scholarly end…
Not themselves scholarlyProvides opportunities for information sharing
and debateRole in informal scholarly communicationAwareness and alert system
Blogs and the role of libraries:a discussion
• Organization
• Access
• Preservation
• Teaching
Del.icio.us webliography
http://del.icio.us/citizensandpundits
Contact
Mark RobertsonScott Library, York University
Kalina GrewalScott Library, York University
Webliography: http://del.icio.us/citizensandpundits