Bamblog

Achtung - das Bamblog wird seit Mitte Oktober 2007 nicht mehr aktualisiert. Bitte besuchen Sie mein neues Weblog unter http://www.schmidtmitdete.de. Danke! - Please note that this blog is no longer active. You can find my new blog at http://www.schmidtmitdete.de. Thanks for visiting!

The new issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication has been published - and I’m proud to announce that it includes a paper of mine:

Schmidt, Jan (2007): Blogging Practices: An analytical framework. In: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 12, Nr. 4. Available online: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/schmidt.html

Whohoo - what an honor! Here’s the abstract:

This article proposes a general model to analyze and compare different uses of the blog format. Based on ideas from sociological structuration theory, as well as on existing blog research, it argues that individual usage episodes are framed by three structural dimensions of rules, relations, and code, which in turn are constantly (re)produced in social action. As a result, “communities of blogging practices” emerge—that is, groups of people who share certain routines and expectations about the use of blogs as a tool for information, identity, and relationship management. This analytical framework can be the basis for systematic comparative and longitudinal studies that will further understanding of similarities and differences in blogging practices.

Regular followers of my german work might be familiar with most of the arguments and the conceptual model proposed in the article, but I’m really happy that my approach to blogging is now available to an international audience, too. Originally, my submission also included empirical findings from the “Wie ich blogge?!”-survey, but two reviewers and editor Susan C. Herring suggested to separate the two parts. Since I didn’t want to wait another couple of months for the empirical findings to be selected for another journal, I decided to publish them within the working paper series of our Research Centre: “Blogging practices in the German-speaking blogosphere. Findings from the “Wie ich blogge?!”-survey“.

Btw, the new JCMC issue includes also a “mini-section” on blogging with three additional papers

• Anonymity and Self-Disclosure on Weblogs - Hua Qian and Craig R. Scott
• Psychological and Social Influences on Blog Writing: An Online Survey of Blog Authors in Japan - Asako Miura and Kiyomi Yamashita
• Gender Differences in British Blogging - Sarah Pedersen and Caroline Macafee

as well as an paper on Facebook which I already cited a couple of times as a conference presentation:

• The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Networks - Nicole B. Ellison, Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lampe