An interesting posting on Many-to-Many by Liz, who observes that (some) researchers talk about weblogs without exactly knowing what a weblog is. They miss nuances, because they only looked at weblogs and are no bloggers themselves.
My hope is that as more researchers and scholars become users of these tools, rather than observers of them, that the range and depth of the research in this space will increase—as will its value outside the walls of the academy.
Liz presents 5 suggestions or different approaches for research:
1. Descriptive approach or study of the form itself: we need to know what we are talking about.
2. Study of interactions between blogs and blog authors and communities of blogs. The interaction with people with similar interests is what makes weblogs interesting.
3. Ethnographic studies in weblog communities.
4. Content and style used in weblogs.
5. Study of the use of weblogs in specific organizational contexts.
It's interesting to see that some approaches from this list are rather close to my interests. Especially the interactions (nr 2) and use in organisation (nr 5). And I agree that only reading, observing weblogs is not enough to know what motivates a weblogger, how does he/she write and so on.
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