Language and Power in Blogs: Interaction, Disagreements and Agreements

292 Pages·2013·1.9 MB·English

by  Brook Bolander

Language and Power in Blogs
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University of Augsburg University of Zurich
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Volume 237
Language and Power in Blogs. Interaction, disagreements and agreements
by Brook Bolander
Language and Power in Blogs
Interaction, disagreements and agreements
Brook Bolander
University of Zurich
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bolander, Brook, author.
Language and power in blogs : interaction, disagreements and agreements / Brook
Bolander.
p. cm. (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, issn 0922-842X ; v. 237)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language and the Internet. 2. Blogs--Social aspects. 3. Communication and technology.
I. Title. II. Series: Pragmatics & beyond new series ; 237.
P120.I6B65 2013
302.23--dc23 2013036558
isbn 978 90 272 5642 3 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 7098 6 (Eb)
© 2013 – John Benjamins B.V.
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For Till, Noela, Billy, Miranda and Queeny

Table of contents
Acknowledgments x i
List of tables and figures xiii
chapter 1
Introducing language use and power in personal/diary blogs 1
1.1 Overture 1
1.2 Laying out the dual approach to power 3
1.3 Research questions and scope 5
1.4 Structure 6
chapter 2
Blogging as a social practice 9
2.1 Introduction 9
2.2 Introducing blogs 1 0
2.2.1 A working definition of blogs 1 1
2.2.2 Personal/diary blogs: An increasingly-popular sub-type 1 6
2.3 Frames in blog communities of practice 2 3
2.3.1 The participant framework of personal/diary blogs 2 3
2.3.2 Relational work and interpersonal language use 2 6
2.3.3 Expectations in personal/diary blogs 2 8
2.3.4 Norms of interaction in personal/diary blogs 3 1
2.4 Summary 3 2
chapter 3
Power in theory 3 5
3.1 Introducing power or “another conceptual can of worms”
(Thornborrow 2002, 5) 3 5
3.2 Differential access to the blogosphere: The digital divide 3 7
3.3 Distribution of resources within blogs 4 1
3.4 Conversational control and the exercise of power: Implications
for personal/diary blogs 4 4
3.5 Summary 5 2
 Language and Power in Blogs
chapter 4
Disagreements and agreements in theory 5 5
4.1 Defining disagreements and agreements (criticism and compliments) 5 5
4.2 Social factors associated with disagreements and agreements
offline and online 5 6
4.2.1 Face and preference 5 8
4.2.2 Frames, culture and participant relationships 6 4
4.2.3 Participant relationships (and hierarchies) 6 7
4.2.4 Participation format 6 9
4.3 Medium factors associated with disagreements and agreements online 7 0
4.3.1 Anonymity and lack of social context cues (flaming) 7 1
4.3.2 Message format, persistence of transcript and quoting
(responsiveness) 7 3
4.4 Disagreements and the exercise of power 7 6
4.5 Summary 7 7
chapter 5
The blog corpus and its analysis 7 9
5.1 Introduction 7 9
5.2 Data description 7 9
5.2.1 Technical characteristics of the blogs 7 9
5.2.2 A sociolinguistic characterisation of the eight
personal/diary blogs 8 0
5.3 Data selection 8 3
5.4 Data analysis 8 6
5.4.1 Computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) 8 6
5.4.2 The coding scheme 8 8
5.4.3 The qualitative questionnaire 9 4
5.5 Summary and outlook 9 4
chapter 6
Power in practice I: Interactional patterns 9 7
6.1 Introduction 9 7
6.2 Revisiting the coding scheme: Entry types and discourse moves 9 7
6.2.1 Entry types 9 8
6.2.2 Discourse moves and their syntactic realisation 9 9
6.3 Interactional patterns in the personal/diary blog corpus: An overview 105
6.4 Reader responses to bloggers’ posts 108
Table of contents 
6.5 Blogger responses to readers 116
6.5.1 The bloggers’ practice of commenting 116
6.5.2 Reasons behind the bloggers’ practice of commenting 123
6.6 Reader response to readers 125
6.7 Linking forms of responsiveness with conversational roles 130
6.8 Summary 133
chapter 7
Power in practice II: Topic control 137
7.1 Introduction 137
7.2 Revisiting the coding scheme: Topics and topic control 137
7.3 Topics in personal/diary blog posts 139
7.4 Topics in posts and comments: Overlaps and variation 143
7.5 Bloggers’ perceptions on topic maintenance 154
7.6 Summary 159
chapter 8
Disagreements and agreements in practice I: Characterising the moves 161
8.1 Introduction 161
8.2 Revisiting the coding scheme: Syntax and relational work 161
8.2.1 Syntactic realisation of discourse moves 162
8.2.2 Relational work 162
8.3 Frequency of disagreements and agreements 162
8.3.1 Discourse moves in posts and comments: An overview 164
8.3.2 Disagreements and agreements in the comments sections
of the eight personal/diary blogs 168
8.4 Relational work in disagreements and agreements 172
8.5 Bloggers’ perceptions on disagreements and agreements 187
8.6 Summary 193
chapter 9
Disagreements and agreements in practice II: Patterns of interaction,
responsiveness and links to power 195
9.1 Introduction 195
9.2 Revisiting the coding scheme: Entry types and discourse moves 196
9.3 Comparing disagreements and agreements as entry types: Rates
of responsiveness and implications for the exercise of power 196
9.3.1 Reader responses to bloggers’ posts 197
9.3.2 Bloggers’ responses to readers’ comments 198
9.3.3 Readers’ responses to readers’ comments 204