The personal is political: articulating women's citizenship through three African feminist blogs

Mediated public spaces both on and offline privilege the educated male elite, and thus cannot address the specific needs of women (Huyer and Sikoska, 2003:2), or their points of view. This study aimed to explore the extent to which three African feminist blogs realise the democratising potential of the blogosphere as well as the ways in which they articulate the concerns and perspectives of women whose vantage points are often silenced by mainstream discourses of citizenship. As a specifically gendered platform within a feminist public sphere, these blogs offer insight into the fluidity of the private/public dichotomy in online media spaces, and how this determines particular discourses of citizenship both on and offline. Using a qualitative-quantitative content analysis of 45 blog posts across three African feminist blogs (Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, Her Zimbabwe, and MsAfropolitan) during July and August 2016, this study investigated how women's engagement with feminist issues is enabled by alternative online media spaces, and in what ways blogs offer African women a relatively democratic space for sharing and discussion. Through an analysis of blog content, the study revealed that contributors deploy particular communicative strategies such as first-person narration, reflection of personal experience in relation to broader social, economic and political issues, and a confessional intimacy that altogether prioritise women's voices and personal lived realities. The topics discussed in the content of blogs cut across public and private life, testifying to a need to move away from ideological conceptualisations of public engagement that delegitimise women's participation in the public sphere. It also makes a case for the reconsideration of the terms "public" and "politics" and what counts as both in a technologically dynamic society in which marginalised groups are continuing to explore alternative avenues for communication and self-expression

Women bloggers seeking validation and financial recompense in the blogosphere.

Previous researchers investigating motivations for blogging have suggested mainly intangible benefits: for instance, documenting the authors life, providing commentary and opinions, expressing deeply felt emotions, working out ideas through writing, and forming and maintaining communities and forums. The research detailed in this chapter focuses on the materialistic motivations of women bloggers in the U.K. and U.S. The author suggests that a need for validation and a strong financial stimulus should be added to this list of incentives

Speaking the same language?

While blogging as a form of computer-mediated communication has attracted a growing amount of academic investigation in recent years, the majority of such research has so far focused on the North American experience. 120 UK and US bloggers (equal numbers of men and women) were surveyed about their approaches to blogging, including blogging techniques, habits, motivations and rewards. At the same time, data was collected directly from respondents blogs and by means of online tools (Technorati, Surfwax and The Truth Laid Bear). In addition, a blog related to the research was established, which gave the researcher first-hand experience of the challenges of blogging and also offered the opportunity for further data collection since the surveyed bloggers were invited to comment on the research as it was ongoing. While there was much that was similar in blogging on both sides of the pond, certain differences between UK and US bloggers were established, in particular relating to their aims in blogging; how the bloggers perceived blogging (for example, whether it was an IT-related product or more related to creative writing); and satisfactions gained from blogging. In addition, this research has highlighted the growth of a financial motivation for blogging. Research into the motivations of journal bloggers has so far focused on more indirect rewards such as influencing public opinion, sharing information with friends and family, and exercising creative skills. However, a large number of respondents, from both countries, indicated that one of their reasons for keeping a blog is the hope that it will generate income. Such financial recompense might come in the form of attracting new clients to an already established small business or new work or publishing opportunities. Bloggers might also be hoping to make money through the sale of advertising on their blogs. A few respondents could even be called professional bloggers, supporting themselves entirely by their blogging. Such a financial motivation was particularly strong amongst women respondents, who may be looking for ways in which to generate income as an alternative to full-time employment outside the home. This paper is based on research conducted between September 2006 and May 2007 and supported by a research leave award from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Blogging the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals

This study focuses on the use of new technologies by the sports-media complex, looking specifically at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals. Combining the world's single largest sports media event with one of the most current, complex forms of Web-based communication, this article explores extent to which football fans embedded in Germany used the Internet to blog their World Cup experiences. Various categories of blog sites were identified, including independent bloggers, bloggers using football-themed Web sites, and blogs hosted on corporate-sponsored platforms. The study shows that the anticipated "democratizing potential" of blogging was not evident during Germany 2006. Instead, blogging acted as a platform for corporations, which, employing professional journalists, told the fans' World Cup stories. © 2009 Human Kinetics, inc

Blogging: an opportunity for librarians to communicate, participate and collaborate on a global scale

Blogs are an important element of the second generation of the web; or ‘Web 2.0’ as it is commonly referred to. ‘Web 2.0’ refers to the evolution from static "read only" web pages (Web 1.0) to dynamic, interactive pages encouraging users to create, interact and share content across multiple applications (O’Reilly, 2005). Blogging, along with other Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking, wikis, social bookmarking, photo sharing, video sharing, and microblogging, form part of the emergent ‘social media’ family; a collection of online tools that encourage users to communicate, participate, and collaborate on a global scale. Many library and information professionals have embraced blogging as a platform to document their career, enhance their profile, network with other librarians; and share anecdotes about their lives as librarians. The aim of this article is to present a brief overview of the history of blogs and a short review of literature related to blogging, libraries and reference librarians. It will also provide a list of recommended blogs, a discussion of the advantages of reading and writing blogs and some top tips for starting up your own blog

Foreverwood

Introduction For my interactive media project, I chose to create an interactive fan website for the television show “Everwood”. The show aired on the WB network from 2002 to 2006 and followed renowned neurosurgeon Andy Brown as he uproots his family from New York City and moves across the country to small town Everwood, Colorado at the request of his recently deceased wife. In a 2006 article shortly after the series finale, the New York Times described the show’s fanbase as “They’re too gentle, too discreet and too modest for that kind of fuss. Instead, they’ll keep reminiscing online about the poignant show, holding the DVD’s like a ring from a lost love, and one day—maybe years from now—they’ll just forget all about it.” (Heffernan, 2006) In deciding what show to focus on for my project, I found that reporter’s opinion to be somewhat true. While there are many articles dedicated to reunions of the cast and speculation on a reboot, there is a definite lack of modern fan content. Other WB shows like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Gilmore Girls” have an abundance of Instagram accounts, Facebook pages, and dedicated podcasts. For “Everwood,” no such content exists. I wanted to design a website that would fill those gaps for a show that was a pioneer for its time. The website, called Foreverwood after the series finale, hosts a blog, podcast, and interactive message board. The blog consists of my thoughts on topics and themes within the show as I rewatch the show for the first time in 14 years and allows readers to comment and reply with their own ideas. The podcast features an episode by episode review of the show and is linked to the website through an RSS feed. The podcast is also available for download on smartphones for on-the-go listening. The message board includes a space for fans to congregate and discuss various topics such as fashion, music, and characters of the show

A sub-version of writing and of citizenship : the blog’s auto-writing and the hybrilog as trans-writing

(Excerto) We all know that a blog is a diary diffused in the Internet. However, sometimes we may understand a blog as a type of biography of the blog’s author. This is somewhat far from reality. The blog segregates essentially an auto-writing, which is not necessarily a biographical writing. Its differences are based at least on the following three criterions: First criterion: the protagonist of the events narrated. The hero of the biography is an individual, that coincides with its author in the case of an auto-biography. On the contrary, the main character of the blog is the global world. The blogger doesn't necessarily speak about himself, although he/she does so often indirectly, when he is speaking about others. But the main target of the blog’s gossip are external events to its author. In other words, in the biography there is an author that tells a story or traces an History of a social actor. In the auto-biography, an author coincides with the actor of the events. And in the case of the blog, the author talks about several actors, one of them being himself. Second criterion: the time of the events reported. The biography presupposes a past story, that is recounted in the moment of its writing, be it in the form of a biography or as an autobiography. In a blog, we observe a mode of writing on events usually not occurred in the past, but happened and presented in the present. Third criterion: The ‘opination’ degree. ‘Opination’ may be understood as the process of opining or emitting an opinion about an event or on a subject in discussion inside a specific conjuncture of a society or community’s life. In the biography, the faithful report of the events prevails in regard to the judgement that can be done on these events, although a judgement is always present in a biography’s writing, less or more visibly. On its side, the blog privileges the opinion, and the event is mainly a pretext for the emission of an opinion. In cyberspace, this cyberopinion is constructing a new sub-version of citizenship. Thus, a blog builds an hybrid style, situated somewhere between the biography and the journalism. It is, therefore, a style of auto-writing about the life of the others. Or an autorepresentative writing on the contemporary life. Or a common diary scribbled by our global world. Viviane Serfaty (2004), inside the articulation among the literary criticism, the psychoanalysis and the social sciences, delineates the historical roots of this auto-representative writing in the USA, compared to the developments of the auto-writing in the Internet. The blogger’s motivations of his writing are influencing irreversibly the American society and culture. This author deals with themes like the humor in cyberspace, the dichotomy private/public and the ciber-bodyness. One of the more original and controversial digital diaries, according to Maxim Jakubowski (2005), is the set of testimonies about the sexuality of the bloggers, for example prostitutes, strippers and webcam girls

Global innovations in tourism

The article is devoted to the increasing role of tourism in the world economy. The dynamics of international tourism indicators is investigated. The main global innovations in the tourism industry are identified: the growth of tourism types; the application of qualitatively new solutions of scientific and methodological and applied character; growing of tourism influence on the society; the existence of synergistic effect in the tourist industry as a result of combination of subjects efforts at all management levels; changing of the role of internal and external factors that encourage innovative tourism development. In the article, the interaction of global processes on tourism innovations is defined. These processes are: intellectualization, informatization, cooperation, formation of the global tourism market, liberalization of the national tourism markets, increased competition and the spread of transnationalization