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)

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

Transition in Poland, Poland in Transition:Tracing the history of gender transition discourses in Polish social media

The present article explores the history of Polish online gender transition discourses, conceptualized in terms of two main stages – “Transnet 1.0” of anonymous, text-based blogs documenting individual experiences and “Transnet 2.0” of YouTube videos, podcasts and tik-toks created by openly trans activists. It offers an analysis of various kinds of multilingual practices in these narratives and attempts to track the way they have been changing to reveal threads of local and global, conservative and liberal, medical and activist discourses. This is done against the background of Poland’s own transition from a (nominally) socialist state to a modern democracy, which has not followed a simple, straight-forward path to progress allegedly exemplified by the “West”. The history of attitudes towards the transgender community throughout Poland’s democratic transition and its traces in contemporary online discourses paint a more complex picture

Education across borders : Towards e-Didactics of International Module in Socio-cultural Aspects of ICT

Articles presented in this issue address topics related the initiative Moodle for International Learning. Within this initiative Nesna University College launched international e-learning course ‘ICT in Society and Work Life’ (ITL 103). The course was provided within the structure of ‘ICT and Learning’ studies and was based on the previous Norwegian version ‘IKT i samfunn og arbeidsliv’. The issue contains texts written by the authors from Norway and Poland who contributed to the realization of the idea of joining students of various nationalities within a learning experience supported by Moodle Learning Management System. The opening paper is the contribution from senior lecturer Hallstein Hegerholm who originated the idea of ‘ICT and Learning’ studies and elaborated on the principles on which digital portfolio operates in Nesna University College. These principles lay foundations for the mode of work within all the six e-learning modules realized under the common name ‘ICT and Learning’. The paper presents the establishment of ‘ICT and Learning’ studies and the description of the digital portfolio. The following contribution is made by Per Arne Godejord, the dean of the Faculty of Scientific Subjects within the structure of which ‘ICT and Learning’ studies were provided. The paper addresses the topic of distance education and presents brief history of establishing e-learning in Nesna University College. It also contains references to the process of internationalization initiated by NUC within the courses provided with the support of Moodle Learning Management System. These references are framed by recommendations elaborated on by Norwegian national policy on internationalization within educational sector. Subsequent two papers are contributed by Polish researches from University of Szczecin: prof Maria Czerepaniak-Walczak and dr Elzbieta Perzycka. Prof. Czerepaniak Walczak coveres thoroughly the issues related to the connections between the concept of internationalization and higher education settings. Dr Perzycka explores the question of competencies enabling the provision of ‘useful’ education in online environment. She refers to the issues of both teachers and students competencies through the prism of information culture and information literacy. The final contributions are made by the researchers who actively participated in the realization of the module ‘ICT in Society and Work Life’: dr Beata Godejord (Nesna University, Poland) and dr Wioletta Kwiatkowska (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland). Dr B. Godejord was the lecturer in the course and originator of the idea of utilizing blogs as tools for e-learning. Her paper addresses the issue of educational qualities of blogging. Blogging is showed through the perspective of the concept of New Learning, effective learning environment, connective learning and e-learning practices and skills. Dr Wioletta Kwiatkowska monitored and supported the participation of students from Poland. Her paper presents the analysis of students’ comments on their co-students’ blogs. In her analysis she utilizes the classification of interaction categories „Interaction Process Analysis” by Robert F. Bales, pointing to interesting conclusions. The works on the development of international e-learning module ‘ICT in Society and Work Life’ are continued. In this academic year (2011/2012) one on the Polish private colleges – Academy of Business in Dabrowa Gornicza – decided to include the module in their study plans and make it obligatory for two groups of sociology students. We are looking forward to this experience and hope for developing international online studies on a broader scale

Toward an Empirically-generated Typology of Weblog Genres

In their article Toward an Empirically-generated Typology of Weblog Genres Maciej Maryl, Krzysztof Niewiadomski, and Maciej Kidawa propose a typology of weblog genres based on empirical data, namely on the analysis of metadata and the study of blogs\u27 content. In Study 1 they explore 287 categories used by Polish bloggers to classify their blogs. The analysis shows that most categories are topical, but some could be useful for genre analyses. In Study 2 they analyse syntagma combinations of 2-3 categories assigned to 88 252 blogs on one of the Polish blog platforms. Through quantitative analysis and clustering 3 main groups are identified: public sphere, private sphere, leisure-time activities. And in Study 3 the authors present an alternative take on findings conducting a qualitative, non-topical analysis of 322 Polish blogs aimed at uncovering weblog genres according to their communicative purpose. In consequence, the following genres emerge: diaries, reflection, criticism, information, filter, advice, modelling, and fictionality

Social Network Analysis as a research method in political science. An attempt to use it in coalition research

The main aim of the article is to argue the need for better focus of researchers conducting their research in the field of political science on some digital analytical tools used in social network analyses. Additional objectives are to outline the historical context of SNA’s development in this discipline, as well as to present possible fields of exploration and using of this method, both in basic and in applied research. Particular attention was paid to the potential of SNA in the study of the processes of cabinet coalitions formation, as well as to the important limitations of this method. The article was constructed as a methodological essay. We inevitably accept - because of its focus on network analyses a structural perspective on social reality. We verify the hypothesis that the greatest potential of SNA could be currently to create a visualization of social relations based on large data sets, but at the same time the most important barrier to the development of the method are limitations in the access to these data, which could be used as a basic analytical material for visualization of the network and generalization of the statistical conclusions. Presenting some political science research in Poland and around the world, in which SNA tools are used, we used the historical as well as the case study method

Analysis of group evolution prediction in complex networks

In the world, in which acceptance and the identification with social communities are highly desired, the ability to predict evolution of groups over time appears to be a vital but very complex research problem. Therefore, we propose a new, adaptable, generic and mutli-stage method for Group Evolution Prediction (GEP) in complex networks, that facilitates reasoning about the future states of the recently discovered groups. The precise GEP modularity enabled us to carry out extensive and versatile empirical studies on many real-world complex / social networks to analyze the impact of numerous setups and parameters like time window type and size, group detection method, evolution chain length, prediction models, etc. Additionally, many new predictive features reflecting the group state at a given time have been identified and tested. Some other research problems like enriching learning evolution chains with external data have been analyzed as well

Media Accountability Goes Online

The Internet is both a challenge and an opportunity for media accountability. Newsrooms and citizens are adapting existing practices and developing new ones on news websites, weblogs and social media. This report offers the first comparative study on how these practices are being developed and perceived in thirteen countries in Europe (Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, United Kingdom), the Arab world (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia) and North America (USA). Through the analysis of data on the media systems and in-depth interviews with journalists, experts and activists, the study maps the initiatives performed by media organizations and explores media criticism projects promoted from outside the newsrooms. The concept of journalistic fields proposed by Bourdieu provides the contextual analysis of the diversity of countries. It articulates the relationships between the media and the political and economic fields to explain how they shape media accountability developments on the Internet. The role of media self-regulation institutions and the active user culture enabled by the Internet are other actors considered in the description of the tensions surrounding media accountability in the journalistic fields. In this context, the study suggests that media accountability online is being enacted in practices that vary from country to country depending on the perceptions of journalists and newsrooms about it, the interplay of accountability aims with economic and political goals of the media, and their positions in the dynamic struggle for credibility within the journalistic field. Few media accountability practices are widespread in the countries analyzed, and the actual developments are very uneven in terms of motivations, technical tools and workflows. The analysis shows that those countries where there are more active online practices (USA, UK) are some of those with lower trust of the public in the media. In other contexts, such as the Arab countries, the efforts towards media accountability are mainly led by those citizens and journalists that also struggle to democratize society. The challenges in Europe seem to be maintaining the autonomy of the journalistic field, and while practices within and outside media organizations are scarce and often not systematic and institutionalized, the study has found cases that highlight how the Internet can be an effective tool to promote ethical journalism by fostering transparency and responsiveness

Media and Communication in Europe

This timely book explores how the media shape the Europeanization of the public sphere within the European Union (EU). Bringing together a range of international scholars in media studies and journalism and covering both traditional and online media, it argues that Europeanization is not just an idea - it is a real, ongoing process that we are experiencing every day. Assessing a wide range of actors and processes and acknowledging the diverse relationships between media and politics, the chapters edited by Agnieszka Stepinska reflect contemporary conceptualizations of Europeanization and unravel the complex mediatization of European politics. It covers topics as diverse as children's socialization within the European Union via kid's TV programmes; the impact of the 'Euroblogosphere' on policy decisions; and international broadcasting as one of the key elements to understanding new public diplomacy in Europe. Using the Polish EU presidency of 2011 as an extensive case study, the book's latter part shows what impact Poland's presidency had on its representation, both domestically and abroad, and questions the Presidency's actual power of attracting media attention. 'Media and Communication in Europe' is a valuable resource for any student and researcher interested in the complex relationship between the media and the EU