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Categorizing blogs as information

sources:

Mark-Shane Scale Faculty of Information & Media Studies The University of Western Ontario 1151 Richmond Street London, ON, CA N6A 5B7 mscale2@uwo.ca

Anabel Quan-Haase SocioDigital.info Lab Faculty of Information & Media Studies The University of Western Ontario 1151 Richmond Street London, ON, CA N6A 5B7 aquan@uwo.ca

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Topic outline

1. Why study this topic?2. Definition and typologies of information sources3. Definitions of Blogs4. Blogs as information sources5. Conclusions6. References

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Why study this topic?

Information needs and use research generally study the characteristics of information sources used in every day life and for work purposes.

Blogs are globally important for work and everyday life

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Observation of the global importance of blogs for work and everyday life

Information sources for mainstream journalism  Journalist continuously use blogs

to discover what is newsworthy, what will attract public interest, experts on issues, fact checking of their reports, feedback on their work and sources of news for further investigation.

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Observation of the global importance of blogs for work and everyday life

Blogs focus on the individual and ordinary person’s experience, providing an alternative reporting of who policies affect and how these policies affect daily life.(Bailey, Cammaerts &Carpentier 2008)

Alternative news sources & personal experienceZhuo, Wellman, and Yu, 2011

Through social media one can broadcast and

access personal experiences worldwide and alternative news

sources

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Observation of the global importance of blogs for work and everyday life

Sources of Public opinion

information sources for foreign policy experts/analysts(Drezner and Farrell, 2005)

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Observation of the global importance of blogs for work and everyday life

Current AwarenessReitz (2004)

Blogs keep users up to date on subjects of interest (Clyde, 2004).

“The best weblogs are authoritative sources of current information and opinion related to their

topic.”

‘content of a document or source reflects the existing state of knowledge about the subject’

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Observation of the global importance of blogs for work and everyday life

Business informationReitz (2004)

Company informationabout products and services offered by company (Vaughan, Tang, & Du, 2010; Kline, Burstein, De Keijzer & Berger, 2005)

Customer opinions and views (Gorry & Westbrook, 2011)

‘specialized information needs

of persons engaged in business’

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In summary, for work & everyday life, blogs provide the following information:

Primary & secondary sources

Company/institutional information versus personal and other life writing genres of information

News & current awareness

Referrals to sources (channels) as well as are sources

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Where do blogs fit in existing/ official information typologies?

Blogs and other social media do not neatly fit into existing categories of information sources.

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Official definition of an information source

database

document

That provides information

(Stevenson & Collin, 2006)

book

person

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Based on Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvain’s (1996) and Hertzum, Andersen, Andersen and Hansen (2002)

People (conversation, interviewsmeetings etc.)

Document (written, electronic or printed text)

Personal (own knowledge gained from experience & practice)Virtual(Avatars or virtual agents)

Combined typologies of information sources

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including 2 new categories of events and visits, expanding documents to include registers based on Byström (2005) and changing personal source to experience

Combined typologies of information sources

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Blogs defined

Agreed propertiesWebpages or websitesBriefly & regularly updatedContent chronologically arrangedDynamic & constantly evolving

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Blogs defined

Disputed Genre of communication or medium Typologies of blogs that exist Metaphors for blogs, such as:

oCitizen journalism?oPersonal websites?oOnline diaries?

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Maxwell (2008) states that blogs:

“are repositories of PDF scans of useful tidbits of legal information that either are not offered through the conventional legal publishing channels or are offered by the blog at no charge.”

Blogs incorporate documents

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Blogs as people sources

According to Zhuo, Wellman, and Yu (2011):

social media in general amplifies the traditional word of mouth exchange of information while disseminating information to a broader audience outside of friends, family and one's personal network.

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Blogs as personal sources

In Pew Internet Research survey on Bloggers by Amanda Lenhart and Susannah Fox (2006, July 19), it is found that:

“most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting

individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with

friends and family.”

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2006/Bloggers.aspx

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Document sources Organisations and agencies posting or sharing

documents on blogs

People sources Sources of conversation

Personal sources Personal reflection on events & knowledge sharing

stories

In summary, blogs incorporate multiple information sources

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New framework for studying how blogs function as information sources

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Begin with broader definition of an information sourceAnything that a person turns to in order to properly answer a question.

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Proposed classification of information available on blogs

Nonfiction News & current

awareness or events Alternatives to news Documents

Fiction Literary works based

on reality Fantasy

Mixed Entertainment news

(Celebrity gossip etc.) Personal Life writing genre Company/organisational

/institutional storytellingBased on

investigation with the aim of being

objective

Based on subjective opinion,

interpretation, personal experience,

observation or memory

Based on imagination, creative

commentary of or reimagining reality

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Questions, comments, criticisms?

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ReferencesBailey, O. G. (2008). Blogs in the second Iraqi war: Alternative media challenging the mainstream?” In O. G. Bailey, B. Cammaerts & N. Carpentier. Understanding Alternative Media.( pp.72- 83). New York: Open University Press.boyd, d. (2006). A Blogger’s blog: Exploring the definition of a medium. Reconstruction, 6(4) Retrieved from http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/boyd.shtml Clyde, L. (2004a). Weblogs and libraries. Oxford: Chandos.Clyde , L. (2004b). Weblogs – are you serious? The Electronic Library, 22 (5), 390-392 . doi 10.1108/02640470410561893 Dean, J. (2010). Blog theory: Feedback and capture in the circuits of drive. Cambridge; Malden, MA: Polity. Drezner, D. W. & Farrell, H. (2005). Web of influence. In D. Kline, D. Burstein, A.J. Keijzer. & P.Berger. (Eds.). Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture. (pp 83-97). New York: CDS Books in association with Squibnocket Partners LLC.Garden, M. (2012). Defining blog: A fool’s errand or a necessary undertaking. Journalism, 13(4), 483-499. doi:10.1177/1464884911421700Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L. A., Bonus, S., & Wright, E. (2004). "Bridging the gap: A genre analysis of weblogs. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'04) - Track 4, 2004,

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ReferencesHertzum, M., Andersen, H. H. K., Andersen, V., & Hansen, C. B. (2002). Trust in information sources: Seeking information from people, documents, and virtual agents. Interacting with Computers, 14(5), 575-599. doi:10.1016/S0953-5438(02)00023-1 Kline, D., Burstein, D., De Keijzer, A. J., & Berger, P. (2005). Blog! :How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture. New York: CDS Books in association with Squibnocket Partners LLC. Leckie, G. J., Pettigrew, K. E., & Sylvain, C. (1996). Modeling the information seeking of professionals: A general model derived from research on engineers, health care professionals, and lawyers. The Library Quarterly, 66(2), 161-193. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4309109Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2006/PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf.pdfMaxwell, R. (2008). Flash and substance: Blogs as alternative sources of legal information. The CRIVSheet, The Newsletter of American Association of Law Libraries [AALL] ‘s Committee on Relations with Information Vendors, 30 (2), 9-10. Retrieved 8/17/2012, from http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Publications/spectrum/Archives/Vol-12/pub_sp0802/pub-sp0802-criv.pdf Stevenson, J. & Collin, P. H. (2006). Dictionary of information and library management (2nd ed.). London: A & C Black.Vaughan, L., Tang, J., & Du, J. (2010). Constructing business profiles based on keyword patterns on web sites. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(6), 1120-1129. doi: 10.1002/asi.21321 Zhuo, X., Wellman, B., & Yu, J. (2011). Egypt: The first Internet revolt? Peace Magazine, 27(3), 6-10. Retrieved from http://peacemagazine.org/archive/v27n3p06.htm