LiteratureReviewonStudiesonBlog

【Abstract】Inmodernsocietyblogginghasbeenastormofonlinerevolutionwhichhasattractedmostpeople’seyes.Thestudyonweblogsinwestmainlyfocusesoncontent,identity,municationandotherperspectives.Andmanystudiesoncontent,identity,municationetc.arefromtheangleoflinguistics.However,blogsarestillnotahottopicintheChinaalthoughsomescholarsstudythemfromtheperspectivesofhistoricalandphilosophicalproblems,functions,applicationandtheoriesofweblogs.Therefore,moreperspectivesaboutblogsshouldbefurtherstudiedinChinasuchastheperspectiveoflinguistics.

【Keywords】blogsliteraturereviewlinguistics

1.Introduction

Inmodernsocietyblogginghasbeenastormofonlinerevolutionwhichhasattractedmostpeople’seyes.Overthefewyearsoftheirexistence,blogsheevolvedintopublicdiariesofasort,maintainedbymillionsofindividualsworldwide.

Thepersonallivesofmillionsarenowaccessibletoallthroughanunmediatedchannel.Sofar,almostalltheworkinthiieldhasbeendonebyforeignscholars,butwhenitestoChineseweblog,mostofthestudieshebeencarriedoutfromperspectivesofsociology,economics,municationandlaw,yetlittleefforthasbeenmadefromlinguisticpointofview.

2.StudiesonBlog

2.1Studiesinwest

Blogculturehasbeenpresentedbythemediaandbybloggersthemselveorthemosttime（Dibbell69-77）.However,moreandmorescholarshestartedtoanalyzethemakeupoftheblogosphere（thecollectivetermenpassingallblogs）recently.Thissectionbrieflyreviewstheacademicliteraturerelatingtothefourperspectivesofinquiryinthissurvey：content,identity,munication,andotherpersistences.

2.1.1FromthePerspectiveofContent

Manyscholarsstudiesonthecontentofweblogs.Herring,Scheidt,BonusandWrightanalyze203randomly-selectedweblogsandparetheempiricallyobservablefeaturesofthecorpuswithpopularclaimsaboutthenatureofweblogs,findingthemtodifferinanumberofrespects.Theyarguesthatblogauthors,journalistsandscholarsalikeexaggeratetheextenttowhichblogsareinterlinked,interactive,andorientedtowardsexternalevents,andunderestimatetheimportanceofblogsasindividualistic,intimateformsofself-expression（Herringetal.1）.

ScottNowsondescribesalinguisticinvestigationofindividualdifferencesinblogs.Heemploysanumberofanalytictechniques,bothtop-downandbottom-uptothecorpusconsistsofover400,000wordsandfive-factorpersonalitydata.Andheconcludesthatbothgenderandpersonalityareprojectedbylanguageinblogs；furthermore,approacheswhichtakethecontextoflanguagefeaturesintoaccountcanbeusedtodetectmorevariationthanthosewhichdonot（3）.GiladAvrahamMishnegroupstheinformationinweblogsintotwokinds：thefirstispeople-centricinformation,anindividual’sinterests,preferences,andsurroundings；thesecondtypeinformationisnon-factualcontentsuchasemotions,opinionsandmoods.Othersentiment-relatedcollectionswhichhebeenstudiedextensivelyareusuallydomain-specific,mercially-oriented（239）.

2.1.2FromthePerspectiveofIdentity

DidA.andHuffakerSandraL.Calvertexamineissuesofonlineidentityandlanguageuseamongmaleandfemaleteenagerswhocreatedandmaintainedblogs,personaljournalakepubliclyaccessibleontheWorldWideWeb.Theyfindthatmalesusemoreemoticonsthanfemalesandemployanactiveandresolutestyleoflanguageparedwithfemales.Theresultsindicatethatteenagersstayclosertorealityintheironlineexpressionsofselfthanhaspreviouslybeensuggested.

HuaQianandCraigR.Scottexaminefromthenewpointofview,therelationshipbetweenanonymityandself-disclosureonweblogsthroughanonlinesurveyandfindthatdiscursive,butnotvisual,anonymityisrelatedtotheamountofself-disclosure,especiallyforblogsintendedforcertainaudiences.Theyclaimthatthetargetaudienceplaysanimportantroleindeterminingnotonlyhowanonymousabloggerfeelsbutalsohowmuchpersonalidentificationinformationhe/shewillprovide.

Duringthesameyear2007,SarahPedersenandCarolineMacafeestudyasampleof48femaleandmaleBritishbloggerswhoansweredquestionnairesabouttheirbloggingpracticesandattitudes.Theyfindthatforbothsexes,bloggingiainlyaleisureactivity,andmenandwomenfindthesamerangeofsatiactionsinblogging.However,morewomenusebloggingasanoutletforcreativework.

AndShlomoArgamonetal.explorehowageandgenderaffectwritingstyleandtopicbymakingananalysisofmorethan140wordsofEnglishtextdrawnfromtheblogosphere.Theresultssuggestthatanumberofstylisticsandcontentaresignificantlyaffectedbybothageandgenderandthemaindifferencebetweenolderandyoungerbloggers,andbetweenmaleandfemalebloggers,lieintheextenttowhichtheirdiscourseisouterorinnerdirected.

2.1.3FromthePerspectiveofCommunication

ElmineWijniainvestigateswhatformofmunicationiadepossiblethroughtheweblogbasedonthemunicationtheoryofHambermasandthemunicationcapacitiesofVanDijk.Heclaimsthatweblogsofferaplatformfortheidealspeechsituationwithhighaccessibilityofthemunication,theequalpowerdistributionandthefactactingtruthfully.JamesTorioinhisthesisBlog-aglobalconversationarguesthatblogginghasenabledpeoplewithlimitedknowledgeoftheIntertopublishtheirthoughtsonlineandparticipateinaglobalconversationandblogospherehashyper-acceleratedspreadofinformation（4）.Andthestudyalsoexamineshowblogsheimpactedbusinessandmunication.

Herringetal.implybottom-upstudyintheirstudyConversationintheBlogosphereandempiricallyinvestigatethepopularblogs.Theyfindthatpopularblogsareoverpresentedandcentralinthework,althoughothergroupingsofblogsaremoredenselyinterconnected.Whatiore,theresultssuggestthattheblogosphereispartiallyinterconnectedandsporadicallyconversational（1）.

Althoughbloggingisaneasywayforpeopletogetanythingtheywantontheweb,therearemanyproblemsduringtheprocessofinformationspreading.KonstantinTchernovstudiesontheprivacyissueswithblogging.Heclaimsthattheboundaryofseparationbetweenthebloggers’publicandprivatelivescouldbebrokenwhentheyrevealtheirprivateinformationandthoughtstotheworld.Andthiayincurawidevarietyofproblemssuchassocialdisasters,employmentissues,legalliabilitiesandsoon.Heofferssomepossiblesolutionsthathebeenattemptedhelpmaintaintheirdesiredbalanceofdisclosure（1）.

2.1.4FromOtherPerspectives

DanLi,B.A.exploresthepatternsofblogging,bloggingmotivations,andtherolesofmotivationsaswellasdemographicsaspredictororbloggingbehiors.Thisstudyexaminessixaspectsofbloggingbehiorsandsevenmotivationorblogging.Andtheresultindthatcertainmotivationsarerelatedwithspecificusageofblogs.Forexample,self-documentationisapredictoroffeedbackmanagement,self-presentationandreadershipexpectation.

XierLlor`etal.arguethatputerscaneasilyassisttheprocessingfilteringthevisualizingrelevantelementsoftheblogosphere,butcouplingthemwithhumanevaluationandreasoningcanprovidethefinalstepstoconnectpiecesofrelevantinformationintobetterdescriptionmapofthecurrenttrendsoftheblogosphere.Andtheypresentsomehuman-centeredvisualizationandanalysistoolswcanhelpuserstopareandreasonsynergiesandmisalignmentsrevolvingaroundaparticulartopic（1）.

JanSchmidtproposesageneralmodeltoanalyzeandparedifferentusesofbloggormatbasedontheidearomsociologicalstructurationtheory.Theresultssuggestthatindividualusageepisodesareframedbythreestructuraldimensionsofrules,relationsandcode.Andthemunitiesofbloggingpracticesaredefinedasgroupsofpeoplewhosharecertainroutinesandexpectationsabouttheuseofblogsastoolforinformation,identityandrelationshipmanagement.TomKelleherandBarbaraM.Millertestoperationaldefinitionsofrelationalmaintenancestrategiesappropriatetoonlinepublicrelations.Theyfindthatblogsareperceivedaoreconversationalthananizationalwebsitesandthisconversationalhumanvoicecorrelatedpositivelywithotherpreviously-identifiedrelationshipindicators.

2.2StudiesinChina

Moreandmorescholarsareattractedbyblogswiththeirrapiddevelopment.Theystudyblogromdifferentperspectivesandapplydifferentmethodologies.

First,scholarsstudyblogsthemselvesincludingtheirhistoricalandphilosophicalproblems,functionsandservices,application,clarification,language,etc.YanHaostudiesthepresentdevelopmentofblogsandtellsthereadershowtomakethewebsitesofblogsbythemselves（14-22）.HuZhongqingstatesthehistoryofblogoradvertisementsaswellastheirdevelopingtrendsinChina（76-78）.AndHeMeipointsouttheproblemsexistinginblogsandmethodsinadministeringtheblogs（21-23）.ZhouYancarriesoutaresearchintogender-languagerelationshipintheChineseweblogcontextfromtheangleofwordfrequencyandfindsthatmenandwomenaredifferentinpointofviewandstyle（53-54）.

Second,somescholarsstudyblogromaperspectiveofapplication,includingtheiremploymentinthefieldofeducation,business,libraryetc.ZhangShihaoandXiaoMinclaimethatblogarketingtakemanyadvantagesoverthetraditionalwaysandstatethestrategiesinblogarketing（63-64）.XinYuanyuanstudiestheblogsinfluenceontheeducationinelementaryschoolandfindsthatblogsaregoodforthemunicationbetweenstudentsandteachersandimprovementofteachersworks（49-51）.

Third,somescholarsstudyblogs’influenceonsocietyincludingtraditionalmedia,munication,socialbehiorandsociallives.DingMotakessina.ascasetostudyblogunicationinChina.Heproposesthatblogspresentthesimilarsegmentationstructureaasunicationinregardofthediscourserights（53-57）.FangXingdongandLiuShuangguietc.pointoutproblemsaboutpetitionandsymbiosisbetweenblogsandtraditionalmediaaswellassuggestions（81-86）.

Fourth,otherscholarocusonthetheoriesonblogsandtrytoexplaintheirinternalstructures,mechanis,etc.FangXingdongandZhangXiaorongparethefeaturesofblogswiththoseofmasediaandthenclaimthatthecoreofthebloggingprocessistoestablishthebloggers’identities（68-73）.LiuYongandLiAibinclaimthatblogshetheirsocialandculturalbackgroundwhichiertilesoilfortheappearinganddevelopmentofblogging――debrisofthesocialcontext,thegrassrootsofculturalstructureandtherapiddevelopmentofculturallifeoftheworkaswellastheneedforinterpersonalmunicationfromthepsychologicalpointsofview――thedesireforpublicanddeepmunicationandthetrendfromsharingtheinnermindstopubliclysharing.Andtheyarguethatwiththefurtherdevelopmentofblogging,anewweoftheinformationagewilleintobeing,whichwillheenormousandprofoundimpactonpeople’ssocialandculturallife（137-142）.2.3Conclusion

Tosummarize,thestudyonweblogsinwestmainlyfocusoncontent,identity,municationandotherperspectives.Andmanystudiesoncontent,identity,municationetc.arefromtheangleoflinguistics.However,blogsarestillnotahottopicintheChinaalthoughsomescholarsstudythemfromtheperspectivesofhistoricalandphilosophicalproblems,functions,applicationandtheoriesofweblogs.Whatiore,thereareveryfewstudiesinChinawhichfocusonthelinguisticperspective.Therefore,moreperspectivesaboutblogsshouldbefurtherstudiedinChinasuchastheperspectiveoflinguistics.

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