Hi there, I'm wondering how to cite blogs correctly. That involves some aspects I think. There are the citation rules - not mentioning blogs, at least to my knowledge - and some ethical issues. If a blog has a denomination and no author/editor mentioned what am I supposed to do if I know the name of that person. Or if he just uses a first name or ... I posted this question on my blog (in German) http://randgaenge.net/2003/09/28.html#a1941 and got several replies. Thanks Thomas Thomas N. Burg Center for New Media Danube University Krems http://randgaenge.net
Thomas N. Burg wrote:
I'm wondering how to cite blogs correctly. That involves some aspects I think.
There are the citation rules - not mentioning blogs, at least to my knowledge - and some ethical issues. If a blog has a denomination and no author/editor mentioned what am I supposed to do if I know the name of that person. Or if he just uses a first name or ...
I posted this question on my blog (in German) http://randgaenge.net/2003/09/28.html#a1941 and got several replies.
There are some very useful remarks in the comments (like how to cite newsgroup posts), but I think in the end it depends on what style of citation the journal or publisher wants to use. Many in the 'social sciences' field use the APA style and there is a brief section on electronic references on their site: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html However, they appear to only deal with 'bonafide' scientific material. Citing a weblog or newsgroup postings isn't dealt with. Personally, I stick with the reasoning that if something has been publicly 'published', whether on the web or in a newsgroup, you cite it by using its author's name, even if that is a pseudonym. If there is no easily discernable author, I use the 'post' title as a replacement for the author's name, because that's generally the way you cite an unattributed news media article. This makes it easy to refer to invidual posts/articles in your text instead of having to point to the 'container' publication, like the newspaper or weblog name. The post title is usually abbreviated to the 3 first words in the in-text reference, like so: (First three words: 2003). So, depending on what citation style you use and the publisher/editor's requirements, this works most of the time for me. Frank.
The problem with blogs is that they do not have a standard format yet. However a hierarchy is emerging: URL - blog title -- blog subtitle --- post title ---- post date Roughly following Harvard style, here is an example of what I have used in the past, attempting to analogise between the different parts of the hierarchy had sort of a paper within a journal: Dibble, J. (2003). 'Scammed! (Saturday, July 05, 2003)', Play Money Diary of a Dubious Proposition, [Blog], Available at: www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/, Date accessed: 03/08/03. As to ethics of citation, I see blogs just like any other web site, and hence different from listserves which often have stated quotation rules. Ren www.renreynolds.com
amazing how hierarchies always emerge... r At 11:15 PM 10/1/2003 +0100, you wrote:
The problem with blogs is that they do not have a standard format yet.
However a hierarchy is emerging:
URL - blog title -- blog subtitle --- post title ---- post date
Roughly following Harvard style, here is an example of what I have used in the past, attempting to analogise between the different parts of the hierarchy had sort of a paper within a journal:
Dibble, J. (2003). 'Scammed! (Saturday, July 05, 2003)', Play Money Diary of a Dubious Proposition, [Blog], Available at: www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/, Date accessed: 03/08/03.
As to ethics of citation, I see blogs just like any other web site, and hence different from listserves which often have stated quotation rules.
Ren www.renreynolds.com
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__________________________ Radhika Gajjala http://www.cyberdiva.org __________________________
radhika gajjala wrote:
amazing how hierarchies always emerge...
*grin* thanks, I needed that. ren reynolds wrote:
Roughly following Harvard style, here is an example of what I have used in the past, attempting to analogise between the different parts of the hierarchy had sort of a paper within a journal:
Dibble, J. (2003). 'Scammed! (Saturday, July 05, 2003)', Play Money Diary of a Dubious Proposition, [Blog], Available at: www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/, Date accessed: 03/08/03.
Okay, I'm not really familiar with the Harvard style you mention, but why would the date be part of the blog post title? Secondly, why would you have to mention that /Play Money/ is a blog? (Secondly and a bit: why not use "weblog," that seems somewhat more official than blog. The makers of MovableType recently changed all occurances of "blog" in their documentation to "weblog" to reflect this sensibility.) Thirdly, why not use the full URL for pointing to that individual blog post? Now I have to go hunt it down myself from the index page instead of cutting/pasting the link. IMHO, working from the APA style, it would look something like this (slashes indicate italics): Dibbell, J. (2003). Scammed! /Play Money: Diary of Dubious Proposition./ Retrieved 3-3-2003 from: http://www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/2003_07_01_playmoney_archive.html#105... Right, I can see now why using the full URL could be a bit of a problem, but that can't be helped really, I think.
As to ethics of citation, I see blogs just like any other web site, and hence different from listserves which often have stated quotation rules.
Apart from referring to weblogs, I referred to Usenet newsgroup postings and not mailinglists. Mailinglists are in principle closed environments, while I would argue that newsgroups are fundamentally open forums. Frank.
Actually, now I've taken out the whole publishing date, which is a bit too much. If we consider the weblog title as equivalent to a journal or periodial title, then the individual weblog post is as an article contained therein. Year/issue/date stuff then goes with the weblog title, not the weblog post. Ammended version: Dibbell, J. (2003). Scammed! /Play Money: Diary of a Dubious Proposition, 5-7-2003./ Retrieved 3-8-2003 from: http://www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/2003_07_01_playmoney_archive.html#105... Frank.
May I suggest you spell out the month, as APA does for citing websites? This way I cannot tell whether 3-8-2003 refers to March 8th (US reading), or to the 3rd of August (European reading). Ulla ---------------------------------------------------- Ulla Bunz Assistant Professor Department of Communication Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Email: bunz@scils.rutgers.edu ---------------------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of Frank Schaap Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 10:20 AM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] How to cite blogs? Actually, now I've taken out the whole publishing date, which is a bit too much. If we consider the weblog title as equivalent to a journal or periodial title, then the individual weblog post is as an article contained therein. Year/issue/date stuff then goes with the weblog title, not the weblog post. Ammended version: Dibbell, J. (2003). Scammed! /Play Money: Diary of a Dubious Proposition, 5-7-2003./ Retrieved 3-8-2003 from: http://www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/2003_07_01_playmoney_archive.html #105742751946738538 Frank. _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
Ulla Bunz wrote:
May I suggest you spell out the month, as APA does for citing websites?
This way I cannot tell whether 3-8-2003 refers to March 8th (US reading), or to the 3rd of August (European reading).
You're right... Actually, we should just use the ISO 8601 international standard date and time notation, it's the only sensible alternative: YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss +/- timezone difference from GMT (24hrs clock) Frank.
Just to explain my thinking at the time of creating the example. 02 October 2003 15:09 Frank Schaap wrote
would the date be part of the blog post title?
In some blogs there is a title for each entry, in other there is simply a date, so it seemed there should be a place holder in the reference for entry title \ date. By their nature Blogs tend to be are moment by moment so the exact time and date of an entry can provide valuable context.
Secondly, why would you have to mention that /Play Money/ is a blog? I looked at a few things on Harvard notation and they seems to use the [type of thing] form in some instances. As a practical matter, there is now a lot of stuff that just happens to be on the web, I think that to provide context its useful to differentiate between a web site, a forum and a blog.
Secondly and a bit: why not use "weblog," that seems somewhat more official than blog. The makers of MovableType recently changed all occurances of "blog" in their documentation to "weblog" to reflect this sensibility. My personal feeling is that these are 'blogs', hence Blogger, Blogspot etc, I feel most bloggers think of themselves as such, why bother formalizing it.
Thirdly, why not use the full URL for pointing to that individual blog post? Now I have to go hunt it down myself from the index page instead of cutting/pasting the link.
Because this is not always possible, not all blogs use a bookmark or unique URL. My blog for instance does not have URLs for each entry.
Apart from referring to weblogs, I referred to Usenet newsgroup postings and not mailinglists. Mailinglists are in principle closed environments, while I would argue that newsgroups are fundamentally open forums.
I just thought I would throw listservs in while were at it. Some listserves are archived on the web and indexed by Google so that have a less determinate status. Ren www.renreynolds.com and while we are at it <g>: renreynolds.blogspot.com -----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of Frank Schaap Sent: 02 October 2003 15:09 To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] How to cite blogs? radhika gajjala wrote:
amazing how hierarchies always emerge...
*grin* thanks, I needed that. ren reynolds wrote:
Roughly following Harvard style, here is an example of what I have used in the past, attempting to analogise between the different parts of the hierarchy had sort of a paper within a journal:
Dibble, J. (2003). 'Scammed! (Saturday, July 05, 2003)', Play Money Diary of a Dubious Proposition, [Blog], Available at: www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/, Date accessed: 03/08/03.
Okay, I'm not really familiar with the Harvard style you mention, but why would the date be part of the blog post title? Secondly, why would you have to mention that /Play Money/ is a blog? (Secondly and a bit: why not use "weblog," that seems somewhat more official than blog. The makers of MovableType recently changed all occurances of "blog" in their documentation to "weblog" to reflect this sensibility.) Thirdly, why not use the full URL for pointing to that individual blog post? Now I have to go hunt it down myself from the index page instead of cutting/pasting the link. IMHO, working from the APA style, it would look something like this (slashes indicate italics): Dibbell, J. (2003). Scammed! /Play Money: Diary of Dubious Proposition./ Retrieved 3-3-2003 from: http://www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/2003_07_01_playmoney_archive.html #105742751946738538 Right, I can see now why using the full URL could be a bit of a problem, but that can't be helped really, I think.
As to ethics of citation, I see blogs just like any other web site, and hence different from listserves which often have stated quotation rules.
Apart from referring to weblogs, I referred to Usenet newsgroup postings and not mailinglists. Mailinglists are in principle closed environments, while I would argue that newsgroups are fundamentally open forums. Frank. _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
* All who register will get a chance to engage and participate and workshop their ideas and research contexts - discussions are intended to be helpful to participants in clarifying the connection between Postcolonial Theory and Internet Studies. * [What counts and Postcolonial Studies - What counts as Internet Studies? - What counts as doing something at the intersection of both?] * If you have already registered please email me (radhika@cyberdiva.org) asap - so I can include your name, affiliation and topic (or point of interest/engagement in relation to this precon), and if you have one, a 100 word abstract, so we can hand these out to all participants in the handout at the precon and send you an email on the details of the plan for the afternoon. * Postcolonial Feminists Meet Internet Studies (afternoon, Wednesday, October 15) * Organizer: Radhika Gajjala, Associate Professor, Department of Interpersonal Communication Bowling Green State Univerisity This preconvention will be a space where we will assert the basic problematics and struggles involved in bringing together the two fields postcolonial feminisms" and "internet studies". This is as much about making postcolonial theory take Internet (and associated "virtuality")studies seriously as it is about voicing postcolonial feminist perspectives on Internet studies. Postcolonial issues - at the intersection of race, gender, class, caste, geography and economics - in relation to Internet studies often tend to get subsumed (or side-tracked) under liberal cyberfeminist discourses while only obliquely addressed in "intercultural/multicultural" approaches . Concepts of collaborative or cross-disciplinary work alone are not sufficient to address the issues of unequal power that arise at the intersection of postcolonial theory and Internet studies. Topics covered include digital diasporas and religion, globalization and third-world contexts, migrant labor and the production of technologies, race, class and gender and so on. Main Speakers/Respondents include: Jillana Enteen, Theresa Senft, Mary Keller, Charles Ess, Michel Minou and Radhika Gajjala for more information on registering for this etc - see http://www.ecommons.net/aoir/conference.phtml#rad http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
I am very very sorry I mispelled Michel Menou's name (again?)! r At 8:12 AM -0400 10/3/03, Radhika Gajjala wrote:
* All who register will get a chance to engage and participate and workshop their ideas and research contexts - discussions are intended to be helpful to participants in clarifying the connection between Postcolonial Theory and Internet Studies. * [What counts and Postcolonial Studies - What counts as Internet Studies? - What counts as doing something at the intersection of both?] * If you have already registered please email me (radhika@cyberdiva.org) asap - so I can include your name, affiliation and topic (or point of interest/engagement in relation to this precon), and if you have one, a 100 word abstract, so we can hand these out to all participants in the handout at the precon and send you an email on the details of the plan for the afternoon. * Postcolonial Feminists Meet Internet Studies (afternoon, Wednesday, October 15) * Organizer: Radhika Gajjala, Associate Professor, Department of Interpersonal Communication Bowling Green State Univerisity
This preconvention will be a space where we will assert the basic problematics and struggles involved in bringing together the two fields postcolonial feminisms" and "internet studies". This is as much about making postcolonial theory take Internet (and associated "virtuality")studies seriously as it is about voicing postcolonial feminist perspectives on Internet studies.
Postcolonial issues - at the intersection of race, gender, class, caste, geography and economics - in relation to Internet studies often tend to get subsumed (or side-tracked) under liberal cyberfeminist discourses while only obliquely addressed in "intercultural/multicultural" approaches . Concepts of collaborative or cross-disciplinary work alone are not sufficient to address the issues of unequal power that arise at the intersection of postcolonial theory and Internet studies. Topics covered include digital diasporas and religion, globalization and third-world contexts, migrant labor and the production of technologies, race, class and gender and so on.
Main Speakers/Respondents include: Jillana Enteen, Theresa Senft, Mary Keller, Charles Ess, Michel Minou and Radhika Gajjala
for more information on registering for this etc - see http://www.ecommons.net/aoir/conference.phtml#rad
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
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participants (7)
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Frank Schaap -
radhika gajjala -
Radhika Gajjala
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radhika_gajjala
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Ren Reynolds -
Thomas N. Burg -
Ulla Bunz