Andre, So would you say that what is missing in the research projects themselves, or maybe in the overarching research environment, is the "critical" element of the discourse? I wonder if the monoculturalization, you note, is common in emerging research disciplines (using that term loosely as I know there is much debate on internet research as a discipline) as they sort out what foci, tools, etc. to port from other venues? I would like to hear you thoughts, and other as well. Lois On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 12:53 PM, Andre Brock <andre.brock@gmail.com> wrote: Following up on Lois' (my shero) excellent response, I'd like to add my own observations. WRT blogging platforms, i find that a lot of work out there ignores the mediating work done by blogging software. Yes, the platforms are content-agnostic (heh), but each platform works differently to construct the discourses published by the blog author and expanded upon in the comments. As Lois pointed out, some blogs hand code, which leads to them possibly not showing up in subject search queries. I would like to add to this that depending on the blogs hosting situation, comment structure and interactivity will change dramatically depending on the moderation and presentation (threading/avatar/anti-spam) possibilities available. as a reviewer, I'm often bemused by the lack of interrogation of cultural ideologies, both online and offline, that are articulated in online media. Specifically, research into "mainstream" (non-POC or "straight" or "masculine") cultures often uncritically accepts the tenets and beliefs expressed by that community as "normal". Meanwhile, any research on underrepresented online cultures MUST work to establish both the differences and similarities of that culture to the mainstream. The dearth of published research on race and online media is a problem as well, as it exposes the lack of diversity in our field. (well, it's actually a good thing for me, but plays hell with my bibliographies) Even more interesting is the lack of research on race AND gender or race AND sexuality; how did we get locked into such monocultural perspectives on Internet and New Media use and design? Just some additional food for thought... André -- Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Candidate - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com CV: http://www.loisscheidt.com/cv.html Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com