Re: [Air-L] online research ethics
On 7 Mar 2008, at 15:25, Charles Ess wrote:
bloggers by definition want their material to be read
Coming in on this one a bit late and perhaps I am making too much of what was probably just a passing comment, but I have to take issue with this. It is true that (non-friend/password protected) bloggers are making their material available to be read. But in my own interviews (with 22 personal webloggers) their imagined and desired relationships with readers varied widely and a few of them said they had no intention to be read by anyone else when they started. We need to leave room for the people we study to fool themselves on issues like this (one of the central points of my upcoming thesis in fact!) --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunicati...
Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone) Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm
On 11/03/2008, David Brake <d.r.brake@lse.ac.uk> wrote:
On 7 Mar 2008, at 15:25, Charles Ess wrote:
bloggers by definition want their material to be read
Coming in on this one a bit late and perhaps I am making too much of what was probably just a passing comment, but I have to take issue with this. It is true that (non-friend/password protected) bloggers are making their material available to be read. But in my own interviews (with 22 personal webloggers) their imagined and desired relationships with readers varied widely and a few of them said they had no intention to be read by anyone else when they started.
From my own point of view, I didn't start blogging to have an audience. Granted, I did do it through work, so I hoped that my students *might* read it; but I didn't put any compulsion on them *to* read it. I'd certainly never imagined that I'd have as many readers as I do from as wide a range of places ...
I wonder if many personal bloggers start with a (very) limited audience initially, and may be somewhat uncomfortable to discover they're read by a wider audience. -- Emma Duke-Williams: School of Computing/ Faculty eLearning Co-ordinator. Blog: http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/
On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 1:54 AM, Emma Duke-Williams < emma.dukewilliams@gmail.com> wrote:
I wonder if many personal bloggers start with a (very) limited audience initially, and may be somewhat uncomfortable to discover they're read by a wider audience.
This is an interesting conversation. I find it difficult to believe that there are people who write blogs (at least non-password non friends-only protected blogs) without the imagination or the intention of a reader. It is an interesting argument and perhaps I need to think about it more.
However, coming to Emma's wondering aloud, I fall in that category. I started my personal blog about five years ago on Livejournal. It started as one of those personal accounts meant only for the close set of friends who had all started the blogs with me. In four years, my blog readership (and subsequent friend's list) had grown to more than a thousand people. The day I realised that so many people are getting a glimpse of my blog which was still intensely personal - discussion relationships, people, paranoias and peeves - was the day I panicked and completely froze. I haven't written on my blog since a year now. I have also begun a new 'secret' blog, not giving away my identity as in the earlier one and keeping a low profile, sharing the link only with a few friends and not adding strangers. For me, as a blogger, especially for personal blogs, the imagination of what constitutes an audience gives me the freedom to write and express the way I want to. Just my small bit Nishant
-- Emma Duke-Williams: School of Computing/ Faculty eLearning Co-ordinator. Blog: http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/<http://userweb.port.ac.uk/%7Eduke-wie/blog/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Nishant Shah Ph.D. Student, CSCS, Bangalore. Research & Development, COMAT, Bangalore. # 0-9740074884
participants (3)
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David Brake -
Emma Duke-Williams -
Nishant Shah