Blog Genres
Blogging is a genre, but in being one, it draws on existing genres in creating itself as something distinct from others: remediation.Some genre distinctions are beginning to appear, and bloggers are beginning to start and design blogs drawing on genres. While blogs can be rolled into larger web sites, I want to focus on blogs that are set up and maintained for a specific purpose and which draw on genres (from blog or other world) in their design and rhetoric, including the rhetoric of posting.
filters and others
The first distinction comes from Blood, et al.- blog or personal journal: short-form journal, not always many links
- notebook: longer, more focused entries.
- filter: blog lists and contextualizes links
But recent articles (elijah, et al) suggests that more bloggers are using the form as a personal or professional diary, and that conventions are beginning to surface. Everybody wants to be Samual Pepys.
blog categories
from Yang, Rough Guide.- journal blogs: writing as therapy
- professional blogs: blogging as a professional to give an inside view of the profession or job
- fantasy blogs: co-opting the identity of a fictional character
- hobby blogs: two types. the journal of the hobbiest, and the blog that collects information and links about a particular pasttime.
- tech blogs: blogs on tech matters
- celebrity blogs: both commoners blogging about their faves, and celebs who blog
- sports blogs:
blog forms
see BlogTropesAndFigures and BlogInventionStrategiesPaul Ford in [http://www.ftrain.com/archive_ftraintwo_51.html Log Frenzy] gives us initial work on proposing some blog forms. His aim is to encourage writiing link-focused weblogs.
:"The Weblog is a new form in the world of arts and letters. How could the Weblog "form" be expanded in regards to narrative, not technology, to become exciting and valuable over time?"
Some examples
- DiaLog ...
- OppoLog ...
- ResoLog ...
- RootLog. For each link, post an accompanying link to the root concept, or to a topic in a given context. If you post some news about the GNP, identify an economics link that explains the concept thoroughly. If you write about nanotechnology, find a link about molecular interactions. Genetics is part of biology, part of natural science, which is in turn a structure of knowledge which can be criticized through the study of epistemology on one side and cognition on the other. An alternative approach to the RootLog might be to use a "critical layer" to criticize the text of your links. You might use rhetoric to find the rhetorical constructs and structures inside your linked texts and identify bias, or you might use sociobiological theory to show how different news can be interpreted from an strict, E.O. Wilson evolutionary perspective. Find the root of different forms of knowledge and knowledge construction. Form opinions. Draw connections between different disciplines.
Ford's forms act as tropes and master figures to help writers generate postings.
Nacent Genres
A list of types with some initial comments on characteristicspersonal blog / professional blog
- the focus is on individual's daily thoughts, ideas, activities, either personally or professionally.
- distance: ranges from intimate (personal blog) to more social (pro blog).
k-blog
- focus is on individually or by a group collecting and organzing and linking to subject- or project related materials
- distance: would tend to be social, semi-formal, professional distance. The distance sets criteria for contributers.
study blog (aks diss blog)
- focus is on the subject matter and project, but also becomes a place for writer escape from the project: wehre writer can write about how the project is proceeeding. Reflective.
- distance varies from professional to personal, but aspect towards topic tends to be professional-in-training
group blog
- centered on topic
- centered on personality
journalistic / news blog
That is, a blog being used for news reporting- corporate
- personal
commercial / promotion / marketing blog
- aim tends to be to create a controlled sense of community by giving an authorized voice to a corporation or business.
- distance: semi-formal, but heavily mediated through a persona
project blog
Blogs set up to re-create a blog like project- http://www.pepysdiary.com/ Pepys's Diary
- http://www.sankey.ca/caesar/ Bloggus Caesari: a Weblog by Julius Caesar Regular updates from the Gaelic front lines.
