blogs : the construction of sense of community

Human Information Behavior

Blogs : the construction of sense of community

Bibi Alajmi


Communities

• Communities

• Virtual Communities

• Virtual settlement: the virtual place in which people interact (John,1997)


The physiological of sense of community (McMillan & Chavis,

1986)

• Membership: the feeling of belonging or of sharing a

personal relatedness.• Influence: a sense of mattering, of making a difference to

a group and the group of mattering to its members. • Integration & Fulfillment of needs: where the

feeling that members needs will be met by the resources received through their membership

• Shared emotional connection: where people tend to disclose their feelings when they feel safe.


Research Focus & Question

• Research Questions (1): Can we use language –discourse—to predict the sense of community in blogs?

• Research Question (2): What are the major attributes for describing blogs as virtual community.

• Research Question (3): Should blogs be considered a virtual community or a virtual settlement (online space in which individual interact interact).


Data Collection & Sample

• Following grounded theory approach• Content Analysis—Blogs comments and posts.• ATLAS.ti

• Blogs---Cited as Kuwaiti Blogs• ---Written in English• ---Rich in its content• Collect them through www.kuwaitblogs.com • Data collected from five blogs, within April’s

posts. Critical time in Kuwait Politics.

http://www.kuwaitblogs.com/


Data Analysis---General Observation

• Male are more likely to create blogs than female, 80/20 percent.

• Male tend to have more text-based blogs, images are used within the post. Female tend to have more image-based blogs, images are not necessary within the posts.

• Male tend to talk more about others (Kuwait politics, government, friends; while Female tend to talk more about themselves (what they like most, their hobbies).

• The average of posts is 10-15 post per month.


Data Analysis---Membership

• Sharing feeling of personal relatedness by voicing their own opinions and receiving some positive response back

E.X From one Level

248am(B1)--Post Comment—KtheKuwaiti (B2)

From another Level

KtheKuwaiti (B2)—PostComment—248am(B1)


Data Analysis---Membership

• Blogroll reflects an extensive tool for developing communication networks. BlogA link to BlogB, BlogB link to Blog C, and BlogC link to BlogA. Better analyzed through SNA.

• Setting boundaries, where member distinguish between “We” and “they”.


Data Analysis---Influence


Data Analysis---Integration & Fulfillment of needs


Data Analysis---Shared Emotional Connection


Conclusion

• Blogs share attributes of virtual communities, when it’s users develop and create sense of community.

• emotion creates an intrinsically rewarding reason to continue participation in these online communities.

• Blogs as virtual communities are the new phenomena for overcoming the distant relationships in the physical communities.


Reference• Jones, Q. (1997). Virtual-communities, virtual settlements & cyber-

archaeology: A theoretical outline. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(3), 24.

• McMillan, D., Chavis, D.M.(1986). Sense of community: Definition and theory. Journal of community Psychology, 14, p.6-23.

Software• ATLAS.ti available through

https://www.scilsnet.rutgers.edu:29443/Citrix/MetaFrame/auth/login.aspx



blogs : the construction of sense of community

Documents

research question

virtual community

community

blogs

group

mattering

members

sense