Thank you for all the comments you sent on my previous draft Genres of Weblogs...Your Input Please. You all made me think a lot about my underlying assumptions, which is a very good thing. I think I've captured my thoughts much more clearly on this map, Characteristics of Weblogs (pdf).

I owe a couple of people responses, so I hope they forgive me for doing it here. I think the discussion is valuable so here goes. One of the comments I got was that I was working from a descriptive standpoint rather than from a genre theory lens on to description. I thought about this comment quite a lot one day as I drove to and home from campus. When I got home I pulled out my trusty copy of Duff's (2000) Modern Genre Theory and did some review work. What I found is that all of the chapters, and the source material I've reviewed, are basically descriptive though often bounded to a particular communication form. I do think I am working from a particular perspective for my description, although it doesn't come through as clearly in the original mindmap. I believe I've corrected that problem in the current draft.

Another comment ties into my revision of the original mindmap, in that the commenter asked about facets that would effect genre that were not represented in the original mindmap. I agree, I do think that on some level this would need to be a faceted classification system. However, much research is needed before a more complete faceted system could be drawn up.

A couple of general notes before you slice and dice this mindmap. 1) I have split number of bloggers into four categories (single blogger, two bloggers, three through n bloggers, and (n+1) to infinity bloggers. I believe there are distinctions between these four categories though I accept that I might be wrong in that there may be less than or more than four. Published research has really only scratched the surface of this issue... with work on single blogger blogs and many blogger blogs - like Metafilter. There is much to learn...so get cracking out there folks. LOL 2) I am working from two perspectives through the lens of a published taxonomy of diary types (Mallon, 2000). My perspectives are published work on blogs (at least through December 2005 as I have some additional reading to do to update the chapters I wrote last year), and based on my own anecdotal experience. This mindmap is not to be seen as authoritative rather I see it as informative as it helps me and the readers see how I believe weblogs genres can be grouped verses a later mindmap that will chart the work reviewed in my qualifying paper - aka long literature review. 3) This mindmap is in no way exhaustive. I think that is impossible unless you timebound the phenomena and do a retrospective review. Genres can and will be added at any level...though I think additions above level five on this mindmap will be unusual. 4) Yes, I know that each subgenre needs at least two characteristics for any of them to be broken down...it's a draft remember. LOL So cut me some slack.

Comments encouraged prolurkr@professional-lurker.com

Reference List

Duff, David (2000). Modern Genre Theory. Essex U.K.: Pearson.

Posted by prolurkr at August 19, 2007 03:27 PM

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