Käsitööhuviliste blogimise põhjused
Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
“Reasons why people interested in handicrafts blog”
Purpose of the study
The aim of the thesis was to study the reasons why people interested in handicrafts blog
and to find out whether these reasons are related to the social processes that are at work
in a successful virtual community. The main research questions were as follows:
▫ Which are the reasons why people interested in handicrafts blog?
▫ Which is the relationship between the bloggers and their audience?
▫ How handicraft bloggers utilise other handicraft blogs?
▫ Which social processes typical of virtual communities manifest themselves among
bloggers interested in handicrafts?
▫ How much are amateurs of handicrafts motivated to blog by participating in
successful social processes?
Keywords
Handicraft, blog, weblog, reasons for blogging, virtual community, blog community,
virtual community success, sense of virtual community, social processes in virtual
community.
Method and selection
The empirical method used was in-depth interviews. Four handicraft bloggers were
interviewed. The following criteria were used in choosing the participants:
▫ The experience and popularity of the bloggers. The participants had to be popular
and had to have been blogging for at least two years;
▫ The diversity of the bloggers and their blogs.
Key findings: the interviews
The thesis has four parts: theory, description of the method and the sample, empirics, and
inferences and discussion.
Eight reasons for blogging were differentiated: self-expression, feedback, social demand,
accumulating of social capital, blogging for blogging's sake, self-advertising and selfmarketing,
documenting of life, and archiving of information. All the enumerated reasons
may combine with one another, and usually people blog for many different reasons.
Typically, the reasons for blogging change when the blog develops and the aims of the
blogger change. Based on the responses given by the participants, at least three stages can
be described: initial feverish enthusiasm is slowly replaced by a peaceful routine that may
further evolve into a certain weariness and boredom during which new motivation is
sought. If the motivational crisis cannot be solved, then in all probability the blogging
will be stopped or the entries will become very sparse.
The existence of social processes characteristic of virtual communities was confirmed.
There is indeed exchange of information, and socio-emotional support between bloggers,
development and maintaining of trust between members, and development and
enforcement of norms of behaviour.
Six of the listed eight reasons – self-expression, feedback, archiving of information,
social demand, accumulating of social capital, and documenting of life – fit well with the
social processes at work in successful virtual communities, and may make the blogger
wish to belong to the community. It is hard to regard the last one as an independent
reason, because usually there is a whole complex of different motives, each one of which
separately is not necessarily primarily related to the aim to belong to the community. If in
a virtual environment a community is formed, then it is above all regarded as a bonus, to
achieve which each member contributes by activities that are driven by his/her personal
motives.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)