Annotated Bibliography

Baumer, E.P.S;  Sueyoshi,  M; &  Tomlinson,  B. (2011). Bloggers and readers blogging together: collaborative co-creation of political blogs. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10606-010-9132-9.pdf

This article is a credible source as it is an academic peer-reviewed scholarly article published in SpringerLink's online publication, dated 2011. The article emphasises the significance of blogging, bloggers and blogs in regards to political ideologies. Baumer et al; 2011 explores the similarities and distinctions amidst blogs and mainstream media (MSM). The authors gathered qualitative data approximately using a study conducted with bloggers and readers in a two and a half months’ time period. The analysis of this article highlights that blogs are not only used for social activities but also for the communications and collaborations that motivate them to co-create a blog. This article connects with Orwell’s opinions – one of the motives of writers is to write for political purpose. The authors’ states that some blogs tend to express their political opinions and biases openly and clearly. They mention that readers’ collaborative participation shapes partisan ideologies. The article is useful for my essay as it helps us to understand social media role in the democratisation of content and distinction amidst social and mainstream media (MSM) in the production of information. However, the main limitation of this article is it explicitly focuses on blogs rather than other social media such as Twitter feeds and Flickr streams. This article will help me to form a basis for my argument about how collaborative and participative media influences both the roles of writers and readers. I will provide examples of collaborative activities on social platforms such as blogs and Wikipedia.

Kjellberg, S. (2010). I am a blogging researcher: motivations for blogging in a scholarly context. Retrieved from   https://firstmonday.org/article/view/2962/2580

Kjellberg's (2019) study outlines that there has been an increase in the number of scholarly blogs. The author used data gained through a survey of a group of researchers of various disciplines. The purpose of this article is to highlight that blogs play a major role in the communication and knowledge sharing process of researchers. The author of the article identified blogging as a new literacy practice and tool to publish scholarly content that establishes self-representation and creativity. This research is useful for my essay as it investigates the intentions of the researchers to use blogs to publish their content - Expressing opinions, interacting, creating relationships, disseminating content, keeping up-to-date and remembering, and writing. The main limitation of this article is that the research is limited to scholarly researchers and did not focus on general bloggers. The article is relevant to present Orwell’s topics of ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’ and ‘sheer egoism’ in my essay. Kjellberg elaborates that researchers' want to share information about their area of discipline to build a reputation and reach their target audience.This article will help me to summarise the distinctive connection amidst collaborative media and motivation to read or write in social platforms – why and how blogs influence writers or researchers’ to disseminate intellectual content and build an Internet presence in public platforms. This article is a credible source to use in my essay as it is a peer-reviewed journal article published on the First Monday website, dated 2010.