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Corporate Weblogs: the Role of a New Genre in Shaping Institutional Ethos Quinn Warnick Iowa State University

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Corporate Weblogs: the Role of a New Genre in Shaping Institutional Ethos Quinn Warnick Iowa State University Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2006 Corporate weblogs: the role of a new genre in shaping institutional ethos Quinn Warnick Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Rhetoric and Composition Commons Recommended Citation Warnick, Quinn, "Corporate weblogs: the role of a new genre in shaping institutional ethos " (2006). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 7950. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/7950 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Corporate weblogs: The role of a new genre in shaping institutional ethos by Quinn Woodward Warnick A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Communication Program of Study Committee: Lee Honeycutt, Major Professor Dorothy Winsor Volker Hegelheimer Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2006 Copyright © Quinn Woodward Warnick, 2006. All rights reserved. 11 Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the master's thesis of Quinn Woodward Wamick has met the thesis requirements ofIowa State University Signatures have been redacted for privacy Ill Table of Contents ABSTRACT iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1. THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE WEBLOG 7 CHAPTER 2. ETHOS IN A HYPERTEXT AGE 19 CHAPTER 3. METHODS 32 CHAPTER 4. CASE STUDIES 41 Case Study 1: General Motors 43 Case Study 2: Boeing 52 Case Study 3: Sprint 59 Case Study 4: Cisco Systems 66 Case Study 5; EDS 73 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS 80 WORKS CITED 88 IV Abstract Weblogging, or "blogging," once considered a hobby for individuals, is being adopted at a rapid rate by small businesses and large corporations eager to reach new audiences via the Internet. The first corporation-sponsored weblogs appeared in 2002; four years later, a Google search for the phrase"businessblog" returns 6.7 million results, and a cottage industry ofconsulting companies has emerged to create and maintain weblogs for large corporations. These businessblogs are taking on the functions previouslyperformedby press releases, annual reports, shareholder memos, and customer support forums. The impact ofweblogs on the long-term communication strategies of companies remains to be seen, but blogs have the potential to change the way businesses interact with employees, customers, the media, and other companies. This thesis applies a rhetorical approach to corporate weblogs, examining the differences between corporate weblogs and personal weblogs and analyzing the ways in which weblogs shape the ethos ofthe corporations that use them. Chapter 1 reviews the history and evolution ofblogging. Chapter 2 reviews the academic literature on the concept ofethos and applies that concept to hypertext communication. Chapter 3 reviews various methods for evaluating ethos on the Internet and proposes specific criteria for evaluating the potential effect ofweblogs on the institutional ethos oflarge corporations. Chapter 4 consists offive briefcase studies ofFortune 100 companies that use weblogs. Chapter 5 speculates on the future ofblogging in the corporate environment and suggests avenues for further research on this subject. This thesis is one ofthe first in-depth academic analyses ofcorporate weblogs. As such, it will be far from all-encompassing, but it seeks to initiate a conversation about the corporatizing ofweblogs and the impact of blogging on professional communication. Introduction In May 2002, WiredNews reportedthat Macromedia, the companybehind such software programs as Dreamweaver and Flash, had assigned five ofits lead developers to create weblogs to accompany the laxmch of its new MX product line. At the time, weblogs were the province ofindividuals, not companies, and Macromedia's announcement was viewed with suspicionby bloggers, who pridethemselves on their independence and their distrust ofcorporations. Aware ofthe potential backlash in the blogging community, Macromedia took one significant precautionary measure: the company asked its bloggers to set up their websites on independently run servers. Tom Hale, the company's vice president in charge ofdeveloper relations, commented that the weblogs weren't being hosted on Macromedia's servers for a reason: "Would it have been a true blog ifwe put it on Macromedia.com? Not really" (Manjoo). The five Macromedia blogs—^widely acknowledged as the first "corporate weblogs"—^were astounding successes: they received extensive media coverage, featured active discussions among visitors, and, most significantly, spawned a new breed ofweblog. Other companies quickly began launching weblogs oftheir own, but in the rush to embrace the latest technology trend, many companies didn't bother establishing policies governing official or employee-hosted weblogs. This unstructured approach to implementing weblogs has created a number ofthorny issues, at least one ofwhich continues to prick Macromedia itself. Matt Brown, one ofthe five original Macromedia bloggers, left the company in early 2003 and abandoned—but didn't take down—his Dreamweaver MX Blog (see Figure 1). Because the weblog isn't hosted on a Macromedia server, the company cannot remove it from the Internet. And Brown has apparently vanished; one comment on his website notes that he may have moved to New Zealand, but Brown has never responded (Brown). Three years later, a Google search for "Dreamweaver blog" still returns Matt Brown's dormant site as the second result (see Figure 2). Because Brown has been either unable or unwilling to delete the site, search engines like Google still index the page. As a resuU, unsuspecting visitors may see the site as evidence ofpoor customer service on Macromedia's part. 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