University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2016 Pros and Cons: Negotiating Value in Blog Culture Gaden Jones, Georgia Gaden Jones, G. (2016). Pros and Cons: Negotiating Value in Blog Culture (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27463 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3128 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Pros and Cons: Negotiating Value in Blog Culture by Georgia Gaden Jones A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE CALGARY, ALBERTA JULY, 2016 © Georgia Gaden Jones 2016 Abstract An analysis of conversations with bloggers in both focus groups and interviews as well as a decade-long observation of blogging culture informs this exploration of the ways in which bloggers discursively construct value, and the contingencies of these constructions. The goal was to examine which characteristics and behaviors emerged as privileged and valued and those which were not, extrapolating these visions of value to broader social and cultural contexts where self-documentation and public presentations of self via social media are increasingly prevalent. The participants in this study took up multiple, complex and often intersecting discourses of value. Value operated in understandings of textual conventions and standards; of the norms and potential of blogging as a technology of the self (Foucault, 1988); as social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986) and subcultural capital (Thornton, 1997); in the ‘scene’ (Irwin, 1977) of blogging culture; and as economic value. In this context, tensions emerge where constructions of authenticity operate as both hallmarks of independence and strategies for monetization and professional progress; and the individual quest for meaning and self- care is situated in a cultural context where usefulness (to others) and validation (from others) often shape visions of value. ii Acknowledgements I have many thanks to give to those who have made the completion of this thesis possible. First, I have had a wonderful supervisor throughout this process. Dr. Maria Bakardjieva has been supportive (and very patient), and has been a mentor and a friend. This work has been strengthened by each and every conversation we have shared. The members of my supervisory and examining committees: Dr. Kaela Jubas, Dr. David Mitchell, Dr. Julie Rak, and Dr. Joanna Redden, have given valuable feedback and raised important questions which have challenged me and pushed me to shape and develop this study. I was fortunate to receive scholarships from the Faculty of Graduate Studies (2008) and the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship (2010). I am also grateful for resources from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant for the project At Home with the Internet: Completing Meanings of a New Medium, led by Dr. Maria Bakardjieva. This allowed me to provide an honorarium for my participants and for transcription services. Special thanks to my at-times collaborator and always dear friend Dr. Delia Dumitrica. We have had a lot of fun working together and she has also given me a kick in the pants when I needed it. My sincere thanks to the faculty, students and administration at the Department of Communications, Media and Film at the University of Calgary for all of their support. Megan Freeman has been an absolute rock star. Dr. Dawn Johnston and Dr. Lisa Stowe have been friends and mentors. I am also grateful for the experience of working with Dr. Lisa Panayotidis and Dr. Paul Stortz at the University of Calgary on their fascinating research projects. iii .Thank you to the wonderful group of folks who took chapters for proof-reading: from my step-father Pat, to friends and colleagues across Canada and around the world. Thanks also to Sally Jennings who checked citation style and references. My family and friends have listened to me talking about blog culture for a decade now and never seemed to doubt that I would finish this project, even when I had my own concerns. I am especially grateful to my mother for her love and encouragement. My husband, Len, has supported me financially and emotionally throughout this process. To say that I am grateful for this is an understatement. Many thanks also to his mother Dorothy and grandmother Rubina for prayers and kindness all this time. My children, Rubina and Zelda, have motivated me and distracted me in a very lovely way. I am enormously privileged to have the resources for childcare and I am thankful to all of caregivers and educators who have loved and cared for the girls while I have worked on this thesis. iv Dedication For Rubina, Zelda, and Len. And In memory of Talei and Nicole. v Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iii Dedication ...........................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vi Chapter One: Introduction ...............................................................................................1 Research Questions ..................................................................................................3 Value and Popular Culture .......................................................................................3 The Rise of Blogging and Social Media ..................................................................6 Before There Were Blogs ........................................................................................7 Key Terms and Definitions ......................................................................................9 Blog & blogging. .........................................................................................9 Value ..........................................................................................................11 Thesis Outline ........................................................................................................12 Chapter Two: Literature Review - On Blogging ..........................................................15 Introduction ............................................................................................................15 Early Perspectives ..................................................................................................16 Early adopters and ‘Acafans’ .....................................................................16 Biography (2003): Online Lives ...............................................................19 Into the blogosphere: Genre .......................................................................23 Produsers ....................................................................................................26 Rak: Disciplining the Subject ....................................................................27 Studying Blogs: 2004-2006 ...................................................................................28 Experiences in Blog culture & Criticism of Blog Culture .....................................31 Looking closely: participants in blog culture. ............................................31 Criticizing blog culture. .............................................................................35 Professional Bloggers and the Monetization of Everyday Life .............................39 vi Revisiting Online Lives (2015). .................................................................39 The Self, monetization, and misrepresentation. .........................................41 Conclusions ............................................................................................................44 Chapter Three: Conceptual and Theoretical Framework ...........................................46 Introduction ............................................................................................................46 Value as Contentious and Contingent ....................................................................47 Blogging as Textual Production: Genre and Lifewriting .......................................50 Genre ..........................................................................................................50 Lifewriting. ................................................................................................55 Blogging as a ‘Scene’: Constructing Value in Specific Social Contexts ...............61 Blogging as a (social) popular culture practice. .........................................61 Subcultures and ‘scenes’. ...........................................................................63 Social and cultural capital. .........................................................................68