A multifaceted perspective on blogs and society

Abstract

This paper proposes to employ a multifaceted perspective to systematically understand the impact of blogs on societies. Through the presentation of the structural, technological and usage factors that shape the use of blogs in Southeast and East Asia, this paper demonstrates the potential of this perspective to account for the variations of blog use across societies. These variations are further reflected in different social roles that bloggers play in these respective societies. With data drawn from email interviews with 14 bloggers located via Global Voices, a global blogging website, and supplementary secondary sources, this study also examined different types of self-organizing communication networks emerging among bloggers and non-bloggers at national and transnational levels in Southeast and East Asia. Implications of the findings for theoretical and practical contributions to research on blogs and contemporary collective action are discussed.

Keywords:

• blogs
• communication networks
• collective action
• Southeast Asia
• knowledge
• technology
• policy

Notes

1. Global Voices is an international blog that focuses on collecting and summarizing content that has been self-published online in different countries and languages (especially those outside of the United States and Europe). Its team of editors and authors consists of more than 300 bridgebloggers and translators around the world. See more details at http://globalvoicesonline.org/about/faq-frequently-asked-questions/

2. For more details about the political and social environments of each country in relation to blog use, please contact the author.

3. Myanmar's Computer Science Development Law 1996 stipulates that unauthorized possession of computer equipment or use of information technology to undermine the state will be punished by seven to 15 years in jail and an unspecified fine. See more details at http://www.blc-burma.org/HTML/Myanmar%20Law/lr_e_ml96_10.html

4. Identities of the bloggers being interviewed are kept confidential and therefore pseudonyms are used whenever the opinions of bloggers are quoted in text.

5. Details are available at http://globalvoicesonline.org/2007/05/01/vietnam-bloggers-crash-the-linguistic-divide/

6. http://howsy.blogspot.com/2007/12/2007-flashback-wow-what-year-for.html

7. http://cloggersummit.wikispaces.com