Blogging [Paperback]

Jill Walker Rettberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0745641342 | ISBN-13: 978-0745641348 | Edition: 1

Blogging has profoundly influenced not only the nature of the internet today, but also the nature of modern communication, despite being a genre invented less than a decade ago. This book-length study of a now everyday phenomenon provides a close look at blogging while placing it in a historical, theoretical and contemporary context.

Scholars, students and bloggers will find a lively survey of blogging that contextualises blogs in terms of critical theory and the history of digital media. Authored by a scholar-blogger, the book is packed with examples that show how blogging and related genres are changing media and communication. It gives definitions and explains how blogs work, shows how blogs relate to the historical development of publishing and communication and looks at the ways blogs structure social networks and at how social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook incorporate blogging in their design. Specific kinds of blogs discussed include political blogs, citizen journalism, confessional blogs and commercial blogs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A key text for an emerging field.”
Times Higher Education

“Blogging is a landmark in social cyberspace studies -- and much more than that. It's about the way today's popular culture is actually part of large-scale change in the way culture is produced. Jill Walker Rettberg has written a deep and broad book about the real meaning of blogging as evidence for and a driver of an epochal cultural shift. She deftly uses her own experience as a reknowned blogger, examined through the expert eye of an experienced communication researcher, to reveal the psychological, social, political, historical meaning of the blogging phenomenon. She brings media studies, ethnology, literary studies, marketing, journalism, sociology together into a brilliant explanatory framework.”
Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs

“Jill Walker's Blogging is set to be a key text in its field. Unlike too many other books about blogging, this is no simplistic 'Blogs 101', but instead places blogging in a wider context from the declining supremacy of print culture to the emerging hot spots of social networking, including Facebook and YouTube. One of the world's leading scholars on blogging, and a veteran blogger herself, Walker is uniquely placed to document and examine the impact of blogging and allied forms of participatory media.”
Axel Bruns, author of Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage

“To date, the history and culture of blogging has primarily been blogged, distributed and difficult for outsiders to follow. Walker's book brilliantly documents, analyzes, and situates blogging, constructing an indispensable account of the phenomenon for both scholars and the public alike. A must read for all interested in social media!”
danah boyd, Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet & Society

From the Back Cover

Blogging has profoundly influenced not only the nature of the internet today, but also the nature of modern communication, despite being a genre invented less than a decade ago. This book-length study of a now everyday phenomenon provides a close look at blogging while placing it in a historical, theoretical and contemporary context.

Scholars, students and bloggers will find a lively survey of blogging that contextualises blogs in terms of critical theory and the history of digital media. Authored by a scholar-blogger, the book is packed with examples that show how blogging and related genres are changing media and communication. It gives definitions and explains how blogs work, shows how blogs relate to the historical development of publishing and communication and looks at the ways blogs structure social networks and at how social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook incorporate blogging in their design. Specific kinds of blogs discussed include political blogs, citizen journalism, confessional blogs and commercial blogs.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Polity; 1 edition (August 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745641342
• ISBN-13: 978-0745641348
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative and personal look at blogging April 20, 2009

By M-H

This excellent book covers all the basics, starting by putting blogging into the history of recorded communication, covering the high and low points of blogging's short history - including many of its more controversial moments - and finishing with a discussion of privacy and our networked selves. It has a deceptively easy-to read and absorbing style, but an unbelievable amount of information is packed into its pages. This book is not for you if you want a dispassionate and academic account of blogging; but if you want a theoretical, historical and detailed narrative, always flavoured with personal insight, you will get a lot out of this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It is what it is March 13, 2009

By Margrethe Johnsen

Jill Walker Rettberg's book, Blogging, is a book that combines introductory knowledge about blogs, as well as it goes more in depth - connecting blogging to literacy, etc.

Writing a book on blogging is hard, as there is so much you could write about. Looking for a book that can function as a starting point, this is the book to get, even if you're an academic looking for a simple explanation to all things blog. There are few books out there on the history and phenomenon of blogging, although there are many on how to make, maintain and use a blog to make money. This book is one of the first to take a look at the cultural phenomenon blogging really is.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book even for a novice September 19, 2009

By Mary Chrapliwy VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a refreshing, highly readable text on Bogging from its bare bones beginning through present. The first half of the book was humorous and informative. The second half was more scholarly and a little less fun (that's why this rates 4 out of 5 stars).

I enjoyed this book so much and was so encouraged by it that I actually made the first tentative steps toward creating my own blog. I highly recommend this book.