Rutigliano

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Vital Habits: Community Weblogs in Action Lou Rutigliano PhD Student UT-Austin School of Journalism

Transcript of Rutigliano

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Vital Habits: Community Weblogs in Action

Lou RutiglianoPhD Student

UT-Austin School of Journalism

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Spectators or Participants?Walter Lippmann-Public Affairs Too Complex for Public-Experts Must Analyze it For Citizens

John Dewey-Passive Audience = Weak Democracy-Role of Press to Provide Public Forum

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Dewey’s Descendents: Community Weblogs

Seek Broad Public ParticipationEncourage Conversation and InteractionGive Audience Active RoleCitizen-Driven not Institution-Driven

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Four Factors to Monitor• Contributors• Interactivity• Relationship to Institutions• Level of Control

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Community Weblog EvaluationLecture Conversation

Contributors Few Many

Interactivity Low High

Institutions High Presence Low Presence

Control High Low

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Case Study: UnknownCity.com

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Event Coverage:Unofficial SXSW

-high member interest-little information available-informal-varied, unpredictable

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Results: 1) Self-Generated Coverage

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Results:2) Members Build on Posts

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Results:3) Offline & Online Interaction

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Results:4) Central Control Critical

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Conclusions-Untraditional content for an untraditional

medium-Overlap between online and offline worlds-Media as service rather than product-Centralization: a self-fulfilling prophecy