BLOGADEMIA Making a Difference Through Digital Dissemination of Communication Knowledge

Case Study: CharacteRistic Blog (igoristic.com)

Igor RisticMaster’s Capstone Defense

APRIL 9TH, 2011

THESIS

Communication scholars can make a difference through digital dissemination (via blogs) of the knowledge our discipline creates.

PREVIEW

• Making a Difference• Academic Blogging• Case Study: CharacteRistic

-What Creates Popular Blogs• Other New Strategies• Conclusion

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

• Positively affecting the lives of others through social institutions, by means of public policy, and addressing social problems. Scholarship for the sake of the scholar may be personally rewarding, but does not necessarily translate into meaningful change.

• Seeger, 2009, p. 13

Making a Difference Defined…

• There are 15,000 Academic Journals

• Social scientists read only 191 articles per year

• Frey, 2009, p. 206

Scholarly Articles Are…

Written in esoteric manner without practical implications, making them

inaccessible to policy makers, practitioners, and public.

-Frey, 2009, p. 206

Make a Difference Through: Translational Scholarship

1. Teaching 2. Celebrities (i.e. Matt Lauer, Oprah)3. Translational Research (i.e.

consulting work)4. Publicly Visible Practices (i.e. blogs)

-Frey, 2009, p. 206

“We must engage in dialogue with the worlds outside of the academy in order to effect social change”.

Ellingson, 2009, p. 178

ACADEMIC BLOGGING

Blog Defined

• Websites in which recent updates appear above previous updates, creating a reverse chronology of messages. Their content may be personal, political, or anything else, and their audiences may be anything from zero to millions.

• Baym, 2010, p. 16

Three Types of Academic Blogs

1. Public Intellectuals– Combine expertise, theory, current events.

2. Research– Record of research conducted / ideas.

3. Pseudonymous – Bitching about academic life.

-Walker, 2006

They Emphasize either…

1.Identity of Blogger2.Research3.Workplace Culture

-Gregg, 2009

Benefits of Digital Dissemination of Research

1. Career2. Personal 3. Preparation for Future4. Alternative to Scholarly Writing

1. Career

• Help to gain foothold in your field through networking. Help to earn PhD and acquire first job (Walker, 2006).

• Marketing self for job opportunities (Gregg, 2009).

• Excellent research practice (Walker, 2006).

2. Personal

• Motivation (Gregg, 2009).

• Perform Identity (Kirkup, 2010). • Venting (Gregg, 2009).

3. Preparation for Future

• New form of dissemination, where will we be in 2035? (Walker, 2006).

• Blogs are future tool of academia (Saper, 2006). –Word Processing

4. Alternative to Scholarly Writing

• Researchers can write more conversationally (Kirkup, 2010).

• More freedom to explore ‘risky’ ideas (Kirkup, 2010; Saper, 2006).

• More readers! (Lindgren, 2011; Mccrea; 2011)– Yale Law Journal vs. Instapundit

Case Study: CharacteRistic

• Statistics• Content– Four Pillars: Six Specific Examples

• Comments• Design• Social Networking• Search Engine Optimization

74 Posts Since February 2011…

343 Tags

115 WP Comments

15,600+ VIEWS

17 Subscribers

Steady Growth

Social Construction of RealityMedia Framing Public Sphere

Intercultural CommunicationTechnological Determinism

Media ConvergenceInternational Mass News Media

Pedagogy and CMCIdentity Management

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

How Blogs Succeed

Leo Babauta

Zen

Hab

its

• 240,000 + Subscribers *

• Top 25 Blogs / Top 50 Websites in the World *

*http://zenhabits.net/about/

How Leo Became Popular

• Quality Content• Comment on Other Blogs• Simple / Repetitive Website

Design• Use Social Networking (SNS) • List Posts

Content is King: Four Pillars

1. Be Useful2. Write Great Headlines3. Make Post Scannable4. Write in Common-Sense Style

-Babauta, 2007

SIX SPECIFIC POSTS

SIX SPECIFIC POSTS

1. Be Useful

• Popular posts more useful: usefulness explicitly mentioned:

– Three reasons for why it’s important to pick up a newspaper.

– “Hopefully, those students (and everybody reading this) will help to make the Internet a more useful tool for our future…”

Usefulness Continued

– Incorporating other videos not useful, thus low views.• 3 of 4 lowest viewed posts incorporated a video.

• Explicitly tell audience why content is useful for them.

• Incorporate more current events.

2. Write Great Headlines

• Headlines of popular posts are more assertive / concise / interesting.

“Why Newspapers are Still Worthwhile”

vs. “Getting a Second Opinion From News Sources”

3. Make Posts Scannable

• Subheadings:–Popular: 17–Favorite: 11

• Most popular post is a list. • Increase use of both.

4. Write in Common-Sense Style

• This has been goal from beginning.

• Start posts earlier – Time to proofread / simplify.

• Write more assertively / eliminate unnecessary words / don’t apologize.“I highly recommend”, “I’m in no way condoning..”, “Dramatic words, I know”, “I am here to argue..”

Comments

• Received: 28–Some created conversation, many

did not. •Common Problem (Baym ,2009,

Kirkup, 2010)• Given: 8–Most irrelevant.

• Nancy Baym: “I’ve written this blog for a few years now and I’ve talked to lots of bloggers. Getting people to post comments is hard. Getting conversation is harder. The majority of things I write here get no response at all” (2009).

Comments Continued

• Write more strongly opinionated content.

– “Content coated in sugar coated diplomatic terms, never won any comments”.

• Respond to ALL comments.– Shows audience you care.

-Dholakya, 2012

Social Networking (SNS)

• Facebook and Twitter top referrals after search engines and the Bin Laden link.

• FB : 994 referrals. – Create FB page for blog.

• Add blog to directories. • Technorati

• Experiment with other SNS

Facebook Example

Twitter Example

DesignEvolution of the Headlines:– Exploring the relationship between media

convergence, how we share information, and international mass news media.

– Discussing international mass news media, media convergence, and other topics.

– Translating academic research from the Communication discipline.

Old Design

New, Simpler, Design

Extra Credit:Search Engine Optimization

• Making your site and it’s individual pages visible and relevant to search engines (Boswell). – Focus on keywords for target audience and use

them consistently. Avoid unusual words.– Tag smarter, not more.• Popular: 12• Favorite: 21

The Secret Weapon: SEO and Images

• Role of images in SEO is often overlooked. • Use keyword in image name and use captions.• Example follows.

-Toprankblog.com

Top Referrers

Top Searches

Image Title Matches Top Searches

But Only If Image is Named a Keyword

Other New Strategies

• Be more strategic!– Write Guest Posts• i.e. Gradhacker.com

– Comment on relevant blogs – Link to other blogs, not popular sources

CONCLUSION

Successful Bloggers…

• Are Useful• Write Great Headlines• Are Assertive and Direct in Writing• Create Simple Design / Scannable Posts• Comment, Comment, Comment• SEO• Are Always Strategic

LIMITATIONS

• Privileged Channel (Digital Divide)• No Editorial Review–No Official Incentive / Recognition

• Potential Career Risks• Long-term Archiving Problem

IMPLICATIONS / FUTURE

• CMC is Not Going Away–Making a Difference in this manner

IS Possible. Is NECESSARY. • Dissemination channels are

always changing. • Change Reward Structures.

Impact The WorldGlobal Blog Views

Act as if what you do makes a difference, it does.

-William James

References• Babauta, L. (2007, July). The 4 pillars of writing exceptional blogs.

Problogger.net. Retrieved on April 8th, 2012, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/07/19/the-4-pillars-of-writing-exceptional-blogs/

• Babauta, L. (Not Available). How I got to 100,000 subscribers in two years: Lessons from Zen Habits [e-book]. Men With Pens. Retrieved on April 8th, 2012, from http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/ 12211-2/

• Baym, N. (2010). Personal connections in the digital age. Malden, MA:

Polity Press. • Baym, N. (2009). Blogs or Twitter? It’s the interactivity. online fandom.

Retrieved on April 8th, 2012 from http://onlinefandom.com/archives/blogs-vs-twitter-its-the-interactivity/

• Boswell, W. (Unavailable). How to choose the right keywords and phrases for your web site. About.com. Retrieved on April 8th, 2012, from http://websearch.about.com/od/quicktipsandtricks/ht/keyword.html

• Boswell, W. (Unavailable). How does search engine optimization work?

About.com. Retrieved on April 8th, 20120, from http://websearch.about.com/od/keywordsandphrases/a/search_engine.html

• Dhokaiya, P. (2012). A comprehensive new age guide to increase comments on

your blog – part 1. Famousbloggers.net. Retrieved on April 8th, 2012, from http://www.famousbloggers.net/increase-comments.html

• Ellingson, L.L. (2009). Engaging crystallization in qualitative research: An introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

• Frey, L.R. (2009). What a difference more difference-making communication scholarship might make: Making a difference from and through communication research. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 37, 2 , 205-214.

• Gregg, M. (2009). Banal Bohemia. Convergence: The

International Journal of research into New Media Technologies, 15(4), 470-483.

• Kirkup, G. (2010). Academic blogging: academic practice and academic identity. London Review of Education, 8 (1), 75-84.

• Lindgren, J. (2006). Is blogging scholarship? Why do you want to know? Washington University Law Review, 84, 1105-1108.

• Mabe, M. (2003). The growth and number of journals. Serials, 16, 191-197.

• Mccrea, P. (2011). Reflections on academic blogging as a vehicle for professional development. [Information Missing].

• Saper, C. (2006). Blogademia. Reconstruction, 6 (4), 1-15. Retrieved on April 8th, 2012, from http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/saper.shtml

• Seeger, M. W., (2009). Does communication research make a difference? Reconsidering the impact of our work. Communication Monographs, 76, 1, 12-19.

• Tenopir, C. (2004). Scholarly article reading [Slide]. Retrieved April 8th, 2012, from http://web.utk.edu/~tenopir/speeches/ssp_06_2004.ppt#306,38

• Walker, J. (2006). Blogging from inside the ivory tower, in A. Bruns and J. Jacobs (eds) Uses of blogs. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

• http://thinkexist.com/quotation/act_as_if_what_you_do_makes_a_difference-it_does/15219.html

• **www.igoristic.com and the data provided by www.wordpress.com was used extensively as well. **