Annotated Bibliography #2 – Fields

It is difficult to define which field the text by Mortensen and Walker is situated within as there’s a combination of field that is interrelated. From the field of social science, it could branch out to fields such as internet, communication and media in regards to this extract.

Mortensen and Walker are early adopters of weblogs and they stated in the extract that weblogs are ‘part of a communal discourse’ (p. 259). The term ‘communal discourse’ here refers to a community that has something in common and also a community that communicates with each other. Well weblogs is a form of communication as conversations are form when bloggers link to each other, referring to them in blog posts and giving feedback on each other’s blog. Hence, the communication on weblogs forms a ‘communal discourse’, an online community where the field that is related to this text here is the sociology of internet as it involves the analysis of online communities especially through new media (social networks and blogs).

It is impossible not to see the relation of this field to media and communication as they are interrelated. Without media, there won’t be internet and without media, there won’t be communication as well. Therefore, the field of study is very broad and some fields tend to interrelate with one another that it is difficult to specify exactly which field this text is situated within. However, the extract is definitely within the field of internet-communication-media.

References:

• Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, ‘Blogging Thoughts: Personal Publication as an Online Research Tool’ in Researching Ict’s in Context. Ed. Andrew Morrison. Oslo: University of Oslo, pp. 249-259.