AoIR Abstract

Author(s): K.D. Trammell, Justyna Hofmokl, Alek Tarkowski

Title: Rzeczpospolita blogów: Identifying the uses & gratifications of Polish bloggers

*** Weblogs, or blogs, are online journals where the content is arranged in reversed chronological order (Blood, 2002; Walker, 2005). Blogs have been noted to dethrone major politicians (Shachtman, 2002; Williams & Trammell, 2003), raise others from obscurity to popular fame (Ratan, 2003), and serve as an "unedited, published voice of the people" (Winer, 2003). Scholarship on understanding blogs and the implications of blogged content is underway, yet relies mostly on blogs published in English. This study attempts to not only answer new questions about the motivations of bloggers, but does so in the untapped space of Polish bloggers and their blogs. Using the theoretical perspective of uses and gratifications, this study will seek the motivations of Polish bloggers. Uses and gratifications (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974; McQuail, Blumler, and Brown, 1972) provides a framework covering "a broad variance of media effects including knowledge, dependency, attitudes, perceptions of social reality, agenda setting, discussion, and politics" (Ruggerio, 2000, p. 25). Uses and gratifications is designed to get at the needs a particular mass medium provides its users (Blumler & Katz, 1974). As such, the media user's motivations and gratifications are key. Rubin (1993) asserts that the cornerstone of the theory is that audiences are active and that to understand effects scholars must explain motivations and behaviors. The theoretical perspective assumes an active and goal-directed audience seeking out particular media to gratify informational, social, and psychological needs (Rubin, 1994). The theory has been used to investigate both perceived motivations through content analysis and actual motivations through surveys (Kaye & Johnson, 2000; Papacharissi, 2002a, 2002b, 2003). Motivations for media selection include diversion, surveillance, social utility, and personal identification (Ruggerio, 2000). Papacharissi (2003) discovered social utility to be at the heart of the perceived gratifications for English-language bloggers. Her content analysis of 150 registered, public online journal blogs hosted at Blogger.com suggest that the posts were intended to be read by friends or family. While this provides an understanding of the motivations behind English-language blogs, little is known about Polish-language blogs. Demographic data collected in Poland by other researchers is only preliminary and does not provide the richness needed to understand the actual motivations of blogging. In Poland, there are 6.75 million estimated Internet users (SMG/KRC, 2003) and more than 150,000 registered blogs. Polish blogs started appearing on the cyberlandscape around 2000 and therefore gained popularity relatively early in the history of the medium, which had very limited reach until around 1997-1999. Finally, Polish blogs are possibly the fourth biggest language group in the world (Blog Census, 2003). Therefore, the ubiquitous nature of blogging in Poland is unlike that in other nations. Due to these factors we can expect blogs to play a different, and possibly prominent, role in the Polish online space. We consider blogs not only an interesting media form in themselves, but most of all one that is most often chosen by Polish Internet users seeking means of self-expression. The methodology employed in this study is a quantitative content analysis of Polish blogs using an expanded version of Papacharissi's (2003) code sheet. As such, this study will provide an exploratory understanding of 1). the motivations for Polish Internet users to blog, 2). the aspects of blogging that make the medium attractive to Polish bloggers, and 3). the patterns in perceived motivation. Additionally, this research will determine the extent to which Polish blogs are different from blogs written in other native languages (in the selection of subjects, form, demography). Finally, this research seeks to identify possible correlations with other self-expressing activities, such as managing a personal Web site or life outside of the Internet. This study will provide insight into a different type of blogger not yet explored. By providing basic data about Polish bloggers and the characteristics and motivations behind blogging in Poland, this study provides an empirical data helpful in understanding use of the medium. Data gathered will also be used to conduct a comparative analysis, using similar research of North American blogging behavior. Data is currently being analyzed.

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AoIR 5.0

	*Author(s):* K.D. Trammell, Justyna Hofmokl, Alek Tarkowski
	*Title:* Rzeczpospolita blogów: Identifying the uses & gratifications of Polish bloggers

***	Weblogs, or blogs, are online journals where the content is arranged in reversed chronological order (Blood, 2002; Walker, 2005). Blogs have been noted to dethrone major politicians (Shachtman, 2002; Williams & Trammell, 2003), raise others from obscurity to popular fame (Ratan, 2003), and serve as an "unedited, published voice of the people" (Winer, 2003). Scholarship on understanding blogs and the implications of blogged content is underway, yet relies mostly on blogs published in English. This study attempts to not only answer new questions about the motivations of bloggers, but does so in the untapped space of Polish bloggers and their blogs. Using the theoretical perspective of uses and gratifications, this study will seek the motivations of Polish bloggers. Uses and gratifications (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974; McQuail, Blumler, and Brown, 1972) provides a framework covering "a broad variance of media effects including knowledge, dependency, attitudes, perceptions of social reality, agenda setting, discussion, and politics" (Ruggerio, 2000, p. 25). Uses and gratifications is designed to get at the needs a particular mass medium provides its users (Blumler & Katz, 1974). As such, the media user's motivations and gratifications are key. Rubin (1993) asserts that the cornerstone of the theory is that audiences are active and that to understand effects scholars must explain motivations and behaviors. The theoretical perspective assumes an active and goal-directed audience seeking out particular media to gratify informational, social, and psychological needs (Rubin, 1994). The theory has been used to investigate both perceived motivations through content analysis and actual motivations through surveys (Kaye & Johnson, 2000; Papacharissi, 2002a, 2002b, 2003). Motivations for media selection include diversion, surveillance, social utility, and personal identification (Ruggerio, 2000). Papacharissi (2003) discovered social utility to be at the heart of the perceived gratifications for English-language bloggers. Her content analysis of 150 registered, public online journal blogs hosted at Blogger.com suggest that the posts were intended to be read by friends or family. While this provides an understanding of the motivations behind English-language blogs, little is known about Polish-language blogs. Demographic data collected in Poland by other researchers is only preliminary and does not provide the richness needed to understand the actual motivations of blogging. In Poland, there are 6.75 million estimated Internet users (SMG/KRC, 2003) and more than 150,000 registered blogs. Polish blogs started appearing on the cyberlandscape around 2000 and therefore gained popularity relatively early in the history of the medium, which had very limited reach until around 1997-1999. Finally, Polish blogs are possibly the fourth biggest language group in the world (Blog Census, 2003). Therefore, the ubiquitous nature of blogging in Poland is unlike that in other nations. Due to these factors we can expect blogs to play a different, and possibly prominent, role in the Polish online space. We consider blogs not only an interesting media form in themselves, but most of all one that is most often chosen by Polish Internet users seeking means of self-expression. The methodology employed in this study is a quantitative content analysis of Polish blogs using an expanded version of Papacharissi's (2003) code sheet. As such, this study will provide an exploratory understanding of 1). the motivations for Polish Internet users to blog, 2). the aspects of blogging that make the medium attractive to Polish bloggers, and 3). the patterns in perceived motivation. Additionally, this research will determine the extent to which Polish blogs are different from blogs written in other native languages (in the selection of subjects, form, demography). Finally, this research seeks to identify possible correlations with other self-expressing activities, such as managing a personal Web site or life outside of the Internet. This study will provide insight into a different type of blogger not yet explored. By providing basic data about Polish bloggers and the characteristics and motivations behind blogging in Poland, this study provides an empirical data helpful in understanding use of the medium. Data gathered will also be used to conduct a comparative analysis, using similar research of North American blogging behavior. Data is currently being analyzed.