Research variations of blog analysis: genre or format?

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RESEARCH VARIATIONS OF BLOG ANALYSIS: GENRE OR FORMAT?

D.V. Dergach, PhD, associate professor,

Kyiv national Taras Shevchenko university, associate professor of stylistics and communication department

Abstract

The author analyzes the approaches to the professional interpretation of blog as a phenomenon in modern virtual mediasphere. Scientific markers of traditional (linguistic) qualification of blog in the system of media genres are defined and commented on. Attention is also paid to the intermediate - hypergenre - status of blog (in genre discourse). A mediainguistic view on blog communication is offered, first of all taking into account its functional dominants - with an emphasis on the non-genre status of blog, in medialinguistic analysis of which the genre component is peripheral.

Key words: blog, blogosphere, genre, format, communication, media communication.

Анотація

У статті аналізуються підходи до фахової інтерпретації блогу як явища сучасної віртуальної медіасфери.

Об'єкт дослідження - блог у мотивації комунікативної динаміки медіа. Предмет - критерії можливості / неможливості, коректності / некоректності жанрової ідентифікації блогу в дискурсі медіалінгвістичного знання. Завдання статті полягає в окресленні й аналізі вже сформованої в науці традиції щодо визначення природи блогу та блогосфери, у формулюванні дослідницької предметності медіалінгвістики, пов'язаної з фаховим осмисленням цього інформаційного джерела. А отже, у визначенні актуальності / неактуальності жанрової ідентифікації блогу, актуалізувавши ідеї його медіалінгвістичної інтерпретації - у зв`язку з контрастністю до предметності науки про соціальні комунікації.

Узагальнюється інформація щодо походження блогу - екстралінгвістичний ресурс розуміння комунікативної природи. Наводяться дефінітивні характеристики блогу з авторитетних словникових і монографічних праць американських, європейських (зокрема й українських). А отже, визначаються та коментуються наукові маркери традиційної (лінгвістичної) кваліфікації блогу в системі медійних жанрів. Звертається увага на проміжний - гіпержанровий - статус блогу (в жанрологічному дискурсі).

Пропонується медіалінгвістичний погляд на блогову комунікацію - передусім із урахуванням її функціональних домінант. Він дозволяє ідентифікувати блог як особливий медійний формат із множинними жанровими репрезентаціями та варіаціями. Автор актуалізує погляд щодо позажанрового статусу блогу, в медіалінгвістичному аналізі якого жанровий компонент виявляється периферійним. Акцентується дослідницька увага на формах блогової комунікації, колаборації мовних, аудіо-, відео-, фотокомпонентів, які дозволяють автору в довільно обраному жанрі реалізувати комунікативні інтенції (інформаційну, аналітичну, пізнавальну, розважальну та ін.).

Актуалізується теза, що блогосфера потребує деталізації медіалінгвістичного аналізу її текстової реальності, що в перспективі дозволить визначити об'єктивні, послідовні критерії стратифікації блогів - синкретичного щодо стилю та жанрів формату медійної комунікації.

Ключові слова: блог, блогосфера, жанр, формат, комунікація, медійна комунікація.

Аннотация

Д.В. Дергач, Киевский национальный университет имени Тараса Шевченко, кафедра стилистики и языковой коммуникации.

ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЕ ВАРИАЦИИ АНАЛИЗА БЛОГА: ЖАНР ИЛИ ФОРМАТ.

В статье анализируются подходы к интерпретации блога как явления современной виртуальной медиасферы. Определяются и комментируются научные маркеры традиционной (лингвистической) квалификации блога в системе медийных жанров. Обращается внимание на промежуточный - гипержанровий - статус блога (в жанрологическом дискурсе). Предлагается медиалингвистичний взгляд на блоговую коммуникацию, прежде всего с учетом ее функциональных доминант - с акцентом на внежанровый статус блога, в медиалингвистическом анализе которого жанровый компонент является периферийным.

Ключевые слова: блог, блогосфера, жанр, формат, коммуникация, медийная коммуникация.

The modern globalized world motivates the dynamization of the media, that represents various forms of social communication. The media resource determines the actualization of the genre paradigm, which, in turn, reflects the models of social reality in the field of culture, especially in the virtual format.

In virtual communication, according to researchers, the communication deficit is overcome, a wide range of communication is formed, information in the discussed issues increases, psychological experience expands, social competence develops, as ability to exchange situational emotional states and moods or means of protection against gross manipulative influences; both the desire to stand out from the crowd and the desire to join the reference group are realized [6]. In particular, in the ambiguous context of such phenomenon of media virtual communication as blog.

The task of the article is to outline and analyze already established scientific tradition to determine the nature of blog and blogosphere. To formulate current research subject of medialinguistics related to the professional understanding of this information source. Thus, to determine the relevance / irrelevance of the genre identification of blog, actualizing the ideas of its medialinguistic interpretation - in connection with the contrast to the subject of social communications science.

Object of investigation is a blog in motivating of media communicative dynamics. Subject - criteria of possibility / impossibility, correctness / incorrectness of genre identification of blog in discourse of medialinguistic knowledge.

Author novelty focuses on the development of an optimal model of linguistic analysis of the blogosphere, that, in our opinion, can't be clearly identified and manifested in discourse of media genrology. Therefore, such a discussive issue requires a professional solution, which has not yet been clearly proposed by modern science. This is undoubtedly due to the constant communicative dynamics (especially in the media sphere), functional and genre nature of which reflects the evolution of forms of social interaction. Among them, one of the most relevant is blog, that nowadays is considered as a new form of communication, implemented in a multifunctional communicative paradigm, that is developing in the format «individual language consciousness - mass language consciousness». blog virtual media sphere

It is well known, that term «weblog» first was used by Yorn Barger in 1997, and the first blog is considered a «mobile» page, that published news, posts and links on Internet pages in cyberspace. When new information appeared, it was stored at the top of the page, and the previous one was arranged in chronological order at the bottom of it. Thus, the blog was initially identified mostly as a source of relatively linear nature, quite chaotic formed by its author - due to the subjective selection of transmitted information, often pre-reproduced on other channels of media communication.

Communication in the blog takes place according to specific rules: there is no real (clearly conditioned) participants in communication, time is not limited, structuring of pauses is impossible. The main principle is to attract the attention of readers and constantly report new information [11, p. 59] in any communicative format. And today bloggers, according to O. Kalmykov, claim a new approach to structuring and managing information and content. After all, they are convinced that the traditional media incorrectly select information, do not pay attention to really current events because they adhere to the social situation [10].

The expansion and evolution of blog communication has led to the actualization of its professional interpretation in the discursive practice of various sciences. Thus, the authoritative American and European lexicographical tradition elaborates on the primary site nature of the blog, without analyzing its modern software equivalents:

1) «a website where an individual person, or people representing an organization, write regularly about recent events or topics that interest them, usually with photos and links to other websites that they find interesting» [4];

2) «a regular record of your thoughts, opinions, or experiences that you put on the internet for other people to read» [1];

3) «a website where someone regularly records their thoughts or experiences or talks about a subject» [2];

4) «a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style» [3].

Quite discussive blog is determined in traditional genrology: in antinomic characteristics of hybrid or independent genre. «A blog is a special hybrid genre. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it has a broad and varied paradigm of possibilities and has such genre-forming categories as the image of the author, the image of the addressee, the image of the past, the image of the future, the communicative goal ... allows us to talk about the gradual transformation of the blog into an independent genre, developing in its own way, due to ... the current linguocultural situation» [9, p. 242].

More logical (but also ambiguous) in this case for us - the view of K. Sedov: «The blog is designed as a hypergenre (ultra-complex genre formation, combining several genres)» [12, p. 33].

In general, blogging is characterized by contamination of oral and written language. We note the diffusion of lexical elements of conversational, artistic, scientific, official and business styles. There are tendencies to atypical (for the media in general) significant influence of artistic style, that motivates the development of individual-author's language of tblogger. M. Yatsymirska, in particular, emphasizes this stylistic eclecticism. Because, in her opinion, «a blog is a site where the author publishes a private diary with his thoughts and comments, as well as provides hyperlinks to other sites. It is a new means of communication in which information is disseminated from the author to his readers. Often the author of the blog offers to show off his daily life, so that the reader after a while becomes a person close to him» [15].

In Ukrainian medialinguistics it is emphasized that blog summarizes the information identified with a specific author and processed in a virtual mode, taking into account the temporal criterion. It is a «network diary of one or more authors, consisting of records in reverse chronological order» [14, p. 28].

Thus, the blog in the linguistic discourse of modern media genrology appears as a special (often inconsistent) form of communication, a space for the exchange of ideas and information, framed in texts of different nature. And this, in turn, makes it impossible to define it as a genre. The research perspective is to analyze the hypergenre characteristics of the blog, that summarize the extra- and intralinguistic core and periphery of different genres, different styles, implemented in its architectonics. So, blog from the point of view of modern medialinguistics is not just a form of text organization, but, importantly, another, new form of information dissemination. It determines the research attention to the functional and stylistic «transition from blog 1.0 to blog 2.0» [9]. In the language of modern bloggers (equivalent to 2.0 reality) there is an active tendency to the evolution of the functional resource of the media language, that is explained by the democratization of information space. It is manifested, in particular, in the restriction of so-called censorship, and, hence, in the expansion of verbalization of the author's vision of certain events, their interpretation and commentary. Or the ability of recipients to comment on blog information content. The language space of blogs is characterized by active search for new expressive and pictorial means of speech for the appropriate informational (and often manipulative) influence on the language consciousness of recipients, accompanied by a decrease in the distance between oral and written spheres of language functioning, that leads to its full liberalization. regulatory framework.

That is why the medialinguistic specification of the blog analysis, in our opinion, should take into account its functional resource and potential as important for the linguist researcher genre-forming factors. In general, functional basis of the blog is informative. Depending on the purpose, communicative platform and language personality of the author it can be supplemented with analytical, manipulative, entertaining and other components.

O. Voloshchuk identifies the following main functions of the blogosphere:

«1) information (serves to disseminate information or acts as a source of information);

2) integration (unites consumers around the topic they are interested in, the author, which inspires their confidence);

3) motivating (activates the audience, attracts them not only to the consumption of information, but also to the production of consumer content (user generated content);

4) image (gives the author of the blog authority, increases confidence in information);

5) mediaeducational (increases the level of understanding of media consumers, develops their media education skills and competencies» [8].

On the other hand, V. Volokhonsky actualizes the extralinguistic motivation of the analysis of stylistic objects and phenomena, including genres, in the discourse of functionalism. According to the researcher point of view, the blog performs an extended number of such functions [7, p. 123]:

«1) communicative function. Most bloggers make or read blogs to communicate with people of interest to them. Speech in Internet communication is aimed at the implementation of social and information interaction;

2) the function of socio-psychological modeling. Creating own socio-psychological image in communication, the blog participant has the opportunity to present any «I», modeling own image;

3) self-presentation function. An individual space for self-expression is created, personal information with the whole spectrum of emotions and experiences is stored on a personal page;

4) entertainment function. Many people prefer blogging, reading blogs and discussion in the comments as an entertaining pastime ... Blogger can communicate in a convenient mode and with the intensity that he needs;

5) the function of rallying and maintaining social ties. With the help of blogs, we can maintain interrupted social connections in real life and better recognize our acquaintances;

6) the function of memoirs. A blog can carry the function of memoirs, a place for some entries that may be useful in the future, a way not to forget about the details of certain events of your life. A diary is created for yourself; it is a kind of delayed communication with yourself;

7) the function of self-development, or reflection. This feature is related to the fact that the blog provides an opportunity for participants to create an image of a different «I», possibly the one that the author seeks. The publicity of the diary forces them to continue to keep it, and also forces them to more competently structure their thoughts, that helps them better to understand the experiences;

8) psychotherapeutic function. This function was supposed in advance, or was realized in the process of recording - «throw out emotions», «state painful».

Accordingly, each of these functions is determined by a specific genre or group of genres. It, as a result, actualizes the subject matter of the discussion about the genre nature of the blog: it is an independent genre, hypergenre or, to a greater extent, a special form (format, platform) of media communication in its virtual segment.

If we identify the virtual nature of the blog with a column in a newspaper source, we can talk about the thematic dominant of the analysis and the association with the relevant media structure. In general, such blogs raise social, political, cultural and other issues of public life. That is why the informative, analytical functions of language are realized in their multiple genre representations. So, there is an actualization of socio-political terminology, nomenclature names, cliched constructions, proper names in the primary nomination, variant (simplified and complicated) syntax, minimization of figurative forms remote from the (possible) assessment of objective realities.

In connection with the author's medialinguistic interpretations of the blogosphere, it is possible to make a logical conclusion that blog realizes non-genre status and forms a qualitatively new segment of Internet communication with its plural stylistic features and characteristics.

Due to the fact that the information intentions of the mass audience are diverse, that affects the ability of researchers to analyze blogs of this nature not by genre, but by typological criteria, according to the specifics of information transfer and its functions.

Updating the content analysis of site blogs, we can say that most authors use the strategy of «interested information user», and therefore inform (rarely - analyze) about the latest important events, that generally justifies the expectations of the mass audience. Today's news is offered, the information mainstream is adapted to the policy of predicted influence on the linguistic consciousness of the recipients, in the context of their previous experience - permanently to clarify the already known information. Thus, blogs meet the expectations of recipients who consciously «find» information that can be spread virally - in the most optimal and convenient genre format.

In turn, (micro)blogs, presented in the system resource of social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), are associated with linguistic personality of their author, who communicates with audience in the well-known and relevant today one-to- many format. In general an author's blog is a website or a structural part of a social network or program, the main content of which is formed by entries that are regularly added by the author, contain text, creolized components (images or multimedia), that are generally private. For the most part, bloggers independently choose the topic and functional (and, consequently, genre) tone of communication with their audience, and sometimes they create an informational drive by themselves, often resorting to a strategy of provocation. In this regard, the language of such blogs (as well as content) is functionally focused on the verbalization of individual consciousness with its multi-vector impact on the mass. Both commonly functioned dialect words, epithet, metaphorical forms, evaluative constructions with modal components are used systematically, that enable the reproduction of authorial reactions, often imposed as true and supported by appropriate multimedia sources.

Although, according to I. Shevchenko, the category of the author in blog communication is represented relatively. The researcher considers anonymity as one of the characteristics of the blog. «Despite the fact that sometimes it is possible to obtain some information of a personal nature and a photo of the interlocutor, they are insufficient for a real and complete perception of personality. In addition, it is often possible to observe the concealment or presentation of false information, such as the purposeful formation of a certain image of the author or the implementation of certain communication strategies of the creator of the blog» [13].

In turn, in specialized author's blogs, the speaker acts as an expert who, based on his practical experience, verbalizes advice and updates information in such a way that it becomes an auxiliary resource for the mass audience in solving of issues (often household, related to everyday life). There is a systematic use of professional terminology, explained and illustrated in the architectonics of the text, an appeal to celebrities, events and situations, possible previous or similar videos, that builds an information and semantic grid integrated around a particular problem. Stylistically specialized blogs can be analyzed in the context of popular science information. As a result, recipients «get answers on their questions and useful tips... the author of the blog... increases his rating, that is based on links to his blog and the number of visits» [5, p. 72].

Thus, the blogger in the imagination of recipients appears as a kind of «public intellectual» (according to Y. Habermas), who actively influences the cultural consciousness of society through the public sphere, creates demonstrative, model texts of behavior (according to Y. Lotman), verbalized and visualized in blog or vlog architectonics.

In turn, vlog as a variant form of blog communication involves a video format of communication in a system of specially shot, (sometimes) edited clips, stories, live broadcasts, streams on social networks or on specialized platforms. Contact (as it possible in a virtual format) communication (in arbitrary genre organization) of the author and recipients is implemented, which is provided by all levels of visualization and reflection. This, of course, dynamizes the flow of information, but, in turn, is complicated by technical nuances.

Splog is a special blog site, created to advertise other sites. As a rule, it is characterized by low-quality, automatically generated or borrowed content, which in general discredits the originality of such information and the level of trust in it from the point of view of the mass audience.

In general, science has many criteria according to which blogs can be classified: topic, author, scope, communication channel, etc. They, in our conviction, overload research subjectivity with potentially ineffective aspects, remote from the analysis of functional factology. Namely, it harmonizes and logizes the professional analysis of media communication.

Thus, the dynamization of the communicative paradigm of modern media in the context of syncretic polylogism of genre nature permanently actualizes new research tasks and aims. They are connected, first of all, with the delineation of the boundaries of the genres, the core and the periphery of the components and means that determine their functional and stylistic dominants. In this regard, there are discussions that postulate different views on solving current problems, motivated, respectively, by scientific subjectivity. The blogosphere in this case needs a detailed linguistic analysis of its textual reality, that (as a perspective) will determine the objective, consistent criteria for stratification of blogs - syncretic in style and genre format of media communication.

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