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This paper discusses on the success factors of knowledge sharing behaviour among Malaysian undergraduate student's bloggers. Every university in the country has their own method in delivering the required knowledge to their undergraduate students, however occasionally there would still be unfulfilled requirement of students and this had not received any attention. The aim of this study is to identify the success factors for effective knowledge sharing behaviour among Malaysian undergraduate students. The study sample are student leaders in a student community representing Malaysian undergraduate students. The data collection involves investigating weblogs using content analysis approach. By analysing the data collected, the study has identified the success factors using relevant theories. The main theory used in this study is Knowledge Sharing Behaviour theory which has been adapted from four main theories. The model which identifies the success factors in knowledge sharing (KS) methods among Malaysian undergraduate students is the main contribution of this study. This research has successfully identified how Malaysian undergraduate students are using weblogs applications and other social media for knowledge sharing behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining subtopics and analyzing their sentiment dynamics on weblogs have many applications in multiple domains. Current work pays little attention to the combination of topics and their sentiment evolution simultaneously. In this paper, we study the problem of topic detection and sentiment-topic temporal evolution in weblogs, and propose a novel probabilistic model called topic sentiment trend model (TSTM). With the model, we can integrate the topic with sentiment, and analyze the temporal trend of the sentiment-topic. Experiments on two Chinese weblog datasets show that our approach is effective in modeling the topic facets and extracting their sentiment dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the spring of 2004, an anonymous Weblog entitled "the phantom professor" hosted by an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University was discovered that contained sharp criticisms of the faculty and student body. Following the instructor's dismissal a controversy erupted in the mass media, in the blogosphere and across Web discussion boards about the limits of free speech, the responsibilities of university professors and whether or not the privacy of certain faculty and students had been compromised. This paper explores the "phantom professor" case from a social capital perspective, arguing that blogs empower some users to use their voice to gain more social capital than their offline work environment allows, but that these gains are often constrained to the online context. In the offline interpersonal context, anonymous blogs can actually break down existing social capital and make communication within the organization more difficult. In addition, considerations about the differing types of social capital (bonding vs. bridging) are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract:The weblog is a medium through which authors (bloggers) can develop an individualized web presence that reflects facets of their personal life, opinions and interests. At the same time, it opens a communicative basis for its readers and writers because of the possibility to post comments on the personal diary. We conducted an online survey with 79 blog authors and 172 recipients in order to investigate the individual motivations for writing, reading and commenting on weblogs in consideration of the gender and age of the participants. In study 1, we assessed via self-report the contents bloggers are writing about, their motives to provide information and their attitudes towards positive and negative feedback. Study 2 focused on the audience of weblogs whose motivations and preferences are underresearched. We were interested in their motives to read and to react on the digital diary of people they do not know personally. Altogether, results indicate that male readers are primarily interested in informative weblogs and that especially male bloggers serve this need while female bloggers prefer to write about personal experiences. Also, female bloggers were shown to be especially sensitive towards negative feedback. Young people tend to write more about personal experiences than older people do and make more extensive use of the interactive features. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines politically interested Internet users' perceptions of credibility of blogs. The paper focuses on the influence of blog reliance compared to motivations for visiting blogs in determining credibility of blogs. This study found that blogs were judged as moderately credible, but as more credible than any mainstream media or online source. Both reliance and motivations predicted blog credibility after controlling for demographics and political variables. Reliance proved a consistently stronger predictor than blog motivations. Also, information-seeking motives predicted credibility better than entertainment ones. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines cancer patients' and companions' uses and gratifications of blogs and the relationship between different types of blogging activities and gratification outcomes. In an online survey of 113 respondents, cancer patients were found to be more likely than their companions to host their own blogs. Four factors emerged as gratifications of blog use: Prevention and Care, Problem-Solving, Emotion Management, and Information Sharing. Cancer patients and companions found blogging activity to be most helpful for Emotion Management and Information Sharing. However, a statistically significant difference was found in perceived outcomes for Emotion Management and Problem-Solving, where cancer patients found blogs to be significantly more helpful in these areas than their companions. Regression analyses indicate that perceived credibility of blogs, posting comments on others' blogs and hosting one's own blog significantly increased the explanatory power of the regression models for each gratification outcome. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using server logs from a weblogging system we document patterns in how people contribute, how and with whom they interact, and how long they stick around. For each participant we study the various ways they participate in the site and their position in local social networks created by social actions like invitation, comment, and association. We find builders who consistently modify their own blogs but seldom make comments or visibly interact, connectors who direct most of their energy to commenting or other visible communications, and lurkers who log in consistently yet seldom make new additions to their own blog or visibly interact with others. We describe these three types of users, document their prevalence in a Weblogging system, and study how their network position during their first month of participation shapes role they take and how long they stick around. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weblog use continues to grow among American adult Internet users. The researcher conducted a Web survey in January 2005 on two popular non-journalists’ political blogs – InstaPundit and Power Line. More than 8,950 readers of the two blogs responded to the survey. Most respondents are habitual blog users. Cognitive motivations are the strongest motivation to read the two blogs, followed by affective motivations and personal identity motivations. Respondents read the duo for both opinions and news. The most attractive attributes of blog opinions include being enlightening and informative, and those of blog news include being often updated and with hyperlinks. Motivations are not strong predictors in habitual blog use. Future research can explore reasons related to media and social-cultural systems to explain habitual blog use. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies World Wide Web network theory to an examination of the community structure of the 2004 US democratic presidential candidateÂ’s blog, JohnKerry.com. Using data mining methodologies to conduct a longitudinal assessment of the 397,822 blog comments from the blogÂ’s inception in August 8, 2003, to its closing in November 4, 2004, this study answers lingering questions on the extent of usage of the candidate blog by its 15,742 distinct users. Strong similarities between candidate blog networks and preexisting World Wide Web networks are present in the findings of growth, preferential attachment, power laws, and burstiness in the period under examination. The top 10 percent of users were responsible for 61 to 85 percent of comments on the blog. The blog grew as predicted over time, bolstered by early users who buttressed the blog through low points to its final days. Burstiness in comment activity during real-world campaign events highlighted the blog as a virtual public sphere that extended offline discussion. Locating candidate blog networks within predictable structures and well-defined organizing principles of preexisting network theory, this study emphasizes the importance of understanding the blog networks as interpersonal communication devices amidst the increasing adoption of blogs by current US political candidates. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of blogs has gained widespread popularity and has captured the attention of the media. Blogs are making their mark as an influential tool in journalism “challenging conventional notions of who is a journalist and what journalism is.” This paper describes the average news blog and provides a glimpse into the news industry’s adoption of blogs and their use of this particular form of participatory communication. The findings from this study suggest that news blogs are not fully exploiting the capabilities of the Internet. Consistent with findings from previous studies about the slow adoption of interpersonal interactive features, news blogs also appear to be in no hurry to integrate options for users to communicate, express and exchange ideas. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses quantitative content analysis to investigate the attributes and trends of blog posts, comments, and trackbacks. As such, this study examines the entirety of the blog by investigating the flow of conversation on blogs. A uses and gratification framework reveals different motivations for different roles within the blog: bloggers by self-expression, blog readers leaving comments by social interaction, and those creating trackbacks by the desire to share information. Results indicate that a community of readers form within blogs. Gender differences indicate that male and female blog readers approach this interaction differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some claim that weblogs could serve as a form of civic journalism by encouraging broad participation by the public in the journalistic process. This paper applies the principles of network and emergence theory to weblogs, and proposes a hybrid weblog model that uses decentralized and centralized production methods. The result is a form of media that would enable the participation of the public that civic journalism encourages while still upholding journalism's traditional ethical standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current piece proposes a multi-disciplinary framework for analyzing weblogs through the lens of technology, communication, and psychology. Weblogs are often likened to online journals where the content posts are arranged in reverse chronological order on a Web site. Weblogs can be personal or professional. As of October 2003, Perseus reports that there are at 4.2 million hosted weblogs on the Internet (Perseus, 2003). Weblogs are different from Web pages in style and voice (Blood, 2002) and therefore must be analyzed in a different fashion than normal home pages, threaded discussion lists, online chat text, etc. The authors suggest that weblog researchers employ a three-pronged framework by looking at the mode, content structure, and function of a weblog. Each of these three constructs includes a typology for analysis. Further suggestions for ways to analyze weblogs allow for a quantitative or qualitative approach, including investigations of the virtual proximity of network nodes and content analysis. The researchers call for future research to investigate the motivation of webloggers and impact of weblogs on readers. The formation and use of this analytical framework provides researchers with a baseline guide for analyzing weblogs and supports a multitude of prospective research questions or hypotheses. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined Internet users' credibility perceptions of socio-political blogs (SPB) in Singapore. The authors surveyed 522 Internet users in an online survey carried out over a period of 6 weeks. Findings affirmed the above-mentioned 2 US studies - characteristics that influenced credibility perceptions of SPB included the uses of blogs, motivations for reading SPB, political characteristics and demographic characteristics. Authors also analyzed differences in credibility perceptions between readers and non-readers of SPB, of which 297 were readers and 225 were non-readers of SPB. Findings showed that not only was there a gap in credibility perceptions of SPB between the 2 sub-groups, readers judged SPB to be more credible than all other local media sources of political news in Singapore. Nonetheless, all Internet users surveyed considered foreign media to be the most credible source of political news in Singapore. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the coverage of a discrete series of news events—congressional attempts to pass a federal shield law for journalists—in the blogosphere to coverage of the same events in the more traditional print press. The analytical time frame is identical for both data sets. The paper seeks to answer a basic question: did bloggers and mainstream newspapers frame the debate around the shield law differently. If so, how? Surprisingly, bloggers were more likely to frame their coverage of the congressional debate in terms of daily political and legislative developments than the mainstream press. They were also more likely to raise questions about who would be covered by the proposed shield - in other words, who counted as a journalist-- and the fairness of that proposed coverage. Traditional print publications were more likely to retell heroic "war stories" from journalism's golden days. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controversies over blogging usually center on content. Blog design, which has evolved very differently from online news design, is rarely discussed. In this article, I examine the roots of the blog form, in an attempt to place this emerging design genre in its historical and cultural context. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As tides of structural and organizational change wash across the landscape of contemporary journalism, media theorists have only begun to grapple with dramatic changes in media practice. Are we witnessing, through the impact of the Internet and digital technologies, "journalism's transformation from a 20th century mass-media structure to something profoundly more grassroots and democratic?" Or, as Herbert Gans has recently argued, has little actually changed when it comes to "deciding what's news?" Although some early academic work has fruitfully analyzed the impact of the Internet and its various journalistic stepchildren on traditional forms of news gathering and reporting, little of this work has systematically engaged with higher-level social theory in the broader sense. In the paper that follows I attempt to outline an integrative theoretical structure within which to analyze changes that may or (may not) be taking place in the idea and practice of 21st century journalism, drawing on classic work within the sociology of the professions as well as more poststructuralist understandings of the role played by expert knowledge in the grounding of professional status. Researchers exploring the Internet's impact on journalism, I argue, would be well served by a theoretical framework that analyzes journalism as an object and field of struggle in which a variety of social and occupational groups attempt to define the abstract knowledge needed (or not needed) by journalists, and to establish jursisdiction, via work, over that knowledge. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was undertaken to discover whether cancer blog users could be clustered in terms of demographic characteristics, audience usage, motivation, behavioral changes, and perceptions of media use and credibility. The study further examined the optimal number of clusters and user characteristics that defined the clusters of not well understood cancer blog users. The data were collected through an online self-reporting survey. A total of 113 respondents completed the questionnaires between March 30, 2006 and June 30, 2006. An agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis was then performed to group the 113 cases (respondents) on the 351 variables. Ward's linkage method, squared binary Euclidean distance measures, and Mojena's Best-Cut were used to cluster groups in the given data set. Three clusters were found as an optimal number for the given data set. Cluster 1 was observed as new bloggers who were highly motivated for compiled cancer information, were least influenced by blogs, and were frequent online information seekers. Cluster 2 was long timers who sought traditional sources, such as medical libraries for cancer information. Cluster 3 included highly motivated individuals and those who sought blogs for medically related information. The most frequent behavioral changes were observed in this group. The study concluded that a cluster analysis was useful method for finding the natural grouping of not well understood cancer blog users. Further study with a larger sample on identifying distinct variables that defined clusters will provide better understanding of cancer blogs users. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]