BLOG FUNCTION REVISITED: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MYSPACE BLOGS - SEMANTIC SCHOLAR
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CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
Volume 12, Number 6, 2009
ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089=cpb.2009.0138
Blog Function Revisited: A Content Analysis
of MySpace Blogs
Chris Fullwood, Ph.D., Natasha Sheehan, B.Sc., and Wendy Nicholls, Ph.D.
Abstract
The present study concerns the content of MySpace blogs and whether it differs from the blog style found on
sites specifically designed for blogging. A content analysis of MySpace blogs was conducted to investigate trends
in purpose, format, and style and to compare these across sex and age categories. Most blogs were written in a
positive tone, and the main motivations for blogging appeared to be writing a diary and as an emotional outlet.
Findings also indicate that while there were no significant sex differences, blog purpose and style differed across
age groups; for example, bloggers over 50 were more likely to use the blog as an emotional outlet with a negative
tone. Bloggers between 18 and 29 predominantly used a semiformal language style, whereas bloggers over 30
were equally as likely to use a semiformal or formal style. Results suggest that MySpace blogs are not dissimilar
from other forms of blogging because they provide an important outlet for emotion and self-expression.
Introduction 1.1 million to 10 million bloggers.2,3 By 2006, 39% of all U.S.
Internet users were accessing blogs,4 and more than 70% of
W ith the rising appeal of the Internet, multifarious
applications are readily available and easily accessible
to fulfill a diverse range of needs. One application that has
blogs were classified as personal journals, recording the in-
dividuals’ daily life events, thoughts, and feelings.5 With re-
gard to the disclosure of personal information, there is
grown in popularity recently is the social networking site sufficient evidence to suggest that bloggers present accurate
(SNS). The popularity of the SNS has illuminated the in- portrayals of themselves in their blogs. This can extend to the
creasing importance of online networking and suggests that inclusion of details regarding sexual identity and intimate
many individuals conduct at least part of their social com- romantic relationships.6,4 Herring et al.5 noted that 31% of
munication via the Internet. One of the largest and most well- blog authors provided a full name and 36% a first name,
known SNS providers, MySpace, was created in the United while over half (54%) provided specific demographic infor-
States in 2003; the U.K. version was launched in January 2006. mation such as age, occupation, or location on their blog
MySpace provides the member with a template Web page, home pages. Blogs can provide a fascinating insight into the
which can be filled in and modified at the user’s convenience. lives of Internet users, and this study explores whether the
Although more sophisticated profiles can be created with a definitions of and motivations for blogging have evolved
basic knowledge of HTML (e.g., background images can further as a result of being linked to the SNS.
be applied to the profile), the appeal of MySpace can be Blogging trends have previously been explored in terms of
credited somewhat to the ease with which a descriptive per- age and sex. Overall, studies indicate that young adults and
sonal profile can be created even by more novice computer adolescents are more likely than other age groups to create
users. blogs,6 and men are somewhat more likely than women to
One characteristic of MySpace that has received little at- create blogs,7 although these figures may be a consequence of
tention from researchers is its blog feature. A blog (shortened the relative popularity of Internet use between these
from Weblog) is an online diary, or more specifically, ‘‘fre- groups.8,9 In terms of the content of the blog, age and sex are
quently updated websites where content (text, pictures, said to have little bearing,10 but the motivations for creating a
sound files, etc.) is posted on a regular basis and displayed in blog may vary between demographic groups. For example,
a reverse chronological order.’’1 In recognition of the in- Li11 noted that men create blogs for information purposes,
creased popularity of blogging, Pew Internet and American whereas women are more interested in self-expression. Re-
Life Project surveys indicate a growth of nearly 9 million search also suggests that there are sex differences in online
Americans creating blogs between 2004 and 2005, a shift from self-presentation. For example, females are said to be more
Psychology Division, University of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom.
685686 FULLWOOD ET AL.
likely to present themselves as ‘‘friendly,’’ whereas males to use emoticons when communicating with females, sug-
present themselves more often as ‘‘confident.’’12 gesting a convergence toward a feminine style of communi-
Self-expression,4 networking,13 and identity management6 cation in mixed-sex settings.22
have all been cited as motivating factors that contribute to To summarize, it appears the three main motivations for
blogging. Research suggests that self-expression, as opposed blogging are self-expression, networking, and identity man-
to social interaction, is the main reason individuals choose to agement. Previous research has found sex differences in im-
blog.4 According to Miura and Yamashita,14 this may be be- pression management, tone, and emoticon use, as well as a
cause in writing about ourselves we gain a higher level of self- tendency to present oneself in a positive way through the use
understanding and are therefore more equipped to cope with of happy emoticons and a friendly or confident tone. How-
problems. While writing a personal journal appears to remain ever, there is little available research into age differences and
the primary purpose for blogging, the traditional perspective characteristics of bloggers, other than that the majority of
of a diary being a very personal account is discounted by the them are under 20 years old. The present study examines
fact that potentially millions could see our online musings. aspects of MySpace blog content based on inclusion of emo-
Blogs therefore seem to be multifunctional: although they ticons, requests for feedback, formality, tone, and motivation
may be written in many instances for very selfish reasons, for blogging. In addition, these aspects are compared across
they may also be constructed with the reader in mind. Indeed, age groups and between sexes. Little difference between male
bloggers are said to gain some level of satisfaction from and female blogs was expected, with the exception of emo-
knowing that they can communicate their ideas to others, and ticon use, which was expected to be more prevalent in fe-
the feedback they receive provides impetus to continue males. Although there is little research comparing age groups
blogging.13 Although the Internet has often been perceived as in blogging style, younger groups are more likely to blog, and
a secluded environment, blogging can provide a way to therefore age differences in blog style and content were ex-
preserve and augment existing relationships.10 pected. Personal journals and diaries were expected to be the
Another possible reason to write a blog is impression most common form of blogging.
management, or the fact that it contributes to the construction
of an online identity. The manner in which a person is per- Method
ceived online can be planned and manipulated more pre-
cisely than in face-to-face interactions,15 and the SNS seems to
Materials
facilitate this purpose. Although MySpace users can send
messages confidentially, many prefer to carry out ongoing Each blog was considered independently, and the entirety
exchanges publicly using the comment boxes.16 In doing so, of each blog was used for analysis. MySpace blogs are
the user may want others to perceive him or her as friendly, constructed using a structured template. There are blank
sociable, and a successful networker. The words and style areas to enter the subject category and main content of the
bloggers use have a strong impact on the impression they blog, while the other options, such as mood, can be selected
convey to others.17 Blogs therefore provide a useful insight from a dropdown list. When a mood is selected, it is dis-
into identity construction and self-expression online.6 Blog- played along with a corresponding emoticon. The user also
gers’ ability to modify and personalize their blogs on My- has the option of inserting additional emoticons, symbols,
Space (e.g., by indicating current mood or what music the links, or images.
person is currently listening to) also contributes to identity An a priori content analysis was conducted on a sample of
management.1 Although most blogs include mainly text, the 120 MySpace blogs available in the public domain. A code-
blogger may also supply links to other online material.18 book was constructed to measure a number of categories
While this form of blogging is not the most popular,19 it relating to style, format, and expression. The sex and the age
contributes to both identity and relationship management. of the blogger were noted by referring to their main profile
The sharing of information and opinions invites feedback, page. Bloggers’ ages were categorized as 18 to 29, 30 to 49, or
and therefore the opportunity for discussion, during which over 50. Emoticons were categorized into happy, sad, angry,
blog authors can manage their identity through subsequent tired, and other (flirty emoticons were not used by any
opinions expressed. member of the sample). In addition, categories ‘‘no emoticon’’
Impressions can be managed more effectively online with and ‘‘multiple emoticons’’ were included because of the de-
the use of linguistic softeners such as emoticons, which can fault option to select an emoticon for the blog. Feedback Re-
compensate for the lack of visual cues and nonverbal com- quests were categorized as either feedback about self or
munication in computer-mediated interactions.20 The im- feedback about other people=things. Rather than using actual
portance of emotional expression is reflected in the findings feedback and comments made about the blog, direct requests
of Huffaker and Calvert’s6 study of blogs, which showed that for feedback made by the author in the form of questions
63% of bloggers used emoticons. On the basis of previous were measured. Blog purpose categories were based on pre-
emoticon research and classification, these emoticons were vious theories about motivations to blog (e.g., writing a
categorized either as happy, sad, angry, flirty, or tired. The journal or networking). In addition, an advertising category
most commonly used emoticons were happy (53%), and sad was included, since this is the primary function of SNS.
(30%), while the others were less popular, perhaps because Formality was measured in terms of the blog being formal,
they are less easily recognized by users. Many studies have informal, or semiformal. The informal category covered blogs
focused on sex differences in emoticon use, and it seems that which used incomplete sentences, Netspeak and frequent
emoticon use is a predominantly female attribute.21 Females, abbreviations. Tone was measured in terms of the blog being
however, tend to use emoticons regularly when communi- positive, negative, or neutral, determined by the theme of the
cating with males and females, whereas males are more likely blog, language, and emoticon(s) used.BLOG FUNCTION REVISITED 687
Procedure Table 1. Trends in Blog Use by Age Group
Before the final analysis, a sample analysis was conducted 18–29 30–49 50þ Total
using a random sample of 50 MySpace blogs collected from (n ¼ 40) (n ¼ 40) (n ¼ 40) (n ¼ 120)
www.myspace.com on January 14, 2008. Cohen’s kappa was
used to calculate the level of agreement between two coders. Request for feedback 12 1 0 13
Agreement was significant for all variables except for feed- about self
back requests about other information. For all other signifi- Requests for feedback 6 2 5 13
about other
cant variables, coefficients were above 0.7, except for
Blog purpose
formality (0.65). The codebook was adapted to take into ac- Diary 10 21 10 41
count these issues, and the final sample was collected on Advertising 6 5 4 15
February 9, 2008, using MySpace’s browse feature. It is pos- Provide information 3 2 2 7
sible to view MySpace users according to age and sex criteria, Gather information 9 0 0 9
so in order to compare users across age and sex categories, the Sharing media 3 5 7 15
sample consisted of 40 users from each age category, half Emotional outlet 7 7 14 28
male and half female. Because it is common practice for Reporting 0 0 1 1
teenagers to get past the age restrictions by entering a false other events
date of birth, any profiles that seemed to belong to those Other 2 0 2 4
Formality
under 18 years of age were excluded from the sample.
Formal 3 13 20 36
Semiformal 23 18 16 57
Results Informal 6 1 1 8
Analyses considered blog construction as a whole, irre- Tone
Positive 17 27 21 65
spective of age group. Then, differences between three age
Negative 4 6 12 22
groups (18–29, 30–49, and 50þ) and the sexes on all aspects of Neutral 19 7 7 33
blog construction were analyzed. Emoticons
Happy 8 16 15 39
Overall analyses for all variables Sad 2 2 3 7
Angry 1 1 4 6
A series of one-way chi-squared analyses were carried out
Tired 4 0 0 4
to test for differences between categories in each of the vari- Other 3 2 3 8
ables investigated (see Total column in Table 1). When the Multiple 0 3 2 5
category of ‘‘none’’ was excluded, a significant difference was None 22 16 13 51
found between the emoticon categories, w2(df ¼ 5) ¼ 79.78,
p ¼ 0.000. The happy emoticon was used most frequently. The
difference in frequencies between blog purpose categories
over-50 group was more likely than the others to use a neg-
was significant, w2(df ¼ 7) ¼ 84.13, p ¼ 0.000. The most com-
ative tone, and the 18 to 29 group was more likely to employ a
mon purpose was to keep a diary. The difference between
neutral tone. Age groups did not differ in terms of the types of
frequencies in formality categories was significant,
emoticons they used in their blogs.
w2(df ¼ 2) ¼ 35.90, p ¼ 0.000. Most blogs were semiformal,
Finally, chi-square analyses indicate no significant differ-
with only eight using very informal, abbreviated language
ences between the sexes on all aspects of blog construction.
and Netspeak. The number of blogs viewed as having a
positive tone was found to be significantly higher than those
with a negative or neutral tone, w2(df ¼ 2) ¼ 24.95, p ¼ 0.000. Discussion
The majority of blogs were written using a semiformal or
Age and sex analyses for all variables
formal style, whereas only eight were written using very in-
A series of two-way chi-squared tests were used to deter- formal, abbreviated Netspeak. This suggests that the tradi-
mine any significant associations between age and blogging tional journal style of blogging was prevalent. Feedback was
trends. There was a significant association between age and not requested very often, either in relation to the author or to
requests for feedback, w2(df ¼ 2) ¼ 22.95, p ¼ 0.000. The 18 to other people and things. Miura and Yamashita14 suggest that
29 group was more likely than the others to request feedback people who need a high level of reassurance are more likely to
about themselves. There was a significant association be- start blogging, so perhaps the act of posting a blog in the
tween age and blog purpose, w2(df ¼ 14) ¼ 33.69, p ¼ 0.002. public domain is in itself a request for feedback and reflects
The 30 to 49 group was more likely to use blogs to write a certain personality types as opposed to those who restrict
diary or journal, while the 50þ group was more likely to use public access to their blogs. There may be an expectation
blogs as an emotional outlet. In this case, only the 18 to 29 age among MySpace bloggers that friends will read their blogs
group used blogs to gather information. There was a signif- and provide feedback; therefore, specific requests for feed-
icant association between age and level of formality, back do not necessarily need to be made explicit. Alter-
w2(df ¼ 6) ¼ 22.42, p ¼ 0.001. The 18 to 29 group members were natively, the lack of feedback could indicate that blogging
more likely to employ a semiformal language style, whereas was more likely to be motivated by emotional expression
the other age groups were equally as likely to use a semi- than by relationship maintenance or identity management.
formal or formal style. Finally, there was a significant asso- Regarding the tone of the blog, a significantly higher number
ciation between age and tone, w2(df ¼ 4) ¼ 15.79, p ¼ 0.003. The of blogs had a positive tone, while only a sixth of the sample688 FULLWOOD ET AL.
had a negative tone. This suggests a level of impression the traditional journal or diary style. These conclusions sup-
management, with most authors being aware of the impor- port previous findings and suggest that the understanding
tance of positive self-presentation when it comes to net- and definitions of what constitutes a blog have not changed
working. significantly with the development of the SNS. Emotional
No significant sex differences were found in blog purpose, expression also seems to play an important part in motiva-
formality, tone, or emoticon use, perhaps because of the low tions to blog, although the tone is predominantly positive
levels of emoticon use overall (the number of blogs containing with happy emoticons and a semiformal style of writing,
emoticons was not significantly higher than those without). It which all suggest a level of audience awareness and im-
may also have something to do with the intended recipient of pression management. However, it is important to mention
the message. Wolf 22 suggests that in mixed-sex communica- that these findings can only be generalized to MySpace users;
tions, males tend to adopt the female norm of using emoti- therefore, it is highly likely that MySpace bloggers are not
cons more frequently. Another important consideration is the wholly representative of the online blogging population, al-
default emoticon setting, which displays an unprompted though this study may still contribute to filling a gap in blog
emoticon when ‘‘current mood’’ is selected. The ‘‘multiple research. Many studies into blogging deliberately exclude
emoticon’’ category was constructed to allow for this default SNS blogs from their samples because they are not seen as
setting, and the results showed that in addition to a default ‘‘real’’ blogs, thus undersampling a large proportion of certain
emoticon, only five bloggers actively inserted an emoticon age groups.24
within the body of their blog. This suggests that emoticon use It appears that blogs still function as an important outlet
is not a particularly common feature of MySpace blogs, de- for emotion and self-expression throughout the Internet
spite the elaborately constructed emoticon-selection functions community. The provision of a blog function by MySpace
of the blog template. Overall, where emoticons had been in- may be giving many Internet users access to this outlet, and it
cluded, happy emoticons were the most common, consistent is possible that many who would not have previously con-
with Huffaker and Calvert’s6 findings, and this may indicate sidered writing a blog will turn to blogging as a coping
a desire to present oneself favorably. mechanism. It could even be tentatively suggested that
Comparisons of data across age groups found significant blogging contributes to the emotional well-being of the online
age differences in nearly all aspects of blogging, contrary to population, especially those who may find it difficult to
previous research, which claimed that age demographics express themselves to others in face-to-face interaction. This
have little bearing on blog content.10 Those authors request- idea would also explain the decision to write publicly ra-
ing feedback about themselves were all found to belong in the therthan simply keeping a private diary. For many Internet
18 to 29 group, with the exception of one case. This suggests users, blogging may be a way to communicate difficult ideas
that those in the younger age group may be more concerned or personal issues to those around them. Alternatively,
with impression management and were possibly more inse- blogging could reflect a growing trend of self-obsessive be-
cure in their own self-presentation than the older bloggers. havior. The very name ‘‘MySpace’’ suggests an element of
The purpose of blogging was predominantly writing a diary egotism, and the act of posting one’s innermost thoughts for
or journal in both the 18 to 29 and the 30 to 49 groups. the world to see could almost be considered an act of exhi-
However, in the 50þ group, the most common motivation bitionism. In the future, the links between introversion or
appeared to be using the blog as an emotional outlet. When it extroversion and blogging could be studied further to explore
came to positive, negative, or neutral tone, the 30 to 49 group these ideas.
appeared to be the most positive, and the 18 to 29 group the
most neutral. The 50þ group was more likely than the other
age groups to construct a negatively toned blog. The nega-
tivity of the 50þ group could be related to their predominant Disclosure Statement
use of blogs as an emotional outlet, while the tendency of the No competing financial interests exist.
younger group to remain neutral could be accredited to an
uncertainty in how to present themselves. Since MySpace is a References
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