The author of a blog reveals a good deal about himself through his writing. Especially on a blog that's updated frequently, the writer makes many identity claims and consequently leaves ample behavioral residue to provide an interesting personality analysis for the Brunswikian Lens model. For this week's post, I took a look at the posts on a certain popular blog (which shall remain nameless here to protect the innocent) and came up with some conclusions about the personality of its authors.
This particular blog has a news-related focus, so many of the cues present themselves in the editorializing that surrounds the stories, and to perhaps an equal degree in the selection of stories itself. This topic coverage serves as a big other-directed identity claim. Readers can immediately identify the authors' political and positional biases based on the presentation of stories on the blog. A case could probably be made for describing these identity claims as self-directed as well; undoubtedly, the authors can quickly confirm their own self-perceptions with a scan of the blog's syndication feed.
The story selection also creates a significant interior behavioral residue; readers complain when particular topics are covered too often or too infrequently. Also, continuing coverage of news topics generates a distinct residue; how the authors react initially to a topic is how they will be expected to behave in the future, in turn coloring the readers' perception of the authors. This “anticipation of future behavior” is the most important side-effect of the behavioral residue; often times, readers will post comments along the lines of “Oh, I bet you guys are going to continue bashing Person X, it seems to be all you can do.” This sort of “forward-looking” comments generates a good deal of the discussion on the blog, and confirms that behavioral residue is certainly having a significant effect on readers.
Another avenue for transmission of cues on the blog is through commenting; although authors do not directly interact with readers on some blogs, this is certainly not the case on this blog. When discussions get heated, the authors will jump right in to defend their opinions. Other times, a flippant comment by an author will end up generating more discussion than the original article. These comments make clear identity claims that are certainly other-directed. More important, though, are residual cues in the comments. These short, often one-line (or less) posts are mostly unedited and written in an informal Internet slang. Amongst the readers, they generate a distinctly different image – one that is less cautious and deferent, and in many cases less intelligent – than the cleanly-edited “party line” main posts.
Alright, based on these observations, let's take a crack at analyzing the authors' personalities, based on the five-factor model. Their lowest scores would be in agreeableness and neuroticism. Rarely, if ever, have the editors retreated from a position after it has been advanced, either in comments or in the main posts. Many of their comments will be something like “If you don't like our coverage that much, go start your own blog,” indicating a low degree of sympathy with the opinions of others. Similarly, the fact that their news coverage is generally not colored by public user comments indicates a low degree of neuroticism; the blog keeps on going, despite flames and attacks from parties on all sides.
In terms of available cues, determining a level of extroversion is somewhat difficult. None of the cues directly indicate a particular level of this trait, although assuming a relatively high level of extroversion in a person who has decided to start a public blog is not unreasonable at all. Additionally, assumptions follow on the same basis for a high level of conscientiousness and openness, despite a lack of direct cues.
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Chris,
I really like your application of the Brunswikian Lens Model to blogging. After using the Facebook application in class, it was hard to think of examples of the four mechanisms that applied to online spaces besides Facebook. You made good points about commenters generating more "residue" in a blog than the author's post itself. I've definitely seen this happen and it' is interesting to see where an argument ends up, especially when it can be carried far away from the original topic all due to some small flame or controversial post.
One general question that I thought of while reading your post: how would an online space affect the kind of personality analysis done via these Brunswikian cues? That is, because a person is in charge of his/her own blog, they could feel more argumentative and open about their thoughts and beliefs than they do in real life. Uhm, that was a lot and I'm not sure all of it made sense...but good post anyway! :)
-Kristie
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