Shonell in TCR Land

What topic(s) are you considering for the paper? Discuss one or more alternatives in detail and explain its relation to some of the concepts and theories we’re reading (or are going to be reading).

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Tentative Title: Blogging While Black: Mommy Bloggers

Idea: In this course, we’ve talked about how digital writing creates a dynamic relationship between writer and reader, and we’ve discussed Web 2.0 technologies. Many of those we have read and others I’ve read on my own talk about this power of the reader, how the user has become a co-developer, a produser of content. Readers, viewers have the ability to respond, to create, to recreate content. And though this is true, this does not take power away from the creator of original content. More than ever, the “original” creators have to be mindful of who they are, what they represent, and how they project through their content this representation in order to create a dynamic, interactive relationships between themselves and their users. One digital space in which the writer must think about the writer-reader relationship is the blog. A blogger has to develop an identity for the blog (and often herself, too) and develop content that is not only read (“read” in whatever fashion that takes–text, sound, image, etc.) but is also responded to.

For this paper, I’d like to look at the role of the blogger–examining identity construction (of blog, perhaps of blogger), the interactive experience of blogging, adding to it the specific focus of black mom bloggers. Mommy blogs are extraordinarily popular–not only for attracting readers but also in attracting marketing/promotional opportunities. Because I am interested in how and why African Americans use technology, I thought it was be cool to focus on a segment of the mommy blogger population that rarely gets recognized.

The paper would mostly consist of discussion/research of (as stated above):

• the blogging experience
• identity creation (of blog, creator)
• race and blogging

However, I do plan to do some informal interviews with black mom bloggers to see if their experiences mirror or contradict what we think of in regards to blogging, writer-reader interaction, etc.

Some questions I am considering asking include:

1. How would you describe the identity of your blog?
2. What is your blogger identity?
   1. Is it different than your real life identity? If yes, why? If yes, how?
3. Is interaction between you and your readers important?
   1. If yes, why?
   2. If no, why not?
4. In developing blog content, What do you do to initiate that interaction?
5. What tools do you use on your blog to help readers respond and share your material with other readers?
6. How does being a black woman blogger shape what you choose to write about and how you choose to write about it?

I plan to get five bloggers for the paper, bloggers that are consistent in their blogging (at least once a week).