The relationship among weblog authors' target audience, contents, and types of interpersonal communication

Abstract

Weblogs are one of the most popular personal websites in Japan, where entries are made in journal style and displayed in reverse chronological order. This study examined the relationship between weblog authors' target audience (i.e., orientation) and the actual situations depicted in their weblogs by combining a questionnaire survey of the authors with an analysis of their weblog content data. Based on a questionnaire survey of 736 Japanese weblog authors, their target audience was divided into four clusters: (a) general public, (b) self, (c) self and offline friends, and (d) various others. To assess the actual situations depicted in their weblogs, the amount of happy and unhappy emotional expression in their writing and the frequency of interpersonal communication (comments, bookmarks, and trackbacks) were calculated from their log data. The results suggested that weblog authors wrote different types of content and used different types of communication depending on their audience, whereas the weblog content itself still showed the diary-like characteristic of personal daily-life records.