Rogozinska Blogtalk 2008

Slide 1: Everyday Body Regimes The Construction of Self in Weblogs about Dieting Anna Rogozińska, M.A. Institute of Polish Culture Warsaw University

Slide 2: Inspirations: Identity as a Reflexive Project Identity as a Reflexive Project Self-identity [(late and post-) modern] described as fluid, fragmented and ever-changing. No longer given, but reflexive, self-constructed, discursive and mediated. Goffman’s performative identity •Giddens’ narrative identity Bauman’s palimpsest identity

Slide 3: Inspirations: Identity as a Reflexive Project Identity as a Reflexive Project • Goffman’s performative identity • Giddens’ narrative identity: self constructed through a set of biographical narratives • narratives further materialized through lifestyles, consumptive choices and body regimes. Bauman’s palimpsest identity

Slide 4: Inspirations: Theories of Virtual Identity Theories of Virtual Identity A set of internet features, above all its anonymity, disembodiment and its being a predominantly male sphere, has been analyzed as facilitating identity play (with particular importance of gender play and race play). • Turkle (1997): multiple selves • distinction between the “real life self” and those staged online • Wakeford (2000): • identity staged not only as text • different media and environments, different analysis

Slide 5: Methodological concerns • how to “read” identity from the logovisual discourse of the internet: many internet environments still predominantly logovisual, not multimedial (blogs as an exception) • attention must be paid to their specificity (medium, its materiality and content organizing rules, aesthetics, modes of production and consumption, social roles of author and reader, channels of distribution) • how to place virtual identities within existing theories of self-identity: categories should be developed in relation to content, not content in relation to categories (Turkle 1997) • analyzed notions cannot be distilled from their wider context

Slide 6: Alternative: Writing the Self as a Cultural Practice Writing the Self as a Cultural Practice Context as a key notion in anthropological research of the internet. Analyzed set of meanings is always: mediated (internet as a supermedium, internet environments, text, image, sound, motion picture, language itself) • social (roles, hierarchies, institutions) • cultural (norms and values, customs) Cultural practice is entangled in all these contexts.

Slide 7: Alternative: Writing the Self as a Cultural Practice Writing the Self as a Cultural Practice Three main aspects of writing the self as a cultural practice: • technology (registration, data presentation, thematic construction, multimedia use, convergence of many internet environments) • means of identity construction (tickers, links, personal galleries, biographical narrative, frequency) social context (rules of identity construction, weblog biographical narrative as a genre, language knowledge)

Slide 8: Methodology • discourse analysis: form and content participatory observation • researcher as an user • being a fellow user as participation (Jenkins, Hills)

Slide 9: Research Material Dieta.pl (http://www.dieta.pl) - one of the biggest Polish portals about dieting • founded in 2000 (blogs started in 2007, about 1000) • more than 60000 registered users • 82% are women ( average in Polish internet: 48%) almost 70% younger than 25 (average: less than 45%) • 50% from small towns smaller than 20000 citizens (average: 14%) • more than 140000 visits per month many internet environments Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius (November 2007) Raport “Internet 2006” by Gemius SA

Slide 10: Context of the Portal • structure: articles, diet plans, calculators, BB, chat, contacts, ads registration: from guest to co-author • “Chubby” (age, gender, height, weight, city) • Measure Thyself - role of calculators in identity formation and maintenance (BMI, Kcal, Weight) forum: • profile • sub-fora (identification with a group) being a host (my own “I’m Starting Tomorrow!” thread) • stress on interaction and information exchange

Slide 11: Diet (B)logging in Context Blogs as a part of a thematic portal: • Technological aspects: • technological framework (fixed set of themes and categories, widgets/lack of widgets, template features) • separate login - what are the intersections of blog and forum usage? • no blog/portal linkage (apart from the domain name) • Social and communication aspects presentation of self vs interaction • monologue vs dialogue • structured and focused experience (clear division, calendar) • Cultural/Thematic aspects • My Space vs We Space (different aspects)

Slide 14: Dieting Self on Blogs • the everyday organized by certain lifestyle: counting calories • eating 4-5 times a day, always with food in mind • making certain consumptive choices (i.e. diet supplements) where to go to, whom to go with • body as the main determinant of one’s identification, body under regime (always too much and not close enough to the ideal) • calculators - no blog widgets available, presented as text self is reflexive, counting and constantly on watch • all true for BB as well - difference of extent?

Slide 15: (B)Logging the Diet • my blog = my journal = the space where I set rules (even though not outside of convention) making technology mine (expressing oneself through design, media use, marking space) • blogging and dieting as two ways of structuring one’s life intertwined in diet weblogs (multi-thematic genre) • functions: therapy, self-help, structure, self- definition, self-reflection, self-expression, interaction on my own terms

Slide 16: To sum up Identity of a diet blogger: • constructed through personal uses of technology at hand • built around specific subject set in a context of everyday life • refers to other online identities that may also be staged within the same thematic context Question for discussion: Is miladka on blog, forum, Flickr and Last.fm the same person?

Slide 17: Thank you!