Blogs are websites that allow authors to maintain ongoing reverse-chronological entries and interact with readers via comments. Researchers analyze blogs in various ways, from conducting content analysis of gender and language to ethnographic participation in blogging communities. Blogs can also be used as a new documentary resource to ask questions about offline life.

1. Research/ Analysis of blogs
Weblogs, or „blogs‟, are websites that allow
authors to maintain ongoing, reverse-chronological
entries for an audience, link to other webpages and
interact with readers via comments. There are a
wide variety of blog genres, ranging from
individual online diaries to corporate blogs, but
they tend to be associated with more personal and
spontaneous forms of writing. In this talk, I use the
term “Blog Analysis” to refer to a wide range of
approaches. Social researchers have used blogs as
a source of data in a variety of ways, from
conducting a content analysis of gender and
language use to ethnographic participation in
blogging communities. Moreover, while social
scientists may be interested in the practice of
blogging itself, this new documentary resource
also lends itself to innovative ways of asking
questions about „offline‟ life.