Blogging or Believing? Do themes presented by scholarly discourse correlate with the casual conversations of people through the world wide web?
Abstract
This article reports on a study that compared the formal themes and ideas discussed in the traditional academic arenas of the scholarly journal and texts with those raised in the 'New Media' forums of fan-sites and blogs. Using the Twilight texts and web sites as the most popular and frequented forums, the study found that there was little appreciable difference between the two areas of discourse; the fans were saying much the same as the 'authorities'. This raises the question of what distinguishes an academically 'authoritative' voice from that of an enthusiast.
Issue
Section
Jabberwocky
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