My name is Stephanie Hendrick and
I am a Doctoral Student at the
Department of Modern Languages. I
began my studies in June of 2004
when I was awarded the Wallenberg
Scholarship for Modern Languages.
The working title of my thesis is
Representing topic and coherence
in online weblog networks: An
investigation of distributed
discourse. A small description of
my research follows:
Weblogs
are much more than small pieces,
loosely joined (David Weinberger).
Two schools of thought seem to be
emerging from both popular and
academic research in weblog
community. One group proposes that
the blogosphere is 'partially
interconnected and sporadically
conversational' (Herring, et al.)
while the other puts forth that
weblogs are topically related
communities which converse often
(Hendrick, Efimova, Marlow). My
own research focuses on how these
communities are formed, as well as
how they communicate in dispersive
environments. Links are often
singularly studied as a form of
conversation in weblog
communities. I believe that it is
necessary to go beyond the link,
into the language itself, and
examine elements of discourse such
as those proposed by theories of
mental spaces, frames, and
cognitive and cultural models.
Currently, my research focus on
the application of
mental/cognitive spaces in
distributed discourse.
Links:
My blog:
http://www.sumofmyparts.com/blog
HUMlab: http://www.humlab.umu.se
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