Sorry for the tardiness of this post; I was out of town this weekend and my bus was delayed coming in last night.
This week I have the privilege of examining my very favorite blog, "Nik at Nite," which is written by a woman whose job I would like in another life. Nikki Stafford writes companion guides to television shows (her "Finding Lost" guides are the ones I'm familiar with), as well as blogs about television shows.
"Mostly, I write about television. Stick around if your favourite shows are Lost, Pushing Daisies, Buffy, The Office, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, Veronica Mars (sniffle), or anything on HBO. I'll also talk about my toddler daughter, my infant son, some celebrity gossip, music, what books I'm reading, and how someone SERIOUSLY annoyed me today. But mostly television."
Here, I plan to explore the intense social interaction that occur on Nik at Nite's comments section, especially the posts that concern the television show "Lost."
The most recent blog post that generated a spirited discussion was posted on August 9th, 2008, shortly after this year's ComiCon was held in San Diego. Each year, the "Lost" writers (as well as several other SciFi shows) are known to release special content at the annual comic book convention. This summer they released a video which showed a "typical 'Lost' fan" unexpectedly able to tape secret footage of the Dharma Initiative, a fictional organization on the show, with an handheld camera. The secret footage appears to be a man recording a message 30 years ago for the purposes of warning people of the future. There is evidence of time traveling as well.
Here is a link to the original post:
http://nikkistafford.blogspot.com/2008/08/latest-dharma-orientation-video.html
Stafford offers her take on the video, bringing up some questions and offering a few theories, then opens it up to comments. As Stafford usually does, though, she offers personal responses to people who leave comments. The dynamic on this blog is that everyone is welcome to voice their theories and comments, but it is a big deal to be recognized by Nikki Stafford herself, because she is considered to be the well-respected authority on the topic of "Lost." However, Stafford is very welcoming and respectful to anyone who comments on her posts, as well as very glad to hear theories other than her own.
Of course, the exception to that rule is her response to the third comment, posted anonymously:
Blah, blah, blah. You're Canadian, you're politically liberal. What a surprise.
How is that remotely relevant to the topic of the post, which is otherwise quite interesting?
Stafford's reponse?
Anonymous: Blah blah blah. You're taking a potshot at me and posted anonymously. What a surprise.
I'm constantly amazed by the fact that if I make an off-handed comment against Herr Bush in any of my posts, someone no doubt jumps all over me for it, in a rude and abrupt way. That's quite the insecurity.
As to your comment about liberal Canadians, you do realize the Canadian prime minister is Conservative, don't you?
This seems to be the end of Stafford's response to the interruption of the "Lost" discussion, but several other posters tack on their own reponses to their theories and discussion of the show. A poster named Kristin says:
**As for the president comment, I just roll my eyes and go on. Everyone has their opinion...but sometimes it surprises me to find them in blogs about non-political topics.**
This echoes the feeling I had when I first read this set of comments: I was offended that this blog, a "safe space" to talk about a television show with a community who shared my love of it (even if we didn't share other things, like political beliefs) had been invaded by someone and that both Stafford and her readers had to veer away from the discussion to attend to it. This made it clear to me that people choose the blogs they read based on specific, personal reasons. Unlike getting information from television news or print media, blogging allows a space for response. If commenters break the unspoken agreements of that space (like, "When Nikki Stafford posts about "Lost," we all agree to discuss "Lost") people begin to feel uncomfortable with the experience.
The discussions of "Lost" theories continue, with the last comment posted over a week after the original post. When new episodes of "Lost" are airing, Staffords "recap" posts are known to generate over 100 comments, with discussion continuing for week's afterward. In addition, Stafford and the other posters begin to get to know one another in a limited kind of way. For example, we all look to one particular poster for his knowledge of physics during discussions of time travel related episodes. But mostly readers look to Nikki Stafford for her brilliant, comment generating posts about a show it's worth getting together in an online forum to discuss.
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2 comments:
Well...it's about time someone got around to this topic. I'm not sure, however, that based on your evident loyalty to the work of Nikki Stafford that you can claim the title ethnographer. On the other hand, you do seem to be able to maintain an appropriate level of objectivity most of the time.
During this current election cycle and the ways that the blogosphere has been used by the candidates and their followers, we are light years away from the days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite as the models of information resource and passive watching. I think this is a healthy change simply because it gives us all more information alternatives. It may also encourage media literacy, but the "may" word is why your current post is so important. Illiteracy is another likely outcome for many people in this specific context.
It was good to be able to read through the comments to Nikki's recent post first-hand. When you look at all the comments closely, the focus is at least as much on the commentator's "presence" as commentator as there is on the content of the comment. In many ways this is one of the delights of blog participation - a community builds over time and we come to know how certain persons will consistently represent certain perspectives. As we come to value or feel challenged by those persons we in turn develop relationships with them.
I suppose another one of the Principles of Blog Commentary Ethnography is the going in ante: to participate in a truly open, unfolding dialogue that allows the entire herd to participate one must expect the random cow to wander in, drop a pie, and leave the rest of the community to deal with the token. This is a pretty small price to pay for an otherwise stimulating community. Actually, looking at the commentary on Nikki's blog, this kind of interloper (interpooper?) only strengthens the communities sense of unity in at least two important ways. They (1) come together to chastise the perpetrator and (2) in the process they reveal a lot about their individual personalities in the ways they each respond.
In the post example you gave I was amazed at how little commentary content there actually was about the blog post subject matter. For example, Nikki asks a series of questions at the end of her post:
(1) The question is, when did he travel back to Chang to deliver this news and have him make this tape?
(2) What was the purpose in having him make this tape?
(3) Can anyone make out what we hear another frequency saying at 2:42?
(4) Something about "visage"?
(5) Maybe the audio has been reversed there?
Another Principle of Blog Commentary Ethnography seems to be that bloggers should restrict each post to one question if they really want answers. Once the commentary string takes off on one subject the other questions are lost. Personally, I thought that the question that spurred the most comments was obvious to the point of being extremely dull. The later questions in her string were more interesting. But that's just me.
You bring up another excellent point that has some bearing on what may prove to be a comprehensive set of Blog Commentary Ethnography Principles - that of the blog author engaging in the commentary. Passive comment dropping is transformed into active community dialogue. This should be the standard for any blog that uses the commentary feature.
Emily,
What an interesting topic for a post about media ethnography. I admit, I have never watched a single episode of "Lost," but it seems to attract a very dedicated fanbase. As a result, I am not surprised that there is an active blog out there related to the show. Plus, it seems to be a show that leaves lots of questions unanswered and provides fodder for open-ended discussion and theories.
I disagree with Joe's comment that your loyalty to the blog means that you cannot be an ethnographer. Your familiarity with the site and the "lost" community makes you the perfect person to examine the topic. You seem to be an expert, so I respect your comments one-hundred percent. For example, the only way you were able to discern the political comment as atypical of regular postings to that blog is the result of your familiarity. So right on, Emily!
One of the things I love about this blog is the fact that different participants have different roles, so it really is like a community in many ways. For example, you mention the one man that everyone asks about physics-related questions. I think that this fact points to the community-building aspect of blogs, which can be very fulfilling and positive for readers.
On the other hand, I agree with you that getting off-topic (and getting political, particularly with the election coming up) is an inevitable fact in the blogosphere. Indeed, people with babble on and on to whoever will listen about their personal political views and other topics, and blog comment boxes lend themselves perfectly to such rants. Though they may be a distraction from the purpose of the blog, which is to discuss the television show, these tangents are nonetheless an important part of the blogging experience, so I am glad you touched upon them in your ethnography!
See you soon,
Rebecca Oberg
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