Live blogs are a popular format for covering crises, breaking news, politics, or sports events. Despite their popularity among journalists and the public, the format has also been subject to scholarly debate regarding the conflict between immediacy versus credibility, resulting in a high degree of uncertainty for producers and consumers. Journalists cope with this paradox by performing discourse: imposing valid and persuasive representations of the social world. One way to do so is by the use and representation of sources. In this paper, we uncover the performative discourse of live blogs through possible patterns of sourcing and discursive strategies among a range of live blogs and the way journalists cope with the mix of speed and uncertainty. Based on a quantitative content analysis of nine Dutch live blogs, we conclude that journalists follow the same conventions and routines as regular (online) articles. Despite the possibilities for polyvocality (more and different voices in live blogs) due to the accessibility by social media, journalists choose predominantly formal sources and report their speech predominantly in a direct way.
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In het voorjaar van 2023 liep Amy Klaassen, studente Biologie, Voeding en Gezondheid, twee maanden stage bij het lectoraat Stedelijke Voedselvraagstukken. In die tijd heeft ze een aantal blogs geschreven die we in dit document bundelen. De eerste drie zijn gebaseerd op data die is verzameld in het voormalige pand van Flevo Campus (in Almere Centrum) en tijdens de inauguratie van de lector Stedelijke Voedselvraagstukken. Het laatste is een beschrijving van een bezoek aan een internationale conferentie.
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The understanding of visitor images is an important subject for tourism destination marketers. Although an increasing number of empirical studies explore images of several tourism destinations worldwide, limited research has been focussed on the tourism destination image of conflict areas. This study examines the image of Bethlehem by analysing Bethlehem's visitors' online publishing. Data was collected from popular travel blog sites, which include online posts about Bethlehem and its visitors' beliefs and evaluations. The results revealed that destination specific attributes in addition to primary image attributes are essential to understand the visitors' image of a conflict area. This study suggests that destination marketers of conflict areas should first accept their unique destination attributes, which do not change rapidly. The visitors' perceptions of Bethlehem and its people are based on more functional and psychological attributes than on holistic impressions. Destination marketers of conflict areas should craft a unique branding strategy that fits their destination best.
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The current study analyzed blogs written by four Dutch parents of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, with the aim of deepening the understanding of the parents’ concerns. Thematic analysis was conducted and five main themes were identified: Dealing with uncertainties addressed the impact of unpredictability present in the everyday lives of parents, Love and loss described the complexity of concurrently cherishing the child and grieving various types of loss, Struggling with time, energy and finances detailed imbalances and struggles related to parents’ personal resources, Feeling included in communities and society specified social consequences, and Relating to professional care services reflected on stress and support associated with professional care delivery. The study findings demonstrate how care professionals should acknowledge parents’ vulnerabilities by being aware of their existential distress and empowering parents to exercise control of family thriving.
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As one of its main resources, weather is an integral part of tourism. Yet little is known about how individual tourists experience the weather and how it affects the subjective perception of their holidays. The weather appears to have a prominent place in language and the use of the weather in narratives of tourists can provide insight into how the weather affects tourist experiences. Based on a qualitative analysis of online travel blogs written by Dutch tourists, 16 weather themes could be distinguished, representing how the weather was narrated about by tourists. Moreover, different impact themes emerged describing how the weather impacted the tourists: tourists revealed positive, negative or neutral evaluations about the weather impacts. The findings of this study can be used for future research on tourist behaviour and how specific weather types and impacts influence the decision making of tourists in terms of itineraries and activities.
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The wide use of social media has facilitated new social practices that influence place meaning. This paper uses a double case study of two neighborhood blogs in gentrifying communities, to explore the role of social media in sharing place associations and community formation. Drawing on Collins’ theory of interaction ritual chains, this research project investigates how the intertwining of online and offline interaction around the blogs creates interaction chains whereby the place associations of participants in the blog become more aligned, creating an alternative place narrative. Analyses of the dynamics of involvement with the blogs show how social interactions spurred by the blogs generate emotional energy, group solidarity, feelings of morality, meaningful symbols, and feelings of place attachment among the participants. This article illuminates how the emerging process of place (re)making spurred by interaction with the blog emerges from both everyday unplanned behavior and strategic aims of the actors.
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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the motives and emotions of Western tourists visiting Tuol Sleng Genocide Prison Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and further contribute to a deeper understanding of the dark tourism consumption. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from popular travel blog sites. This study employs various qualitative and quantitative methods, such as netnography, semantic network analysis and critical content analysis in order to gain a deeper insight into the visitors’ emotions and motivations. Findings: This study reveals that people visit Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum mainly for “remembrance”, “worth visiting”, “learning and understanding”, “paying respect” and a “must visit” attraction. Emotions revealed in this study were “shocking“, “sadness“, “horror” and “depressive”. Research limitations/implications: This paper is limited to the analyses of travel blogs sites. Further research could include interviews with Western visitors, and professionals managing the site. Originality/value: To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to examine the emotions of visitors in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
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What is the impact of blogging, either by journalists or readers, on journalism? Do entries on readers' blogs lead to stories for professional journalists and how is the work of a blogging journalist influenced by the fact that he or she nowadays has a second publication platform and is more in contact with readers through the blog? We conducted content analyses of blogs and interviewed professional and amateur bloggers with blogs on Dutch national and local newspaper websites as well as editors who are responsible for the blogs on the websites. Newspapers employ different strategies when it comes to allowing either journalists or readers to blog on their newspaper websites. Local papers seem to profit most when it comes to getting story leads, or even scoops, from readers' blogs. Blogs on national newspapers' websites function more as personal diaries for the bloggers. The blogs by journalists and invited experts seem to flourish more on national papers' websites. There is also a difference in the 'directions' that bloggers get. With a stricter policy, mostly meaning that off-topic entries are discouraged, readers' blogs are more focused and are more valuable for journalists looking for news.
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In this blog, we analyze the (potential) effects of the coronavirus on UN peacekeeping, making use of a number of recent blogs and reports from scholars and think tanks. We argue that peace operations are affected by the coronavirus on three levels: at the level of the operations themselves, at the level of the conflict context and, finally, at the structural level.
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1e alinea column: "als je het eenmaal ziet, zie je het overal", Johan Cruijff. Er wordt mij af en toe gevraagd hoe ik aan mijn inzichten kom. Dit wordt dus een ander soort blog dan de vorige 28. Deze gaat namelijk over mij en met name over mijn antwoord op de vraag waar ik de inhoud van mijn blogs vandaan haal. Een methodologische verantwoording.
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