What does dancing have to do with blogging? : A study of verbal and nonverbal communication among dance bloggers.

• Main Author: Kruczynska, Katarzyna
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Sociologiska institutionen 2012
• Subjects: communication; objective reality; blogging; medium; audience
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-175149

Abstract of the research: What does Dancing Have to Do with Blogging? A  Study of Verbal and Non-verbal Communication among Dance Bloggers Dance, in its essence can be seen as a form of social interaction. Unique role of dancing is the recurrent motif in dance-related theories which underline that dance should not be approached only from the perspective of physical exercise but also interpreted within its social context.  In other words, dance is a symbol of a changing society Dance is can be also seen as a non-verbal expression of emotions. These are projected from the inner subjective world of an individual onto the audience. Non-verbal communication through movement and gestures, as well as spatial arrangement of bodies predominates but the recent trends show the development of a ‘verbal’ dancing occurring online via specialized blogs and social networks. The growing popularity of dance blogs implies a great diversity within the communicative methods used by dancers. The traditional view of dance as a representative of non-verbal interaction will be challenged in this paper and hypothesis stating that the verbal and non-verbal communication are strictly interrelated will be suggested. Moreover, the paper will concentrate on the impact that online blogging communities have on socialization and identity formation among dancers. The research question revolves around the idea that dance blogging demonstrates the need to use verbal signs to complete the predominantly non-verbal communication. Furthermore, the reasons motivating bloggers to write about dance will be analyzed. This will be done in order to demonstrate how attitudes to dancing and communicating as well as dancers’ distinctive ways of socialization are reflected by their belongingness to the blogging community. The investigation attempts at identifying the mechanism behind online interactions among dancers and the ways in which the Internet influences socialization and formation of dancer’s identity. The theories used in study are rooted in both macro- and micro-sociology and their aim is to clarify concepts such as communication, meaning and identification within a group. The data will be collected through interviews conducted with dance bloggers and through the observations of thirty dance blogs. Content analysis of such data will, hopefully, demonstrate how significant blogging is for the online and offline communication processes.