Browsing by Author "Toi, Cassey Alexandre"

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    Motherhood constructed online : an exploratory study of South African mommy bloggers
    (2018-03) Toi, Cassey Alexandre; Hill, Lloyd; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When blogging first entered the collective mainstream as part of social media, it was thought there was a clear distinction between online and offline life, that communities needed to have physical form, and that ‘mommy bloggers’ wrote vapid posts about their children. And while those perceptions have changed, there are still elements of those notions that continue to exist. This thesis explores those ideas, and shows a piece of the overall picture that makes up the South African ‘mommy’ blogosphere. This piece of the picture was created using an online focus group, interviews and a thematic analysis of the blogs of thirteen participants. What has emerged is that blogging is a lot of work, which often goes unrecognised. For the popular blogger, it provides social, cultural and material gain. The research also shows that the blog is the electronic body that the blogger uses in the blogosphere, and that the notion of an online and offline space does not hold true.