My master’s thesis, Hyperlink Use On Personal Weblogs, is almost painful for me to read now, partly because I glaringly and inconsistently used serial commas, but mostly because it’s woefully outdated. If I had known then what I know now about the Intertoobs and social media, it would be a completely different piece of writing and research. But that was then.

I will always be very proud of it, as it was the final piece of my master’s degree from the University at Buffalo, and it examined weblogs and social media when the field was in its infancy. Many thanks to Dr. Alex Halavais for being my advisor – he gave prescient and perceptive guidance!

Abstract: Weblogs operate as personal communication tools and mass media outlets, allowing individuals to publish content for a broader audience while creating hyperlinks to original content and external information. To date, no research has examined the reasoning and motivations behind the creation of hyperlinks on weblogs. This thesis will compare and contrast hyperlink creation on weblogs with the use of citations in academic publications. A series of focus groups asked bloggers for reasons why they add hyperlinks to their sites, and how they chose to create them. The focus group responses are grouped into themes – personal presence, social speech and public promotion – providing reasoning for the use of hyperlinks as a tool for civic journalism, group formation, marketing and promotion, and activism.