Date of Award

8-2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Program

Sociology

Department

Sociology

Major Professor

Baxter, Vern K.

Second Advisor

Allen, H. David

Third Advisor

Compton, D'Lane

Abstract

In his Essay "On Face-Work" Erving Goffman identifies the rules for a number of face-to-face interaction rituals. Among these rituals are two ways of correcting participants within an interaction. The first correction ritual, the interchange, allows offending interactants a chance to save face. The second ritual, the points making game, is a way for interactants to cause other participants to lose face. This thesis analyzes the content of a random sample of blogs to see if the rituals described above are employed in online interaction, specifically looking at blogs and how the context of the rituals is modified, including whether and how they are modified. It was found that the ritual of the interchange was modified. The ritual of the points making game though left unmodified occurred with greater frequency.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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