TY  - GEN
TI  - "Keep that Fan Mail Coming.": Ceremonial Storytelling and Audience Interaction in a US Soldier's Milblog
AU  - Usbeck, Frank
PY  - 2014
PB  - De Gruyter
LA  - eng
KW  - Analyse Milblog
KW  - Kontext zwischen Soldaten und sozialem Umfeld
KW  - militärische Psychologie
KW  - Analysis Milblog
KW  - context between soldiers and social environment
KW  - military psychology
KW  - info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/820
KW  - ddc:820
AB  - The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq initiated a surge of texts by US soldiers who utilized recent Web 2.0 technology to forge new types of war narratives, such as the so-called "milblogs." Milblogs merge letter and journal writing with journalistic reporting, and they maintain contact between soldiers and their social environment. They are at once public and private communication. Military psychology since Vietnam has referred to warrior traditions of Native American communities to discuss public narration and ceremonial acknowledgment of a soldier's war experience as vital elements for veteran readjustment and trauma recovery. This article analyzes an exemplary milblog to argue that the interaction between blogger and audience does similar cultural work and has comparable ceremonial and, therefore, therapeutic functions: Soldiers publicly share their experience, reflect on it with their audience, receive appreciation and support, and thus mutually (re-)negotiate group identity.
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa2-385690
UR  - https://www.pollux-fid.de/r/base-fttudresden:oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:38569
H1  - Pollux (Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft)
ER  -