Interactive weight loss support journal?

Image 1: Mahalia Barnes

On the Weight Watchers (WW) community site there is definitely a sense that the bloggers are writing not just for themselves but also the other members. At the same time as involving readers, WW blogs display many of the 'authentic' diary features mentioned by McNeill (2011).

WW bloggers assume shared knowledge often using relying on presupposition about peoples names, life events, and meanings of abbreviations. (McNeill, 2011). The most followed member blogs on the WW site contain pictures on almost every post and a similar format to the WW ambassador Mahalia Barnes's blog and the official WW Blog. 

The Mahalia Barnes and other member blogs often have an honest tone; they admit self-control issues, discuss binging, successes, and failures etc. which contribute to presenting an authentic experience for readers. Interestingly, in almost every blog post I have read on the site the author acknowledges the readers in some way; for example they may admit a weakness then ask for advice from readers- this highlights the public setting of the blog.

I do not feel that the WW bloggers present their whole real selves on the site for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the WW ground rules do not allow bloggers to swear and many bloggers substitute with symbols or comment on this restriction which indicates that those bloggers are not presenting themselves as they normally would. Finally, the focus of the majority of the blogs on the WW site is (understandably) the weight loss of the blogger and although many of them share life experiences they are specific to the impact on there success doing the WW plan. It is uncommon for a blogger to discuss how they feel about a particular life event in any other sense; for example when the WW ambassador Mahalia Barnes blogged about her trip to Europe she focused purely on how much exercise and healthy food choices she squeezed into her day of sight seeing with very little content about what she and her travel companions thought of Europe. I feel that "Diary 2.0" (McNeill, 2011) is not an appropriate name for the genre of the WW blog and it may best be described as an interactive weight loss support journal. 

References

McNeill, , L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen, in Rowe, C. & Wyss, E.L. (Eds.) Language and new media: Linguistic, cultural, and technological evolutions (pp.313-325). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton

Images
Image 1: Mahalia Barnes retrieved from: <http://www.weightwatchers.com.au/templates/print.aspx?PageId=2073611&PrintFlag=yes&previewDate=4/24/2013>