Managing emotion online

I apply emotion work to a case study of reader responses on the blog, Young House Love, owned by Sherry and John Petersik. The author performed a qualitative analysis of 1070 comments, examining readers' collective emotion work. After learning of the bloggers' hiatus, YHL readers responded using interpersonal and personal emotion management techniques. Comments exhibit deep acting and surface acting strategies directed primarily at the bloggers and their perceived emotional state. Positive sentiment emerged among comments as readers shared personal stories of connection, influence, expressions of support, and accounts. Furthermore, readers' comments reveal feeling rules guiding the YHL bloggers and readers. Thus, discursive efforts to influence the bloggers' emotions are conceptually linked to readers' attempts to rescue and repair the bloggers' public persona on YHL. This analysis confirms the relevance of Goffman's (1959) and Hochschild's (1979) work online and explores blogs as a tool for managing emotion. I also discuss the importance of the comments section in the co-creation of a blog.