Samenvatting

The type of communication made possible through web logs and whether it has an added value besides the ordinary communication tools such as e-mail, telephone and websites are the main questions in this report. By means of the Habermas theory, the integration of the ideal speech situation into a weblog will be investigated. This means that all participants have equal access to communication, there are no power differences between participants and everybody has to act truthfully. To answer the question whether a weblog has the possibilities to fulfill these requirements, the communication capacities of Van Dijk will be explained and related to the weblog. Apart from the web log three other competitors such as chat, forum and web pages will be compared. After comparing these communication tools with the theory of Van Dijk, it can be concluded that a weblog is a very advanced communication tool that has the capacities to almost approach the possibilities of face-to-face communication. However, when there is no interest amongst the target group, the Hebo community, there will be no use creating one. Therefore, a survey has been held amongst the current Hebo students, Alumni, involved companies and Hebo management. The answer to the question whether a weblog may contribute to the communication between the participants of the Hebo community is yes, but it has to be made a success by the participants themself.