Re: [Air-l] women bloggers
I look forward to the responses because this underrepresentation wasn't apparent to me. Kurt Paul Teusner wrote:
G'day everyone,
Has anyone on this list come across data or reflections on the apparent under-representation of women in the blogosphere?
paul teusner
fishers, surfers and casters - http://teusner.org/
bio - http://paulteusner.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Kurt Luther Ph.D. Student, College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia, USA luther@cc.gatech.edu http://kurtluther.com/ Cell: +1.404.275.0400 Work: +1.404.894.1558
I wasn't either... but I'm also fascinated and annoyed by the terms "blog" and "blogger." I mean, what counts as a blog? I have an account on livejournal where I post very regularly. Am I a blogger? If so, women are NOT underrepresented, because there are a ton of females on LJ (of all ages, from ZOMG teenagers posting about how their moms are unfair, to women who use LJ for their hobby blogs, etc etc etc). Or is it content only that counts something as a blog? I guess that's why I'm annoyed... I see a lot of room in the term "blog" to include a lot of things that the mainstream definition seems to ignore, and I can't find a good line. Plus, I just REALLY hate the term for some reason :) Not very academic of me since I can't pinpoint a reason but man! I'd be curious to know what the basis for this statement (apparent underrepresentation of women in blogging) is. AFAIK, women are very prevalent in the realm. -Christine Kurt Luther wrote:
I look forward to the responses because this underrepresentation wasn't apparent to me.
Kurt
Paul Teusner wrote:
G'day everyone,
Has anyone on this list come across data or reflections on the apparent under-representation of women in the blogosphere?
paul teusner
fishers, surfers and casters - http://teusner.org/
bio - http://paulteusner.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
This gets discussed recurrently in the leftie (US) political blogosphere where almost all of the big names are male. I'm sorry I can't point you to references, I've seen it discussed on Political Animal and Eschaton in the past. Firedog lake is one of the few written by a woman. McJoan at DailyKos and Arianna Huffington would be other important exceptions. I think Digby is female too. And Michelle Malkin on the right side of the political sphere. Of course Huffington and Malkin didn't come to public attention through their blogging, not is it Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing's main access to an audience. The issue, in as much as there is an issue, has to do with most of the "a-list" bloggers being male, and if you go browse through Technorati's top 100, most are not written by women. In the discussions I've read, one thing people discuss is whether women bloggers are more likely to write diary rather than issue blogs, resulting in their getting less fame, glory, etc. Others dispute that there is a problem of either underrepresentation or status. Others say the problem is that the men all link to other men, so even though the women are out there blogging, they aren't admitted to 'the inner circle' and don't get the status within the blogosphere that the men get. Nancy
I look forward to the responses because this underrepresentation wasn't apparent to me.
Kurt
Paul Teusner wrote:
G'day everyone,
Has anyone on this list come across data or reflections on the apparent under-representation of women in the blogosphere?
paul teusner
fishers, surfers and casters - http://teusner.org/
bio - http://paulteusner.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Kurt Luther Ph.D. Student, College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia, USA
luther@cc.gatech.edu http://kurtluther.com/
Cell: +1.404.275.0400 Work: +1.404.894.1558
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
I would argue that defining "blogger" in terms of readership is dangerous and unintuitive. For me, the canonical blogger is a LiveJournal user posting updates for a small cadre of close friends. As far as "A-list" bloggers being predominantly male, that strikes me as far less surprising. Most "A-lists" are underrepresented by women and minorities, for some of the reasons cited by Nancy as well as others. Kurt Nancy Baym wrote:
This gets discussed recurrently in the leftie (US) political blogosphere where almost all of the big names are male. I'm sorry I can't point you to references, I've seen it discussed on Political Animal and Eschaton in the past. Firedog lake is one of the few written by a woman. McJoan at DailyKos and Arianna Huffington would be other important exceptions. I think Digby is female too. And Michelle Malkin on the right side of the political sphere. Of course Huffington and Malkin didn't come to public attention through their blogging, not is it Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing's main access to an audience.
The issue, in as much as there is an issue, has to do with most of the "a-list" bloggers being male, and if you go browse through Technorati's top 100, most are not written by women.
In the discussions I've read, one thing people discuss is whether women bloggers are more likely to write diary rather than issue blogs, resulting in their getting less fame, glory, etc.
Others dispute that there is a problem of either underrepresentation or status.
Others say the problem is that the men all link to other men, so even though the women are out there blogging, they aren't admitted to 'the inner circle' and don't get the status within the blogosphere that the men get.
Nancy
I look forward to the responses because this underrepresentation wasn't apparent to me.
Kurt
Paul Teusner wrote:
G'day everyone,
Has anyone on this list come across data or reflections on the apparent under-representation of women in the blogosphere?
paul teusner
fishers, surfers and casters - http://teusner.org/
bio - http://paulteusner.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Kurt Luther Ph.D. Student, College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia, USA
luther@cc.gatech.edu http://kurtluther.com/
Cell: +1.404.275.0400 Work: +1.404.894.1558
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Kurt Luther Ph.D. Student, College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia, USA luther@cc.gatech.edu http://kurtluther.com/ Cell: +1.404.275.0400 Work: +1.404.894.1558
Hey Nancy, I'm tending to agree with you on this one about the "inner circle". It appears that while there may be thousands of female bloggers around, they are not as popular or as referenced as males. Then again, my study focuses on religious bloggers. So I am seeing that the under-representation of females in my study probably has as much, if not more, to do with the current state of religion in the West than the state of the blogosphere. paul teusner -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Nancy Baym Sent: Monday, 11 June 2007 5:11 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] women bloggers This gets discussed recurrently in the leftie (US) political blogosphere where almost all of the big names are male. I'm sorry I can't point you to references, I've seen it discussed on Political Animal and Eschaton in the past. Firedog lake is one of the few written by a woman. McJoan at DailyKos and Arianna Huffington would be other important exceptions. I think Digby is female too. And Michelle Malkin on the right side of the political sphere. Of course Huffington and Malkin didn't come to public attention through their blogging, not is it Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing's main access to an audience. The issue, in as much as there is an issue, has to do with most of the "a-list" bloggers being male, and if you go browse through Technorati's top 100, most are not written by women. In the discussions I've read, one thing people discuss is whether women bloggers are more likely to write diary rather than issue blogs, resulting in their getting less fame, glory, etc. Others dispute that there is a problem of either underrepresentation or status. Others say the problem is that the men all link to other men, so even though the women are out there blogging, they aren't admitted to 'the inner circle' and don't get the status within the blogosphere that the men get. Nancy
I look forward to the responses because this underrepresentation wasn't apparent to me.
Kurt
Paul Teusner wrote:
G'day everyone,
Has anyone on this list come across data or reflections on the apparent under-representation of women in the blogosphere?
paul teusner
fishers, surfers and casters - http://teusner.org/
bio - http://paulteusner.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Kurt Luther Ph.D. Student, College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia, USA
luther@cc.gatech.edu http://kurtluther.com/
Cell: +1.404.275.0400 Work: +1.404.894.1558
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
participants (4)
-
Christine Moellenberndt -
Kurt Luther -
Nancy Baym -
Paul Teusner