Diversity In The Blogosphere
by Chris Bowers, Tue Sep 19, 2006 at 11:52:10 AM EDT
Eighteen months ago, I wrote an article called Diversity and the Two Lefty Blogospheres where I discussed a relationship between linking patterns among progressive blogs and diversity within separate enclaves of the progressive blogosphere:The Blog Pulse research paper does in fact identify two nearly separate lefty blogopsheres during the period it studies (pre-election), with Eschaton serving as the point at which the two connect.
The commenter describes one reason for this divide: a split between "academia" and "activism." This seems fair enough, for the pre-election time period that the paper studied. TPM had yet to engage in its strong Social Security activism, which I know for a fact has led to a 5+ link exchange with a couple of blogs on the "other side" of the lefty blogosphere. Another reason should be obvious to many others: the second group seems to be part of an expanding dailykos universe, where smaller blogs operated by alumni or associates of kos become part of an expanded dailykos-centric blogosphere.
More interestingly, and related to the previous points, something else is also taking place here: a divide based upon race. From what I can tell, and I admit it is not always easy to tell in cyberspace, almost every single major non-white lefty blogger, such as kos, Oliver Willis, Jesse Taylor, Armando, Meteor Blades and Steve Gillard (there may be others), falls into the "activist / dailykos" group. Of course, several Whitey McWhitersons such as myself fall into that group as well, but by comparison this is a far more diverse group than the "academic" bloggers. Now, the linking patterns described in the Blog Pulse paper are two years old and out of date. A lot changes in two years online. However, I think the diversity patterns it discovers are important. I have seen studies that strongly suggest that even online, people tend to read voices that they feel they can identify with. In other words, women will more frequently read blogs written by other women than will men, Latinos will more frequently read blogs written by other Latinos than will non-Latinos, etc. While it is certainly not the same level of segregation you would see in housing patterns, there is a tendency for people to group together online. Just one example would be that MyDD recorded an 81% male readership in the last Blogads readers survey and, not surprisingly, all of our full-time writers have been male for some time.
Given this, it also should not be surprising that when studying mass linking patterns online, that even in a group such as the lefty blogosphere we see linking patterns grouping according the ethnicity. As I noted in that older article, it certainly seems as though people are engaging in linking habits with voices they identify with. The BogPulse survey showed that quite a few men of color were linking to quite a few other men of color, and that a lot of white guys were linking to other white guys. They may not even have been aware at the time that they were doing this, but it turns out that they were.
Much more in the extended.
The commenter describes one reason for this divide: a split between "academia" and "activism." This seems fair enough, for the pre-election time period that the paper studied. TPM had yet to engage in its strong Social Security activism, which I know for a fact has led to a 5+ link exchange with a couple of blogs on the "other side" of the lefty blogosphere. Another reason should be obvious to many others: the second group seems to be part of an expanding dailykos universe, where smaller blogs operated by alumni or associates of kos become part of an expanded dailykos-centric blogosphere.
More interestingly, and related to the previous points, something else is also taking place here: a divide based upon race. From what I can tell, and I admit it is not always easy to tell in cyberspace, almost every single major non-white lefty blogger, such as kos, Oliver Willis, Jesse Taylor, Armando, Meteor Blades and Steve Gillard (there may be others), falls into the "activist / dailykos" group. Of course, several Whitey McWhitersons such as myself fall into that group as well, but by comparison this is a far more diverse group than the "academic" bloggers. Now, the linking patterns described in the Blog Pulse paper are two years old and out of date. A lot changes in two years online. However, I think the diversity patterns it discovers are important. I have seen studies that strongly suggest that even online, people tend to read voices that they feel they can identify with. In other words, women will more frequently read blogs written by other women than will men, Latinos will more frequently read blogs written by other Latinos than will non-Latinos, etc. While it is certainly not the same level of segregation you would see in housing patterns, there is a tendency for people to group together online. Just one example would be that MyDD recorded an 81% male readership in the last Blogads readers survey and, not surprisingly, all of our full-time writers have been male for some time.
Given this, it also should not be surprising that when studying mass linking patterns online, that even in a group such as the lefty blogosphere we see linking patterns grouping according the ethnicity. As I noted in that older article, it certainly seems as though people are engaging in linking habits with voices they identify with. The BogPulse survey showed that quite a few men of color were linking to quite a few other men of color, and that a lot of white guys were linking to other white guys. They may not even have been aware at the time that they were doing this, but it turns out that they were.
Much more in the extended.
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