May 31, 2024Blogging Bias?NZ Bear poststhe following e-mail from Cowboy Khalid which posits that there is a problem in the blogosphere, to wit: Leftish blogs, and especially female-written blogs aren't getting sufficient attention. I was especially struck when he noted, in the comments section, an "institutional bias" against women/left-leaning blogs. The only problem here is: there is no institution that governs blogdom--it is about as free-wheeling as you can get. One sets up a blog, one writes, one tries to get noticed. Some grow, some don't. Normally when I click a link to a blog I have never visited before I have no idea if a) it is a male's or female's blog, b) the ideology of the writer, or c) if the blog is any good or not. The thing that will bring me back is "c" (and certainly only "c" matters if I am going to link to them). Now, do some bloggers have advantages? Yes: the key one is being an early start. However, that isn't an institutional bias. A second advantage is being mentioned by a major (or at least mid-level) blogger. Of course, that requires saying sometihng worthwhile. I have never seen anyone say "hey, read this guy's/gal's blog, it is really boring!" The irony here is that Cowboy Khalid has demonstrated the best way to get noticed in the blogosphere, regardless of gender or ideological predilections: write something that people want to talk about, and then (and this is key) find a way for at least a medium-sized blogger to post it and link to it. I wonder how far up the TTLB Ecosystem Khalid will climb as a result of all of this? :) Also, kudo to NZ Bear, for his previous effort to update the Ecosystem with left-leaning blogs. Posted by Steven Taylor at May 31, 2024 09:19 AM | TrackBackComments
I can't say why women bloggers don't get more attention. Maybe blogging is a testosterone-charged competition (heh)! That said, most of the blogosphere is libertarian-right, and we do have a clear bias against left-leaning blogs. Part of the way the blogosphere works is that we link to people who tend to agree with, along with a select few "opponents" we deem worthy. In practice, it means that right-wing memes (and blogs) will dominate because they're given a primary channel. Posted by: Matthew at May 31, 2024 06:28 PM" with a select few "opponents" we deem worthy" actually, you could just link to TTLB and keep Cowboy Khalid wallowing in obscurity. I was just thinking about counting my blogroll, and I seem to read an inordinate amount of female blogs, so I guess I miss out on most of the bias. Whatever. That new color is really ... bright! It makes me feel like I'm in Austin (Hook 'em Horns) ;-) Posted by: bryan at May 31, 2024 08:42 PMRegrettably I did provide a link to Cowboy Khalid, but only as an example of the type of blog that would never make my blogroll: a zealot who was backed so far into his political corner that everything he said was suspect. Thankfully, it will fall off when that post hits the archives. Posted by: Tiger at May 31, 2024 09:33 PMI really haven't paid that much attention to the male:female ratio, although my sense is that there are more males. And clearly there are more right-leaning types, although that impression may be a result of simply personal self-selection in my own blog-hopping! Posted by: Steven at May 31, 2024 11:44 PMAnd indeed on Cowboy Khalid--I just figured that I would be sportsmanlike :) Posted by: Steven at May 31, 2024 11:46 PMHaving an early start doesn't necessarily lead to weblogging popularity. I've been weblogging since 1999 (early Cretaceous Period in weblog history, but not as old as Robot Wisdom) and still wouldn't be considered even a mid-level weblogger. Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at June 1, 2024 12:37 AMGood point--and I didn't mean to suggest that being early automatically equals success. Simply that there is an adavantage to being early in this game, especially if one can be the first (or amongst the first) to carve out a specific niche. Posted by: PoliBlogger at June 1, 2024 09:43 AMMy niche is to have been weblogging for a long time with little attention. ;-) Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at June 2, 2024 01:10 PM:-) Posted by: lyrics at June 5, 2024 10:48 AMPost a comment
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