One of the simplest ways to analyse the blogosphere is to compare authorship of the local blogs according to gender.
Assumptions are often made that there are predominantly more male than female bloggers, but previous studies have shown this is a blunt generalisation.
Since blogging became accepted as a relatively mainstream activity in 2004 the pure numbers have evolved and the level of men and women who are active in the sphere has largely equalized, but interestingly a clearer distinction in the pattern of blogging behaviour has become apparent.
So for my purposes a simple count of the blogs on the 'Top of The Berkshire Blogs' charts will effectively show how maturely developed the local blogosphere now is (for ease of calculation I'll use November 2009 as the most recent source list of active sites and exclude guest contributions).
-
Men: 86
Women: 27
Multiple male: 6
Multiple female: 4
Multiple both: 9
Unknown author: 11
-
Total: 143
-
This means there are 101 listed sites whose principle authors are male, compared to 40 who are female and 11 of unknown gender (a 5:2 ratio).
Of course this is not a definitive sample as there are several examples of highly active bloggers who contribute to more than one weblog and there are numerous local blogs which are not included on the chart. I've also failed to identify almost a dozen authors. So any conclusions should be treated sceptically.
Nonetheless, as an early indication of the relative maturity of the local blogosphere I think this can be said to indicate a good baseline from which similar future analysis will have some value.
NB. Based upon the assumption that the defined geographical blogosphere reaches maturity when gender ratios reach 1:1.
-
Previous analyses of The State of the Berkshire Blogosphere
/me waves the flag of a female blog poster!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amykate.co.uk
Does it matter though?
Hiya,
ReplyDeleteas with most things I find a mixed audience tends to moderate the general tone of discussion to be more inclusive and accepting, while a more exclusive crowd tends to become more screechy and extreme as everyone tries to outdo each other.
So, yes, I think being able to connect a more diverse group of people together does actually make bloggers think a bit about writing more clearly and sensibly - which can only be good for making the local blogosphere a more powerful medium for providing information feedback.
If a more even m/f split is in fact a sign of a more mature blogosphere which is having a bigger impact on real world issues, then that has to be a good thing on both levels, right?
Come back and ask me again in a few months when I follow up on how things have evolved to try to measure what (if any) change has occured.