Relations and Play
note: This is the fourth in a series of the MotherPie Blog Study, following:
Introduction
Mom Bloggers: Intensively Engaged in the Blogosphere
Theories of Engaging, Immersing, Linking & Networking...
Blogging Motivations
A small study (pdf) by Bonnie Nardi in 2003 investigated bloggers out of Stanford. Nardi discovered five major motivations for blogging: “documenting one's life, providing commentary and opinions, expressing deeply felt emotions, articulating ideas through writing, and forming and maintaining community forums. These motivations are by no means mutually exclusive, and can come into play simultaneously.”
My study found that 67% of respondents consider their blog to be like a personal diary or journal. A Technorati Blogger Survey in 2005 found that the majority of bloggers do so for these reasons: to create a record of my thoughts (31.54%); to gain visibility as an authority in my field (33.86%); to connect with others (20.34%); Other (9.62%); and to generate revenue (4.62%). This female-centric survey, unlike Technorati’s survey, found that only 17% consider their blog to be an adjunct to a business, hobby or profession, which demonstrates the priorities and needs of female bloggers in contrast to the blogging population at large. Additionally, this survey found that 49% thought of their blog as a place “where I can be me” and other significant reasons for blogging included: a place to create and display original content, a place to “play and have fun” and a place “where I can experiment and expand myself” – all issues of self-identity and self-expression.
Elisa Camahort, co-founder of BlogHer, published results of a study of women bloggers(pdf) through Change This. The top six categories that women from the 2005 BlogHer conference were blogging about: life (62%); entertainment and arts (41%); mommy and family (41%); feminism and gender (34%); technology and web (31%); and politics and news (31%). The most popular posts at the BlogHer community site are in these categories: entertainment, politics and news, health and wellness, eco-conscious and green living, personal finance, technology and the web, mommy and family and feminism and gender.
My survey found that while bloggers are least concerned with issues relating to commodification/economics such as earning money by blogging (only 15% of respondents were concerned about having sponsorship or ads and 21% were neutral on the issue), or having high ratings, they were also not concerned with serving as a filter or gatekeeper for news and information. Rather, the bloggers were most concerned with producing quality content and participating in the comments on the blogs of others which shows a high affiliation and social slant to the needs and participation motivations of the female bloggers. Also of high concern to the respondents were monitoring and being present in the comments on their site, writing about experiences that others can relate to and developing online relationships. Yet another concern of the study participants was content control and copyright and content theft. Least important of these issues was having a lot of comments.
The latest Pew study found that 46% of women bloggers focus on things, places and events they encounter in their daily lives and 77% of bloggers do it for self-expression, with self-expression cited by 37% as their primary reason for blogging.
Almost all (88%) of the respondents feel that blogging has enriched their lives. Blogging is fun - something that is seen as play ( 5% of respondents cited their blogging as "work"; 62% of respondents cited ther blogging as "play"; 29% cited their blogging as both work and play). To put it in even stronger numbers: 97% of the respondents said blogging was play or both work and play).
Social relationships and networks are important - 43% said they had met blog friends in real life after first becoming online friends.
Next: The Commercialization of the Female Blogs
Quite interesting, and pretty much in keeping with the blogs I read.
Posted by: tut-tut | February 27, 2007 at 09:57 AM
Your research bears out some of the impressions I've formed of blogging. Nice to see where my views fit in the numbers you cite, that there are so many with views as my own toward blogging. Look forward to your next post.
Posted by: Joared | February 28, 2007 at 04:03 AM