Doing Gender in Computer-Mediated Communication: The Blogosphere

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Doing Gender in Computer-Mediated Communication:

The Blogosphere

Susan C. Herring

Lois Ann Scheidt

School of Library and Information Science Indiana University USA

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Guten Tag, Meine Damen und Herren!

Susan Herring, live via Internet

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Definitions

Weblog (blog)– a web page and associated pages containing

dated entries, typically displayed in reverse chronological sequence

The Blogosphere– the collective term encompassing all weblogs

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Gender and CMC

Previous research has found gender differences in text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC)

– Asynchronous: email, discussion lists, SMS– Synchronous: chat, MUDs, instant messaging

Differences in– Participation– Manner

Differences tend to disfavor women

(e.g. Herring 2003)

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Participation

In public discussion groups– Males post more messages– Males post longer messages– Male messages receive more responses– Males are more likely to persist in posting even when

they receive no response– Females post more when a) group has a female

moderator, and b) more than 60% of group is female

(Herring 1993, 1996a, b; Hert 1997)

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Discourse Styles

In public discussion groups– Males: more impersonal, fact-oriented, strong

assertions, profanity, insults, sarcasm, rhetorical questions, challenges and disagreement with others

– Females: more emotional, relation-oriented, mitigated assertions, non-declarative speech acts (questions, offers, suggestions), polite expressions (e.g., thanks, apologies), support and agreement with others

(Herring 1993, 1994, 1996a, b; Hall 1996; Savicki 1996; Sutton 1994)

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Research Questions

Are there gender differences in blogs?– If so:

What is their nature?Do they favor one gender over the other?

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Organization of the presentation

Overview of previous research on blogs and gender– Participation– Discourse style

New research– Study 1: Gender and blog genre – Study 2: Gender and adolescent diary blogs

Conclusions

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Participation in the Blogosphere: Popular Perceptions

Most bloggers are adult males Most blogs filter and comment on (news)

content on the Web– Mass media (e.g., Glaser 2002; Lasica 2001)– Bloggers (e.g., D. Winer, R. Blood)– Scholarly studies (e.g., Krishnamurty 2002; Park

2003)

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Participation in the Blogosphere: Empirical Evidence

Gender and age demographics– Estimated for Blog-City, BlogSpot, DiaryLand, LiveJournal,

Pitas, Weblogger, Typepad, Xanga (Perseus, Henning 2003) 56% female, 44% male 53% under 20; 40% aged 20-29; 7% over 30

– Random samples from blo.gs (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright 2004)

48% female, 52% male 49% teen and emerging adult (20-25), 51% over 26

Roughly half female, half (or more) young people

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Participation in the Blogosphere: Empirical Evidence

Blog genre– 12.9% of random blogs are filters– 70% are personal journals (diaries)

(Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright 2004)

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Gender and Age of Bloggers

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Blog Genre and Gender/Age of Bloggers

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

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Journal Filter K-log Mixed

Nu

mb

er

of

Blo

gs

Teen M

Teen F

Emerging M

Emerging F

Adult M

Adult F

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Discourse Style in Blogs

Previous research– A study of entries in 70 adolescent blogs (Huffaker & Calvert

2005) found gender similarities: Girls and boys made equal use of passive, cooperative, and

accommodating language Both girls’ and boys’ blogs were mostly personal diaries

– A study of comments in 20 “A-list” blogs (Kennedy et al. 2005) found gender differences:

Women's comments were more inclusive and expressive Men's comments were more assertive, competitive, instrumental Women’s blogs were mostly diaries; men’s mostly political filters

Depends on blogger age: Adolescent vs. adult?

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Discourse Style in Blogs

Two new studies– Gender and blog genre (Herring & Paolillo, under review)– Gender in adolescent diary blogs (Scheidt, in press)

Show opposite age effect Suggest gender effect depends on blog genre and

type of stylistic feature

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Study 1: Gender and Blog Genre

Research question– Are gender differences in language style evident when we

take into account blog genre (diary or filter)? Methods

– 127 blog entries, balanced for gender and genre, from 44 random blogs

– Counted frequencies of stylistic features from Argamon, Koppel et al. (2003; cf. the Gender Genie)

Personal pronouns (hypothesized female) Noun determiners, quantifiers, its (hypothesized male)

– Multivariate analysis using logistic regression

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Blog Genres

Diary (personal journal)– Focus on events in, and reflections about, blogger’s

personal life

Filter– Focus on events and constructs external to the

blogger, e.g., politics and religion

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Example of a diary blog entry

Just a quick note to say that (1) I'm completely rested and recharged, (2) I'm excited about generating high volumes of bloggage and (3) I've seemed to develop a pathological proclivity for prevarication (translation: I'm a big fat liar).

In truth, I've now had three hours of sleep since yesterday at 6:00 a.m., and I'm warily circling this blog like Abbye approaches an operating vacuum cleaner blocking the way to her crate.

(…)

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Example of a filter blog entry

I have never believed in the Bush concept of pre-emptive war. I think that it goes against everything that American Foreign Policy has ever stood for. Bye-bye Washington's farewell speech, bye-bye Wilson's 14 points, and way to completely negate everything that the Declaration of Independence says about foreign policy. The 2002 Strategy marked a whole new direction in American foreign policy that is frankly a little scary.

(…)

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Findings

No gender differences Genre differences

– Diary entries use “female” stylistic features– Filter entries use “male” stylistic features

Conclusion– Argomon et al.’s (2003) stylistic features reflect

genre conventions more than gender of writers– BUT: blog genres are “gendered” (cf. Herring et al.

2004; Kennedy et al. 2005)

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Study 2: Gender in Adolescent Diary Blogs

Research question– Herring & Paolillo’s sample was mostly adults. Adolescents

produce mostly diary blogs. Are there gender differences within adolescent diary blogs?

Methods– Content Analysis and ethnography– Opportunity sample: EatonWeb Portal, ‘teen’ category– 12 blogs (6 male & 6 female)– Avg. blogger age = 16.9 years (range = 13-19) – All entries on the first page of each blog were coded for

orientation towards audience using Langellier’s (1998) taxonomy

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Langellier’s taxonomy of Audiences for Personal Narrative Performance (1998)

As a witness testifying to the experience As a therapist unconditionally supporting emotions As a cultural theorist assessing the contestation of

meanings, values, and identities As a narrative analyst examining genre, truth, or

strategy A critic appraising the display of performance

knowledge and skill

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Entries by blogger gender

Entries = 102 of which 89 could be fully coded

female, 41.6%

male, 58.4%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

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Orientation towards audience by blogger gender

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

experience emotions contestation narrative display

Perc

en

t

Male

Female

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Findings - Females

Females show a tendency toward– bifurcated orientation

internal in revealing emotionsexternal in cultural assessment

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Example: Orienting to emotions

Available: http://anonymuse.blogspot.com/

The inevitable has taken place. I have once again stepped within the walls of an institution frequented by asylum-deprived eccentrics and egocentrics. But I love it.

No longer a freshie... This cannot be happening. No more excuses to be ignorant. No more innocent eyes. No more fun

classes...*sniff*

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Example: Contesting cultural meanings, values, and identities

Available: http://coquet.blogspot.com/

things that piss me off: no. 1...anti-bush protestors

i live in the uk, and upon george bush's recent state visit here, hundreds o' thousands of people went out into the streets protesting at his visit, calling him "the most evil man on the planet" and so on...

where the hell were these protesters during all the years of oppression that the iraqi people faced? probably eating mcdonalds and driving ford cars to work

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Findings - Males

Males show a tendency toward– a factual approach in reporting experience – asking audience to witness the event and notice

their skill in performance

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Example: Orienting to experience

Available: http://16crayons.blogspot.com/

So, I went to Dorney Park yesterday. Happy, happy, joy, joy. It wasn't all that bad, actually. I woke up an hour late because I set my alarm for seven p.m. instead of seven a.m., but nevertheless my Dad woke me up at eight. So I hopped in the shower and ran around in order to pick up Vickie and get to the art studio. I put on my new Good Charlotte shirt, so when I got to the studio there was NO WAY I was going to paint. …

Anyway, after I was finished at the studio my family and I were off to Dorney Park.

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Example: Displaying performance knowledge and skill

Available: http://www.arador.org/

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Research questions revisited

Gender differences are found in blogs– Adults

Women write more diary blogs, which contain more personal/interpersonal language

Men write filter blogs, which contain more objectified (specified) language

– Adolescents Girls are more self-revealing and socially-conscious in their

blog entries Boys are more factual and seek to display skill/knowledge

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Findings help explain disparities in previous studies

Previous studies didn’t control for blog genre– But Huffaker & Calvert’s sample of adolescent blogs was probably

diaries– and differences are less likely to emerge within the same genre

Previous studies selected disparate features for comparison– Kennedy et al. analyzed discourse-pragmatic features, while

Huffaker & Calvert counted word frequencies– But gender differences in English occur more at the discourse-

pragmatic than the word choice level THUS: Huffaker & Calvert studied word frequencies in diaries and

found weak gender differences, while Kennedy et al. studied discourse-pragmatic features in diaries and filters and found strong gender differences

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Explanation for disparities in previous studies (cont.)

Our new findings support this explanation– Herring & Paolillo studied word frequencies, controlling for genre, and

found no gender differences– Scheidt studied discourse-pragmatic features and found gender

differences, even within the same genre Taken together, these four studies suggest:

– discourse-pragmatic gender differences exist in both adult and adolescent blogs

– stylistic (word choice) gender differences are less evident in both adult and adolescent blogs

– males and females choose different blog genres (and sub-genres)

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Research questions revisited (cont.)

Differences favor adult males– Filter blogs, written by men, are assigned greater

importance than other blogs Featured more often in news stories Favored data for blog studies (especially by male scholars) Linked to by other bloggers (“A-list”)

– But only 12.9% of blogs: a minority elite

(Herring, Kouper, Scheidt, & Wright, 2004)

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Gender and age of bloggers in news stories

In 16 articles about blogs from mainstream U.S. news sources between November 2002 and July 2003:

– more males (88%) are mentioned than females (12%)– males are mentioned multiple times in the same article more

often than females– males are mentioned earlier in the articles than females– males are more likely to be mentioned by name than females– all 94 males mentioned are adults, except for one adolescent

male blogger

(Herring, Kouper, Scheidt, & Wright, 2004)

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Conclusions

Gender socialization carries over into weblog communication– Diaries are traditionally associated with girls and

women– Factual reporting (e.g., scientific and news

discourse) is traditionally associated with men– Society has traditionally valued men’s writing over

women’s writing (Spender 1989)

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Conclusions (cont.)

Also, gender differences in CMC depend on genre and features analyzed– Word frequencies (style) depend more on genre

than gender– Gender explains differences in politeness,

assertiveness, etc. (discourse-pragmatics)– Strongest differences may be in what males and

females choose to talk about and do online (genre)

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The following members of the Indiana University (We)blog Research on Genre (BROG) Project contributed to this research

Sabrina Bonus

Susan C. Herring

Inna Kouper

John C. Paolillo

Lois Ann Scheidt

Elijah Wright

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Questions?

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This presentation is available at:http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/bielefeld.ppt

Contact us:

[email protected]

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