[Wamvan] WAM! Vancouver launches study on the Canadian feminist blogosphere! (Please pass on)

[Joanna Chiu]

Our study and catalogue of Canadian blogs of feminist interest, by
Candace Coulson of SFU, has finally been released! Please help us out
and help promote Canadian feminist media by passing on this message.
Please let us know what kind of feedback you have to these findings, too.
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http://www.womenactionmedia.org/2013/05/03/new-research-on-canadian-feminist-blogosphere/

An exclusive report just released, informed by research conducted on
behalf of WAM! Vancouver, illustrates that blogs authored by a group
of contributors as well as those who do not identify explicitly as
feminist are more likely than single-authored and explicitly feminist
sites to remain active after they are launched. The report contains a
wealth of other information and begins to paint a picture of a
developing feminist blogosphere in Canada, challenging the very notion
of what makes for a ‘feminist blog.’

Key Findings, in brief:

38% of Canadian blogs that covered feminist issues did not claim the
feminist label, while 55% identified explicitly as feminist

Blogs authored by multiple contributors are significantly more likely
to remain active than blogs managed by one person (42% vs. 18%)

Blogs authored by writers who do not identify as feminist are more
likely to remain active than blogs authored by self-identified
feminists (73% vs. 43%)

The most popular year for the launch of feminist-interest blogs was 2010

Bloggers that explicitly identify as feminist, and who author a blog
alone, tend to foster a higher level of interaction amongst readers
The report, entitled “Exploring the Canadian Feminist Blogosphere,”
was written by Simon Fraser University student Candace Coulson, and is
based on research she conducted between January and April 2012 under
the direction of the Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group
(SFPIRG) and SFU Psychology Professor, Michael Schmitt.

The project involved an intensive analysis of 108 Canadian blogs, and
was designed to illustrate the landscape of the Canadian feminist
blogosphere. In addition to an in-depth discussion around statistics
gathered, the report contains a detailed catalogue of 108 blogs, an
exciting new resource for bloggers and anyone interested in exploring
the Canadian feminist blogosphere.

Interestingly, the very definition of a ‘feminist blog’ had to be
revised during the course of the project, as a significant portion of
blogs included in the study  – 38 per cent – were written by authors
who did not identify as feminist, yet blogged about feminist issues.
As a result, the scope of the project and catalogue was shifted to
refer to “blogs of feminist interest.”

Beyond a breakdown of which bloggers identify as feminist and which do
not, the research released by WAM! Vancouver this week also reveals
interesting trends. According to the report, the largest proportion of
active blogs was authored by bloggers who did not identify as feminist
(73 per cent of blogs in this category were deemed to be active).
Whereas, only 43 per cent of the blogs authored by persons who
identified explicitly as feminist were active during the research
period.

Similar patterns were noted amongst blogs authored by multiple
contributors, compared to just one writer. Blogs authored by multiple
contributors were found to be significantly more likely to remain
active than blogs managed by one person (42 per cent compared to 18
per cent).

Coulson, the report’s author, suggests this may be a result of burnout
on the part of feminist-identified bloggers, especially those blogging
alone, who seemed to expend a great deal of energy managing blog
trolling and derailing within comment threads. She suggests this is
likely more common on feminist blogs than less controversial blogs
(i.e. parenting blog sites), because the very nature of feminist blogs
is to “resist the status quo.” Coulson’s report suggests more research
is needed to explore the factors that cause burnout in the feminist
blogosphere.

The research contained in this new report is especially interesting
given the findings of an informal survey conducted by WAM! Vancouver
co-founder Joanna Chiu, who, in the fall of 2011, asked
self-identified Canadian feminists about their blog reading habits. In
this small survey, 76 per cent of respondents could not identify with
more than three Canadian feminist blogs, and 80 per cent said they
read American feminist blogs more often than Canadian feminist blogs.
Finding Canadian feminist blogs on the Internet is not an easy feat,
and Coulson believes this is largely due to the lack of centralization
and categorization of the Canadian feminist blogs themselves.

WAM! Vancouver invites bloggers, feminist advocates and members of the
media to excerpt and to share information from the report, ensuring
attribution to Coulson and WAM! Vancouver. Feel free also to print,
make copies of and distribute the report as long as the content
remains intact and unedited.

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 Joanna Chiu
www.joannachiu.com <http://www.joannachiu.com%20/>
twitter.com/joannachiu
WAM! Vancouver <http://www.womenactionmedia.org/chapters/vancouver/>
<http://twitter.com/joannachiu>