Increasing Feminist Voices in the Blogosphere

In the past few years, blogs (see glossary below) have grown in number, in popularity, and in legitimacy as outlets for breaking news and sharing opinions about news and politics. Technorati, a search engine for blogs, tracks more than 37 million blogs, adding at least one new blog every second of every day. The number of blogs on the Internet has consistently doubled every six months over the past three years. While this pace may level off eventually, the use of blogs to share information and opinions shows no signs of declining.

Blogging is a truly democratic, grassroots form of communication. The process is more open and accessible than most other forms of media because anyone with access to a computer and a connection to the Internet can start a blog.

The blog then becomes a vehicle for the individual to publicly voice opinions and comment on the news of the day. As a result, the blogosphere (see glossary below) is made up of a diverse community of opinions. There are already feminist voices in the blogosphere, but many blogs are written by ultra-conservative men with narrow perspectives. One way we can increase the circulation of women's perspectives and rally progressive feminist voices is to stake our claim in the blogosphere—by starting our own blogs and posting comments on others' blogs.

How to Start a Blog

Blogs are incredibly easy to set up. Many websites offer blogs for free to anyone who signs up with a valid email address. Here are some examples:

• Blogger.com
• Wordpress.com
• Livejournal.com

MySpace.com is an online community that is growing at a tremendous pace; you can sign up for a free account and it comes with a place to blog!

If you already have your own website, you can download and install blogging software on your site. Check with your website hosting company to see if they offer any free blogging software. If not, free software is available from many sites, including www.b2evolution.net, www.wordpress.org, and www.Xanga.com.

For those of you who want to begin your own blog, you may want to consider the following:

• Do you want your blog to be known for speaking to a particular issue or set of issues?
• Do you want to accept comments from other people on your blog?
• Is your blog temporary (only set up to support an action, event, or campaign) or will your blog be ongoing?

A blog can provide a sense of community around an issue, an event, or a cause. It's also another strategy that NOW activists can use to link the issues faced by women from all walks of life to trends and current events in our society.

The Importance of Commenting

Even if you're not ready to start your own blog, you can add your voice to the blogosphere by commenting on the blogs that you read. This is an important way to increase the prevalence of feminist opinion on the Internet. Most blogs allow comments from anyone, but they usually ask you to submit your email address in order to comment. A link for submitting comments appears at the bottom of most blog posts.

Here are some basic rules for commenting:

• Make sure your comment is relevant to the post you're responding to.
• Personal attacks are no more useful in the blogosphere than they are in real life discussions, so keep your comments focused on the issue being discussed.
• It's the norm to link to other blogs and websites when you're commenting. For example, you might write something like "Great post! Thanks for raising this issue. Over at Pandagon, Amanda just posted a great commentary on this issue as well" or something like "I think you're misrepresenting the difference between civil unions and same-sex marriage. NOW has a great fact sheet about the difference that I think you should read." Linking can be easy: you simply copy URL (web address) of the page you want people to be able to access and paste it into the text of your comment.

And here are some suggestions for when to comment:

• If something someone wrote in their blog offends you, tell them!
• If a local blogger writes about a candidate for your State Senate but you support his opponent, write a comment about why you support the challenger!
• If someone blogs about feminism being dead, or NOW being washed up, write a comment about why this is far from the truth and why you are proud to be a NOW activist!
• Commenting can also be a great way to publicize your chapter's events!

Glossary

Blog: (short for weblog) a type of website where entries are made and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Also used as a verb.

Post: an entry on a blog, usually date- or time-stamped, usually displayed in reverse chronological order

Blogroll: a collection of links to other blogs, usually appearing on the sidebar of a blog

Blogosphere: term used to describe the world of blogging

Comments: a section of the blog where visitors can share their views and comment on the author's posts.