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Anonymity, Accountability and Identity From: Jill Sanders Date: 2007 Jun 18 19:49 UTC Short link
We have plenty of women using the VoxPop and publishing as citizen
journalists, as you can see at www.oncom.org.uk. As far as I know (and I
would hear about it), we have not had any problems, men or women. I
certainly haven't. I can't imagine being chatted up! Tell 'em where to
get off.... Mary Reid blogs, LibDem councillor in Kingston on Thames.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Smart" <alan@youscotland.com> To: <ukie@groups.dowire.org> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 12:18 PM Subject: Re: [UKIE-EDem] Anonymity, Accountability and Identity Women and the internet is I think a different issue but a huge one, Go for example to Scotsman.com blog/forums ( incredibly popular, thousands of posts a day, worth a look , much more participatory than the Times /Guardian etc and in a country a 10th the size). But you would be excused from thinking 90% of this country is male. Simarly I can tell you that 80% plus of the members of YouScotland.com , fourum I moderate are male, despite great efforts on our part to counter this. In short, in terms of political/current affairs e-discourse there is a huge gender imbalance, and this is not a phenenemum exclusive to Scotland, though we may be a little worse than most. Why is this case? Not at all sure, as most of the "bariers to participation" of the non virtual world seem to be lacking, indeed the web appears to be in theory a geneder neutral medium for participation - your time, your space etc. But in reality it aint, not by a long way as far as I can see. One reason, though only one - and I see it regualarly on the Scotsman forum ( I flag it up to moderators) - is that when women post they are near immediately "chatted up" and subject to, not necessarily crude, but pretty obvious sexual innuendo. Don't belive me? - just try posting. Another is that women politicians in the news and the subject of political controversy - in Scotland, Kirsty Wark, Wendy Alexander and our new Deputy First Minster Nicola Sturgeon come to mind - are near always subjected to a level of personal abuse about their appearance, being called "stupid bitches" ( or worse) which a man, no matter how controversial would not have to put up with. I know more than a few female e-actvist who, aware of this, post using either geneder neutral or even implicity male name. A huge issue for another strand I think. But a reason, and very real one, why women will be more reluctant than men to give real names. And as there already is a problem with female e-participation levels, why make it worse by insisting on actual idendtities online? And just where are the female political bloggers? Has there been any resarch done on any of this, is there any ongoing? If not, maybe there should be. Member profile for Alan Smart: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/smartalan ----------------------------------------- Group home for UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/ukie Replies go to members of UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/ For digest version or to leave UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange, email <email obscured> with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.
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