Monetizing the mommy: mommy blogs and the audience commodity

ABSTRACT

When mommy blogging began over a decade ago, bloggers were operating outside of any commercial imperative. To write a mommy blog was even described as a ‘radical act’ [Lopez, L. K. (2009). The radical act of ‘mommy blogging’: Redefining motherhood through the blogosphere. New Media & Society, 11(5), 729–747], one where women were creating narratives that were dramatically different from the images of motherhood portrayed in mainstream media. A sense of community began to develop through these blogs where women were seen as talking openly and honestly about their lives as mothers. As these blogs became increasingly popular, advertisers began to take notice and accepting some form of advertisement on mommy blogs has become the norm. While the move to commercialism was framed as empowering by many bloggers, it has sparked a backlash where mommy bloggers are accused of blogging for profit, rather than for community. This paper argues that while in its early days mommy blogging offered a transcendent, unifying experience, one that elevated everyday experience into a larger sense of community built through authentic storytelling, mommy blogging has evolved into a largely commercial endeavor that commodifies the audience [Smythe, D. (1981). Dependency road. New York, NY: Ablex]. Using the site Get Off My Internets as a case study, this paper argues that the backlash against these bloggers is largely in reaction to this commodification and that the sense of community on these blogs is threatened as they become monetized.

KEYWORDS:

• Mommy blogs
• audience commodity
• community
• blogging
• prosumer commodity
• political economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Andrea Hunter, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. For many years she was a journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her research focuses on social media, journalism, democracy and political economy. [email: [email protected]].