YOUNG WOMEN'S BLOGS AS ETHICAL SPACES

Abstract

The increased visibility of personal blogs in the last decade has been lamented by some scholars as a sign of increasing individualization and superficiality in public discourse. New media technology and culture blur boundaries and raise new questions about personal and public issues, roles and responsibilities. In this they may also open up spaces for individual self-expression as well as collective reflections on values and norms for interpersonal relations. This article explores how personal blogs written by some of the best known young Swedish female bloggers can be seen as ‘ethical spaces’. Such spaces are formed in interaction between media producers, texts and users, and have a performative character in that they contribute to expanding and negotiating social norms and cultural values in society. Through an analysis of postings to and comments on the blogs, the article discusses the ethical issues that are raised, and what connections between personal experiences and discourses on young women's self-expression, social relations and position in society are being made. The analysis also shows how bloggers in various ways create ethical spaces through performing roles as moderators, provocateurs or friends. Finally, the article argues that, despite the focus on personal issues, these blogs constitute performative spaces that contribute to personal as well as public negotiations of ethics, values and norms in contemporary Sweden.

Keywords:

• personal blog
• ethical space
• youth
• women
• publics

Notes

Following Morrison (2008, p. 3) ‘mommy blogs’ are diary-style blogs by women for whom parenthood is a key identity component. The term is, however, debated among bloggers as well as researchers.

Bloggportalen.se indexed more than 42,600 blogs (December 2008) and ranks blogs on the basis of visits as well as inbound links. Knuff.se indexes blogs registered at bloggar.se (approximately 120,700 blogs, December 2008) and ranks blogs by number of inbound links.

Number of visits reported by bloggportalen.se, based on visits per IP-address and hour during the last seven days. These numbers does, however, not account for the fact that the same visitor might be counted several times. Ratings by other sources (Dagens Media 2009-04-02, www.dagensmedia.se) estimate the number of individual visitors to half or a third of these numbers.