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KUOW's Weekday program is discussing blogging. Twenty minutes into the program the discussion had been exclusively between the (male) host, Steve Scher, and his two (male) guests, Mickey Kaus and Matthew Baldwin.
The first female voice finally on the program was Anita Rowland, who spoke about her own weblog and about the blogging culture in general. Too quickly, though, the host directed discussion back to the male guests. I'm glad they've kept Anita on-air so she can keep making comments, but the discussion is still being shaped and controlled by the three men they started with.
In November of last year, The New York Times published an article by Lisa Gurnsey on the gender gap in blogging. Gurnsey comments, "women are, in fact, blogging in big numbers. Mr. Rosenberg, who keeps an eye out for new bloggers and links to them from his Salon.com blog, estimates that the ratio of women to men is something like 40-60, or perhaps 50-50." With all these women blogging, how is it that KUOW couldn't find one to be an official guest on the show?
I'm rather disgusted. I would have expected our NPR affiliate, of all venues, to challenge the marginalization of women's voices.
Posted by sev @ 10:36 AM PST |
Replies: 6 comments
I figured that with Matthew Baldwin actually in the studio, and Micky Kaus being a BNB (big name blogger), it was natural for Steve to talk to them. I didn't feel left out or hushed up.
Actually, they called me, after the producer "auditioned" me the day before.
the gender balance in weblogging is a topic that we didn't mention, though, among others. Can't talk about everything in just one hour!
Posted by Anita Rowland @ 05/15/2003 04:23 PM PST
Also, with all respect, I think you've drawn exactly the wrong inference from Anita's appearance on the show. First, (as she mentioned) they called her, not vice versa -- she *was* an official guest. Second, I was told originally that Anita was to be the "women in blogging" guest and speak (only?) about that issue for 10 minutes or so, but they soon realized that she knew so much about the technical and social aspects of Seattle blogging that it made more sense to have her on for nearly the whole hour in the capacity of "expert blogger" rather than someone speaking about a single aspect of the hobby. An example of this came when one of the callers asked what a Radio Userland blog was, and Anita fielded it, something she might not have had the opportunity to do if she had been there strictly as the "woman in blogging" guest, you know?
Posted by Matthew @ 05/19/2003 09:40 AM PST
I got my information about "official guests" from the KUOW website, which listed only two guests for the show. As I mentioned, I appreciate that someone made the right decision to keep Anita on, but the male-only published guest-list disapponts the hell out of me.
The marginalization of women's voices is not *only* about simply not letting women speak. It's also about the context in which women are heard and the trappings of power and legitimacy which we're so often denied.
I appreciate the effort to be more even-handed. It's still my responsibility to point out ways in which men's voices are given more legitimacy than women's.
Posted by sev @ 05/19/2003 09:59 AM PST
As I reacted to your 5/15 Weekday program about blogging in my own online journal, I'd like to share with you the ensuing discussion, which you can find at http://www.byz.org/~sev/gm/archives/00000083.html .
In particular, I'd like to point out the legitimacy given to Kaus and Baldwin as guests whose names appear on the website's official guest list; this legitimacy was denied Anita Rowland, despite her valuable contribution to the show. This sort of lack-of-recognition is symptomatic of a more marginalized voice for women even in public radio today.
I would like to request a more thoughtful and thorough approach to including more diverse voices in your programming. From the comments that Rowland and Baldwin made in my journal, it sounds like at some point in the process, someone made the good decision to make sure Rowland's voice was heard, but it's obvious (at the very least from the website) that that decision wasn't communicated to everyone involved. I realize that your resources are limited; please realize that your decisions about where to spend your resources have an impact.
Posted by sev @ 05/19/2003 10:27 AM PST
Bummer.
I listen a bit less often, these days. I'm feeling rather disillusioned.
Posted by sev @ 07/20/2003 09:37 AM PST
Posted by Paul @ 07/20/2003 09:16 PM PST