Simon Owens over at Bloggasm conducted a very thoughtful survey to investigate the diversity in the blogosphere in response to a Newsweek article titled "The Blogosphere's Diversity Problem" by Steven Levy (man, I'm a nerd- I remember Levy from his Macworld days!). The survey looks at diversity in the blogosphere as a whole as well as many niche interests.
One of the questions Simon asked bloggers was "What do you think of the diversity of the blogosphere, both in your niche and as a whole?". He posted my response in its entirety. Here's my take:
Right now the hoops and more generally sports media is primarily dominated by white middle-aged men (the Bay Area being a welcome exception). The hoops blogosphere affords new opportunities for people that have been excluded from having a voice to share their unique perspectives. NBA blogs in particular are growing at a rapid pace and with that growth a diverse array of fresh ideas and thoughts from both people of color and women have emerged. Traditional hoops coverage better watch out! In a year or two the hoops blogosphere and subculture is really going to explode.
As for the blogosphere as a whole- there's more flavors than Baskin Robbins could ever feature! The diversity and niche interests represented are impressive. You have to do a little work to find them, but there are blogs for anything you can imagine that connect to people at a very personal level. Are you a South Asian American who loves Bay Area hip hop, sports, and nerdy gadgets? There are exactly zero TV shows for you, but there's tons of blogs just for you. Just poke around.
Current media giants have been incredibly slow to respect and fully understand diversity, mostly because they are often times so detached from the people they want to reach. Blogs on the other hand (not counting the fake corporate ones) are inherently community-based and are created for the people by the people.
Definitely check out the rest of the piece to see the breakdowns by gender and race/ethnicity and other great blogger insights: Mapping the Diversity of the Blogosphere: A Bloggasm Case Study
What are your thoughts about the diversity of GSoM, the hoops blogosphere, and the blogosphere as a whole? As always feel free to spread the word about your favorite blogs (even if they aren't hoops related) in the comments.