The "Blogosphere" Is Not the World

Kevin Drum over at Political Animal posts some blogospheric stats that show (in case you haven't noticed already) just how different the "blogosphere" is from the “real world”:

"1. Less than 10% of political bloggers are women. This compares to about 50% in the real world.

2. Approximately 20% of blog readers are women. Once again, this compares to about 50% in the real world.

3. If Josh Marshall and Andrew Sullivan are typical — and I suspect they aren't too far off the mark — the blogosphere is incredibly elite. About 90% of blog readers have college degrees and an astonishing 50% have advanced degrees. Among top bloggers, my personal count indicates that the top six have advanced degrees (Instapundit, Marshall, Kos, Atrios, Sullivan, Volokh) and nearly all of the top 30-40 have at least an undergraduate degree.

4. 11% of blog readers are libertarian. What's more, nearly all major "conservative" blogs are more accurately described as libertarian than truly conservative. This probably has something to do with the blogosphere's roots in the heavily libertarian tech world — read Paulina Borsook's Cyberselfish if you're interested in learning more about the history of high-tech libertarianism — but in any case it means that true conservatism is heavily underrepresented in the blogosphere.

5. However, using the blog version of conservative as our guide, conservatives are still heavily overrepresented in the blogosphere despite the hype that liberal blogs have received lately. It's true that there are four liberal blogs among the top ten (Atrios, Kos, Marshall, and PA), but if you take a look at the next 20 it's about 80% conservative.

6. And now for the truly shocking news: California dominates the top of the political blogosphere. Among the top dozen bloggers, half are Californians (Kos, Volokh, LGF, Kaus, Den Beste, and PA). And of those, five are from Southern California.”

There's lots of room for quibbling -- what's a "political blog" and does a blog that is at least occasionally "political" count as one? If we notice that many blogs that are considered conservative are better described as negative libertarian (market fundamentalist) than conventionally conservative, shouldn't we also mention that many of the splashiest liberal blogs look awfully centrist to progressive eyes? Anyway, I very enthusiastically second Drum’s suggestion that everyone should read Paulina Borsook’s Cyberselfish to get some handle on libertechians. It's amazing how apt it remains post-bubble post-Bush post-Belle Epoque. Insert histrionic, you know, sigh here.