arstechnica.com — Men are overrepresented online when it comes to sharing creative work, according to a new report from Northwestern University. Researchers Eszter Hargittai and Gina Walejko found that men were much more likely to post their writings, photos, videos, and other creations on the Internet than women.
Jun 25, 2008 View in Crawl 4
mithrasinvictusJun 25, 2008
"The Northwestern researchers’ study was based on a survey of 1,060 freshmen from the University of Illinois, Chicago."Not a very large or random sample group.
eszterJun 25, 2008
I'm one of the authors of the study and would like to add some information about the sample in light of the above comment. Please note that the sample is much more diverse and representative than is done in most studies about Internet use. Moreover, not mentioned in this write-up is the fact that this study was administered on paper-and-pencil, a unique feature of the project that is increasingly rare when studying people's Internet uses. By surveying people online about their online activities (especially things like level of engagement and skill - two topics of central importance here), samples are going to be biased precisely on the variables of interest yet most studies (especially ones with larger sample sizes) do precisely that. In case anyone thinks this is a convenience sample, I would like to note that the Univ Illinois Chicago is not conveniently located right next to our home institution, Northwestern. Rather, it's a commute and there is nothing convenient in going from one classroom of 20 students to another classroom of 20 students in the dead of winter. Additionally, UIC is a top-ten institution when it comes to racial and ethnic diversity with students from vary difference family backgrounds so the group is not homogenous in ways that many other samples are.So yes, while you're right that one has to be careful about generalizing from the results, I wanted to give a bit more background on the data so people understand that the project involved a carefully thought out research design.
thefinalwordJun 25, 2008
NO, I think instead of the usual, "We are the victims" the fact remains that women are competitive as men and in this case they CHOOSE ( not genetics, but CHOOSE) to not share their ideas
lucy22Jun 25, 2008
I remember when I first joined digg, I thought sending shouts was too pushy. Well, I shout now. Maybe it justs take women more time?
kristinabJun 25, 2008
Or perhaps women just go about things in a different way. This study is not about victimization, it's just a report. Your leaping to respond to an unspoken complaint says more about you, TheFinalWord, than the actual content of your comment. Just sayin.