Familienpolitik

Current community:

Currently 96 percent of my readers are direct traffic or referrals, mostly from our class website, facebook and Gmail. 100 percent of the respondents to my survey knew me.

Several referrals did come from links to my blog from classmate’s blogs and from websites whose articles I blogged about. Although I had hoped for an international readership, most of my visits are from the U.S.

Site visits from Illinois make up almost half of my total visits. All of this suggests that currently my readers are primarily my classmates, my family and friends.

Potential community:

While I appreciate my friends’ interest in my blog, I suspect that they are not the audience best served by the goals of my blog. Here are several groups of people who don’t seem to be reading my blog, but based on the comments I have received and other anecdotal evidence, might be interested in the blog:

• People interested in same-sex marriage developments
• People interested in reproductive rights
• People interested in maternity and paternity leave issues
• People interested in gender equality issues
• People interested in different countries and culture or with international experience

These are groups with developed online networks that I have so far failed to tap into. I originally sought out an audience that would be interested in all family policy issues, but based on the comments I have received and the responses to my surveys, it appears that most people are curious about the topics in general, but invested in specific topics that relate to their life. Most of the people in same-sex marriage groups on facebook or participating in same-sex marriage forums are gay themselves. The people most passionate about maternity and paternity leave legislation are parents or soon-to-be parents.

These passionate readers also tend not to be apolitical. They have strong opinions about their topic of interest and are personally invested in that topic.

I also noted that the majority of my respondents and comment leavers had lived abroad or grown up in a multinational or multicultural home. This group of global citizens is both a potential audience and a potential community. Drawing upon their own experiences, these readers can add a personal voice to my posts that I may not be able to do.

Based on my experience in Europe and living at International House in Berkeley, I would say that the rise in the global citizen is a product of globalization and an increase in educational opportunities. These are educated readers with the means to travel and a curiosity about other cultures and ways of living. They are comfortable with technology and online social networking and open to discussing emerging trends, both cultural and legislative, online.