The culture of fatherhood 2.0: exploring the "tiny public" of dad bloggers in North America. Issue 6 (17th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scheibling, Casey
• Is Part Of: Feminist media studies. Volume 20:Issue 6(2020)
• Page Start: 813
• Page End: 830
• Publication Date: 2020-08-17
• Subjects: Blogging -- fatherhood -- culture -- social media -- counterpublics; Feminism -- Periodicals; Women in mass media -- Periodicals; Mass media and women -- Periodicals; Feminist criticism -- Periodicals; Mass media and sex -- Periodicals; 302.23082
• DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2019.1617764
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-0777

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article presents a cyber-ethnographic study of a community of North American men who write parenting blogs—known as "dad bloggers." Informed by sociological and feminist media studies literature on parenting culture and digital public spheres, I examine dad bloggers as a social group who are collectively responding and contributing to contemporary cultural models of fatherhood. Drawing on data from fieldwork observations, blog posts, and interviews, I demonstrate how dad bloggers are developing their community and group "idioculture, " reframing how fatherhood is represented in the media, and engaging in advocacy and activism for issues surrounding family, work, and gender. I argue that dad bloggers in North America constitute a "tiny public" who are constructing their own culture of fatherhood 2.0.