The Dooce's Audience

The Dooce was created in early 2001 by web-designer Heather B Armstrong with the intention of having “a place to write about pop culture, music, and [her] life as a single woman”. The blog soon began to emphasize the autobiographical; Armstrong using it as an open diary to the world, an outlet for her to express her most intimate stories and opinions.  Unfortunately, this forthrightness cost her job. After a year, she was fired for revealing information about people she worked with. She landed on her feet however, and in subsequent years The Dooce began attracting wide audiences and garnering praise from the likes of Times and BBC News, allowing her to start her professional blogging career in 2005. This is all in debt to her unique style of prose; candid, insightful and often humorous in relentlessly chronicling her life from her Mormon upbringing, her battles with substance abuse and mental instability, the struggles and joys of motherhood and the boundless exploration of everyday existence. Quite simply, it is the quality of her content that has enabled her to connect with and maintain the extensive audience that she has. Armstrong also reinforces the blogger-audience connection by establishing familiarity through repetition.  At the top right of the sites layout are the headings “daily photo”, “daily chuck” and “daily style”. In “daily photo”, Armstrong will present a picture that captures of a particularly significant moment of her life, usually recent, that is accompanied by a descriptive caption below. “Daily Chuck is dedicated to her dog Coco, and will depict him in a series of situations and will provide an explanation. Lastly, in Daily Style, she will express her current fashion inclinations, accompanied by pictures and links of websites to obtain specific items. While the site may appeal to many demographics, judging by the feminine-oreitned content that the site provides, as well as the identities of active users, it appears that its audience is mostly female.

Interaction on The Dooce occurs in two basic forms. Firstly, in the comment thread of each blog entry, where users will weigh in their impressions of the entry and a discussion will often form. Armstrong herself will occasionally address notable comments and contribute to the dialogue.  While this is a vital aspect of the blogs sense of community, sometimes comments will be closed, somewhat inexplicably which is that case now as I write this. Furthermore, within the Dooce there exists Dooce Community, which is a forum where enthusiast of the blog will discuss a variety of topics within a set range of categories, i.e. “Family and Relationships” or “Home and Garden”.  Each thread within a category will start with a question posed by a single member, to which other will respond and generally some semblance of a conversation will develop. The person that started the thread will then have to option of assigning the “best answers” of their choice. Armstrong appears to have little presence on Dooce Community, although she will sometimes refer to its activity in her blog posts.