Ajim 06 2013 0055

Aslib Journal of Information Management
An examination of the information disclosure behavior of infertility bloggers: Patterns of self-

disclosure and anonymity
Maria Knoll Jenny Bronstein
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Journal of Information Management, Vol. 66 Iss 2 pp. 175 - 201
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Information
An examination of the disclosure
information disclosure behavior behavior
of infertility bloggers
175
Patterns of self-disclosure and anonymity
Received 16 June 2013
Maria Knoll and Jenny Bronstein Revised 18 August 2013
Department of Information Science, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 20 October 2013
Accepted 4 December 2013
Abstract
Purpose – The study aimed to investigate the information disclosure behavior of women bloggers
who suffer from infertility by examining their self-disclosure as it relates to the anonymity patterns
they adopted.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey was distributed to approximately 300 authors of
infertility blogs, 135 bloggers answered the request to take part in the study. The survey gathered
basic demographic and blogging practice data, and measured different elements of the bloggers’
discursive and visual anonymity as well as their patters of self-disclosure.
Findings – Findings reveal that the majority of respondents identify themselves on their blogs and
only a small percentage decided to be totally anonymous, and about half of the bloggers post actual
photos of themselves and their lives. The participants reported a high rate of self-disclosure, revealing
sensitive information, letting their defenses down, disclosing highly intimate details about their lives,
writing openly about their infertility treatments on their blog. No significant correlation was observed
between visual and discursive anonymity and the perceived self-disclosure of participants. Results
show that the more anonymous the bloggers are, the more afraid they become that their blog may be
read by people they know offline. On the other hand, the more identifiable the bloggers are, the more
willingness they show to share the content of their journal with people they know offline. The majority
of participants expressed concerns that blogging could negatively impact their lives.
Originality/value – This study explores an alternate explanation through the examination of the
bloggers’ self-disclosure patterns as they relate to the degree of anonymity adopted.
Keywords Information behavior, Blogging, Infertility, Self-disclosure, Self-presentation
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the last decade, personal blogs have become an important venue of self-expression
on the internet because they offer a platform for information sharing, entertainment,
self-expression and social interaction for diverse communities. This study examines
the information disclosure behavior of a specific class of blogs, written by women
struggling with infertility. Information disclosure behavior relates to the revelation of
personal or intimate information through self-presentation and self-disclosure
facilitated by the Internet as well as the avoidance or suppression of disclosure of
information. (Bortree, 2005; Bronstein, 2012; Papacharissi, 2004; Trammell et al., 2006; Aslib Journal of Information
Viégas, 2005). The present study explores the information disclosure behavior of Management
Vol. 66 No. 2, 2014
women blogging about infertility through an online survey that measured their pp. 175-201
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
self-disclosure patterns as they relate to the degree of anonymity adopted in their blog 2050-3806
as a self-presentation strategy. Self-disclosure refers to the process by which one DOI 10.1108/AJIM-06-2013-0055
AJIM person verbally reveals information about the self, including demographic information,
66,2 thoughts, feelings, and experiences to another person (Derlega et al., 1993). It is the act
of making yourself manifest, showing yourself so others can perceive you (Jourard,
1971). Self-disclosure is one of the most basic forms of human encounter. As we
communicate with other people, we reveal ourselves to others in various ways and to
varied degrees. Self-disclosure is an introspective and self-focused form of
176 communication that plays an important role in the individual’s personal
development and relationship formation (Wu, 2009). Identity is also an important
element of this form of communication. Knowing the sender’s identity can be equally
important to the message content in supplying credibility and motivations in the
communication process. According to Marx (1999), anonymity refers to a state where a
person is not identifiable. The degree of anonymity can range from being totally
anonymous to lacking anonymity all together, being totally identifiable.
The relationship between anonymity and self-disclosure is a two-fold one. On the
one hand, blogs as an online medium represent an ideal venue for self-disclosure and
serve the purpose of self-expression well, while on the other hand self-disclosure can
also be risky because it may invite ridicule or even rejection, thereby placing the
discloser in a socially awkward or vulnerable position (Suler, 2004). Thus, not all
bloggers self-disclose to the same degree and they prefer to retain various degrees of
anonymity. Some bloggers share more private thoughts and intimate details about
their lives than others. Many blogs feature no pictures at all, whereas some blogs
present detailed photos of everyday life. Some people who blog about sensitive issues
may choose to hide any personal profile information. Others do not care as much and
readily post personal information online. There are also those who take a somewhat
cautious position and are not willing to volunteer anything more than just a name,
which can be their legal name or some chosen pseudonym (Herring et al., 2006). This
study examined the relation between the level of anonymity of bloggers (i.e. whether
the bloggers post in their blogs anonymously, under a pseudonym or by signing with
their real names) and the depth of their self-disclosure. That is, do women who write
anonymously reveal more intimate details about their lives than those who use their
real names? Do women who have their photos posted hold back more personal stories
than those who not?
Literature review
Blogs
Blogs are “frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse
chronological sequence” (Herring et al., 2004) that have become very popular in recent
years. The Pew Internet Project blogger survey (Lenhart and Fox, 2006, p. ii) found that
the American (USA) blogosphere is dominated by those who use blogs as personal
journals, citing 37 percent of participants as reporting that one of their main writing
topics was “my life and experiences”. Blog posts are primarily textual, but many
include photos and other multimedia content. Most blogs provide hypertext links to
other internet sites, and many allow for audience comments. The most popular blogs in
the blogosphere are personal blogs through which people share their experiences,
thoughts, and feelings (Herring et al., 2004). These diary-like, personal blogs (Blood,
2002) are sites of self-disclosure where individuals share observations and thoughts
about their online and offline lives. As Serfaty (2004) explains, personal blogs are
self-representational writing and are essentially online diaries. These diary-type Information
personal blogs which deal with the blogger’s personal experiences and reflections, offer disclosure
a platform for information sharing, entertainment, self-expression and social
interaction (Papacharissi, 2002). Gumbrecht (2004) described blogs as “protected behavior
spaces” that allow bloggers to share the feelings they would not share otherwise and
tell their stories or relate their thoughts without interruption. Furthermore, these blogs
act as a “public space” (Ratliff, 2009; ? Baoill, 2004; Roberts-Miller, 2004; Osell, 2007; 177
Youngs, 2007) that facilitate interaction with other bloggers and readers, thus allowing
for the emergence and sustenance of communities of shared interests and sub-cultural
identifications (Hodkinson, 2006; Wei, 2004). Other studies have revealed a number of
advantages to blogging. Ressler et al. (2012) asserted that blogging may allow an
individual suffering from chronic disease or illness to articulate his or her narrative
with the advantage of online interaction with others – family, friends, and other
patients with similar health concerns. Other studies have found that blogging enhances
physical health and subjective well-being (Ko and Chen, 2009; Miura and Yamashita,
2007), establishes and develops intimacy (Ellison et al., 2006) and helps manage the
blogger’s image online (Omarzu, 2000). Wilson (2005) noted that blogs have given
greater voice to those who are not often heard in the public sphere, such as women, and
increased a sense of empowerment through cross-validation of the opinions and
thoughts of authors by other bloggers. The diary-type personal blogs written by
women suffering from infertility that are of central interest in the present study are
representative of this type of blogs.
Infertility
Infertility is commonly defined as failure to conceive after at least one year of
attempting to achieve a pregnancy with unprotected intercourse (Schmidt et al., 2005).
The experience of infertility can be a stressful, unexpected, life changing event that
influences both partners in a relationship (Hinton et al., 2010) leaving them with a sense
of loss and bereavement (Lechner et al., 2007). The diagnosis and treatment of
infertility is frequently described as one of the greatest sources of life stress,
comparable to other major life stressors such as divorce, bereavement and chronic
illness (Benyamini et al., 2009). From a medical viewpoint it is estimated that around 80
million people worldwide are affected by fertility problems (World Health
Organisation, 2002). Even successful treatment can come at great emotional cost.
Infertile women experience levels of psychological distress similar to patients with
grave medical conditions, such as cancer or those going through cardiac rehabilitation
(Domar et al., 1993).
Health care consumers, patients, and caregivers use the internet to search for
information about diagnoses, physicians, treatment options, and medicines (Berger,
2007). In the USA Kahlor and Mackert (2009) found the internet to be the most heavily
relied on source for information and social support for infertile women. Himmel et al.
(2005) in a study of a German fertility web site, found visitors seeking detailed medical
advice and emotional support. Their Internet use also helped them realize they are not
alone in facing these issues, inspired hope and even helped them to develop new
friendships. Cousineau et al. (2008) found that few women in the USA thought they
needed to use professional psychological services during treatment but many went
online in pursuit of medical information and support from other women in chat rooms.
AJIM In a study of online forum use by infertile couples Malik and Coulson (2008)
66,2 highlighted the beneficial role of the Internet for those going through fertility
treatment, or coming to terms with its aftermath.
Infertility blogs
The study of infertility blogs is of particular interest to LIS research since blogs
178 authored by people with chronic illness or health conditions provide naturalistic
sources of data about the blogger’s illness-related information behavior (Neal and
McKenzie, 2011). Bloggers often write about a single topic or a set of topics, forming
niche communities (Ratliff, 2009). Infertility bloggers make up one of these
communities, and they write mainly about their experience in trying to conceive,
undergoing fertility treatments, adoption and pregnancy. For infertile women, blogs
offer an accessible narrative mode for telling their stories of personal crisis (Wells,
2011). Writing in a confessional mode, these bloggers disclose the intimate details of
their miscarriages, medical treatments, strained relationships and the psychological

turmoil that comes as a result of their infertility. The literature on infertility blogs is
limited, lacking empirical studies. There are a few essays that touch on various aspects
of infertility blogging. Wells’s (2011) examination of “the Vagina Posse,” a confessional
online community based on experiences of infertility, is an analysis of the rhetorical
strategies these bloggers use to “construct a persona that nonetheless feels
authentic.”(Wells, 2011, p. 205). Ratliff’ (2009) essay deals with a case of infertility
bloggers who facilitated political transformations through their online writing by
engaging in feminist activism. Strif (2005) analyzes the narrative of infertility blogs
and observes that many women choose to remain anonymous, and use their blogs as a
public forum to discuss their own infertility and treatment, often in explicit detail. Neal
and McKenzie (2011) conducted a discourse analysis of blogs dealing with
endometriosis and found that women dealing with this chronic disease use different
information sources including experiential, peer-provided, biomedical, and intuitive
ones. Furthermore, this study found that bloggers attribute an element of affective
authority to information sources based on subjective judgments of empathy, emotional
support, and/or aesthetic pleasing. This study proposes a different approach to the
study of infertility blogs and focuses on two aspects of the information disclosure
behavior of bloggers, by examining their tendencies towards anonymity and
self-disclosure.
Anonymity
In both online and offline environments, anonymity can be either visual or discursive
(Scott and Drucker, 2004). Visual anonymity refers to the condition where the physical
presence of a message source cannot be detected; whereas discursive anonymity refers
to the condition where verbal communication cannot be attributed to a particular
source. In computer mediated communication, visual anonymity typically refers to the
lack of any visual representation of a person, such as pictures or video clips (Barreto
and Ellemers, 2002; Lea et al., 2001; Postmes et al., 2001). Discursive anonymity is more
complicated. Although the writing itself might reveal to a certain degree something
about the message source, in an online environment people usually feel anonymous
when their personal information (name, e-mail, gender, location, etc.) is withheld. Blog
services typically offer users a number of options in terms of anonymity. Bloggers can
choose to be totally anonymous, pseudonymous, or identifiable. The most private blog Information
is anonymous and password-protected. The most public blog is identifiable and can be disclosure
easily found by search engines because it is listed by the user’s blog service.
Research shows that anonymity plays an important role to those who turn to the behavior
internet for support. Wright and Bell (2003) found that anonymity is likely to be of
particular benefit to people suffering from stigmatized conditions, as it allows these
individuals to disclose personal information with a sense of safety. Online support 179
groups encourage those individuals who feel stigmatized, as a result of their fertility
problems, to openly discuss their experiences and concerns without fear of a negative
reaction. In a study about the use of an online forum by infertile couples, anonymity
appeared to be particularly important in enabling members to openly share their
experiences with the group. Almost all the respondents expressed the view that the
relative anonymity conferred by the Internet removed the complications of face-to-face
communication, thus enabling them to ask questions and express their feelings more
fully without fear of embarrassment or stigmatization (Malik and Coulson, 2008).

These findings are consistent with studies examining other online health-related
support groups, which have suggested that the anonymity associated with the Internet
is particularly beneficial when discussing personal experiences (Henderson and
Gilding, 2004; Salem et al., 1997).
Self-disclosure
Self-disclosure ranges from superficial information, such as name, age, and education,
to intimate information, such as deepest fears and most private fantasies. It can occur
between either strangers or people who have close and personal relationships with
each other (Dindia, 2002). People are more likely to disclose to a stranger (Derlega and
Chaikin, 1977; Rubin, 1975) because they feel secure in that whatever is shared under
such circumstances is unlikely to be shared with actual friends and acquaintances that
may have some material impact on the discloser’s life. Self-disclosure has several
benefits that include: increasing social control, validating personal perspectives,
developing intimacy with relational partners, or healing psychological traumas.
However, there are also risks involved such as making private disclosures to the wrong
targets, disclosing at a bad time, or revealing too much about selves, which make
people vulnerable to the public (Viégas, 2005). Whether or not to disclose is not a
straightforward decision. People are driven by the benefits and rewards brought by
self-disclosure while they also have privacy concerns as well as worries about
unexpected consequences from inappropriate disclosure. They have to reconcile two
opposite needs, the need to share personal information and the need to preserve a sense
of privacy (Derlega et al., 1993).
Research has shown that online communication lends itself to self-disclosure
(Joinson, 2001; McKenna and Bargh, 1998) due to the lack of gating features such as
physical appearance, an apparent stigma such as stuttering, or visible shyness (Bargh
et al., 2002). For instance, Rheingold (1993, p. 27) refers to the internet as:
[. . .] the medium will, by its nature... be a place where people often end up revealing
themselves far more intimately than they would be inclined to do without the intermediation
of screens and pseudonyms.
AJIM Self-disclosure has been studied in a number of different settings using computers.
66,2 These studies have found that people report disclosing significantly more information
online (Joinson, 2001; Parks and Floyd, 1996), sometimes including high levels of
sensitive information (Chesney, 2005; McKenna and Bargh, 1998) and that partners
communicating online have engaged in more intimate questions and a deeper level of
trust with self-disclosure than face-to-face participants (Ellison et al., 2006).
180 Self-disclosure appears to be prevalent in blogs. Blogging about one’s personal life
has often been looked upon as keeping a diary in public space (Bronstein, 2013; Chen,
2012; Nardi et al., 2004a; Sorapure, 2003). Papacharissi (2004), after content-analyzing a
random sample of 260 blogs, confirmed that blogs serve the purpose of personal
expression well and represent an ideal medium for self-disclosure. As in interpersonal
relationships, self-disclosure has been found to be an effective tool for self-presentation
management and relationship construction on blogs (e.g. Bortree, 2005; Huffaker and
Calvert, 2005; Trammell and Keshelashvili, 2005). Van House (2004) claimed that blogs
constitute a communicative genre in which self-disclosure has become a norm, as

blogging is strongly related to individuality, self-representation, and personal
relationships. In a small qualitative study, Nardi et al. (2004a) found that most bloggers
were surprisingly open on their sites, some of them choosing to reveal very personal
information. These findings echo those of Herring et al. (2004), where most of the blogs
included explicit personal information on their first pages. In a recent study, Bronstein
(2013) asserted that Latin-American bloggers reported a high tendency for
self-disclosure because they perceive their blogs as a secure and protected personal
space. She explained these findings by claiming that self-disclosure depends on the
perception that the information divulged is secured, since blogs are perceived as
protected spaces because they provide a dyadic (i.e. safe) boundary within which
self-disclosure is considered secured. Nevertheless, some bloggers share more private
thoughts and intimate details about their lives than others. Hollenbaugh and Everett’s
(2013) study revealed that depth of self-disclosure about current events is influenced by
an interaction between visual and discursive anonymity and self-disclosure. Chen’s
(2013) study on women bloggers’ motivations found that self-disclosure is associated
with the motivation to share and receive information. Ko’s (2012) study on Taiwanese
bloggers showed that personal factors such as the perceived benefit of self-disclosure
and the habit of self-disclosure affect the bloggers willingness to disclose personal
information and not social factors such as positive audience feedback or other social
benefits.
This study explores an alternate explanation through the examination of the
bloggers’ self-disclosure patterns as they relate to the degree of anonymity adopted.
Methodology
Data collection
This study aims is to understand the relationship between anonymity (both visual and
discursive) and the self-disclosure patterns of infertility bloggers. A survey was
distributed to 318 authors of infertility blogs gathering basic demographic and
blogging practice data, and measuring the blogger’s discursive and visual anonymity
and their patterns of self-disclosure. The survey was distributed from April to June
2012. Participants were only required to provide their blog’s URL when completing the
survey to allow them to maintain their anonymity.
Research questions Information
The following research questions can be drawn from the main purpose of the study: disclosure
RQ1. Which anonymity and self-disclosure patterns were adopted by the behavior
bloggers in this study? (personal).
RQ2. What is the relationship between visual anonymity and self-disclosure on
personal blogs? 181
RQ3. What is the relationship between discursive anonymity and self-disclosure
on blogs?
RQ4. What is the relation between discursive and visual anonymities and their
potential influence to self-disclosure on personal blogs?
RQ5. To what extent do bloggers worry about negative consequences of their
online posts?
Sampling
Because defining a sample of bloggers is difficult given the diversity of such a
population, a process of criterion sampling was implemented. Criterion sampling, a
purposive technique in which all the cases selected for analysis must meet some
predetermined criterion or set of criteria (Creswell, 2007), was determined to be the
most appropriate blog-selection method.
The following list of criteria will be used to choose the blogs included in the sample
the blogs:
.
Must be written in English.
.
Must be identified as related to the infertility efforts of the creator/primary
author.
.
Must be created by a single woman, or a group of women who together “own” the
blog.
.
Must have been maintained for at least the two months prior to the beginning of
the research process.
.
Entries must contain dates in reverse chronological order, with at least four
entries made per month, preferably with at least one posting per week.
.
Entries for the two selected months must be accessible on the blog site through
archives or continuous postings on the blog main page or other means.
.
The creator/primary author must be contactable via e-mail or through the ability
to post comments to which she can respond. The e-mail addresses of the bloggers
were usually created exclusively as a contact detail of the blog, having the name
of the blog in it, and do not reveal any personal information about the blogger.
The above list of criteria was adapted from (Rausch, 2006). Although males also create
infertility blogs, this analysis chose to focus on those authored by women and their
experiences.
The sampling process had two phases. First, a search was run in Google using
“infertility blog” as a search phrase. This initial search phase resulted in an extensive
list of collections of infertility blogs such as: Stirrup Queens, Cyclesista, Lost and
AJIM Found, Glow in the Woods. In the second phase, 318 blogs were selected from these
66,2 collections of blogs that comply with the above mentioned sampling criteria. An
invitation to participate in the study was e-mailed to the 318 blogs selected, 87
responses were received. Two weeks after the first invitation was e-mailed, a reminder
was sent by e-mail to the 231 bloggers who have yet to complete the questionnaire 48
responses were received. A total of 135 bloggers completed the survey.
182
Online survey
An online survey (Appendix) of bloggers was conducted in early 2012. The online
questionnaire was short, simple, and easy to answer to lessen many of the drawbacks
of online questionnaires (Baron and Siepmann, 2000; Gunn, 2002). The survey
questionnaire was sent as a link embedded in an e-mail message describing the
purpose of the survey to the bloggers selected in the sample and the survey responses
were received via the Google forms platform.
The survey instrument measuring anonymity and self-disclosure was adapted from
Qian and Scott(2007) (see Appendix). The online survey was divided in six main
sections:
(1) Bloggers’ demographic data: questions in this section addressed the blogger’s
personal data (such as, age, education, ethnicity and marital status).
(2) Blogging practices: questions in this section addresses different aspects of
blogging behavior (e.g., number of blogs, time blogging, frequency of blog
update).
(3) Anonymity levels: this section included two sets of questions on discursive and
visual anonymity. Discursive anonymity and visual anonymity are the
independent variables of the study. Discursive anonymity was assessed by
asking participants about the kind of personal information disclosed on their
blogs and visual anonymity was assessed by asking participants how they
presented themselves visually on their blogs.
(4) Reported anonymity and importance of save-guarding it: the questionnaire also
includes one seven-point Lickert-type question about the reported anonymity of
the blogger, ranging from total anonymity to total identifiability and one
seven-point Lickert-type question about the importance of safeguarding the
anonymity of the blogger, ranging from: Not important at all to Extremely
Important..
(5) Self-disclosure levels: this is the dependent variable in the study. The measure
of self-disclosure consists of ten seven-point Lickert-type questions. The sum of
the scores on these questions is used to represent the degree of self-disclosure.
(6) Concerns about blogging: respondents were also asked in an open-ended
question if they have any concerns about blogging, and if they do, what those
entail.
Results
Descriptive statistics
Before proceeding to the formal tests of the study, it was important to gain an
understanding of the basic features of the data in our sample: participants’
socio-demographic and blogging characteristics. Table I presents the Information
socio-demographic data of participants. disclosure
As Table I indicates the mean age of participants was 33.0 (^ 4.8) ranging from 23
to 48. The majority of participants was Caucasian (87.4 percent) and married (94.1 behavior
percent), and about half of them possess a university or college degrees (48.1 percent).
In the first part of the questionnaire participants were asked to describe their
blogging behavior. Table II presents the data about the bloggers blogging patterns. 183
Table II shows that the majority of participants own one blog (75.0 percent), have
been blogging for over one year, with 54.1 percent having blogged for over two years
and 29.6 percent update their blog at least once a week.
Categories Mean ^ SD/Frequency Per cent

Age 33.0 ^ 4.84 *

Education High school 3 2.2
College/university 65 48.1
Masters/Post-graduate degree 58 43.0
PhD 9 6.7
Ethnicity African 2 1.5
Asian 1 0.7
Australian 3 2.2
Caucasian 118 87.4
Latino/Hispanic 3 2.2
Other 8 5.9
Marital status Married 128 94.1 Table I.
Single 2 1.5 Distribution of
In a relationship 5 3.7 socio-demographic data
Blogging pattern Categories Frequency Per cent
How many personal diary/journal type of blogs do

you maintain? One 102 75.6
Two 26 19.3
Three 6 4.4
Four 1 0.7
How long have you been blogging? Less than 3 months 6 4.4
3 to 6 months 14 10.4
6 months to one year 14 10.4
1 to 2 years 28 20.7
2 to 4 years 41 30.4
More than 4 years 32 23.7
How often do you update your blog? 3 times per day 2 1.5
1 to 2 times per day 10 7.4
2 to 3 times per week 38 28.1
At least once per week 40 29.6
Once every few weeks 36 26.7 Table II.
Once every month 4 2.9 Distribution of blogging
Less than once per month 4 2.9 patterns
AJIM The first research question examined the anonymity and self-disclosure patterns used
66,2 by the bloggers in this study. Table III presents the data regarding both the reported
discursive and visual anonymity of the participants.
Table III displays the range of responses related to the type of discursive anonymity
used by bloggers, revealing that the largest number of respondents (44.4 percent) uses
a partial real name and only a small percentage (11.0 percent) decided to be totally
184 anonymous.
To understand how participants present themselves visually, they were asked
whether they displayed personal photographs on their blogs. Table III shows that
about half of the bloggers (45.2 percent) posts actual photos of themselves and their
lives and about a third (38.0 percent) post revealing photographs of themselves. The
average score of the perceived anonymity is 4.5 (SD ¼ 1:6) on a scale between one
(total anonymity) and seven (total identifiability), indicating that the respondents
consider themselves to be somewhat more identifiable than anonymous on their blogs.
As a second element of the information disclosure behavior, self-disclosure patterns

were also investigated. The participants marked their responses on seven-point Lickert
type questions, the scale ranging from 1-low to7- high.
The participants’ reported self-disclosure is rather high, they reveal their softer
more sensitive side (5:8 ^ 0:9), let their defences down (5:7 ^ 1:00), disclose highly
intimate details about their lives (6:06 ^ 0:99), and write openly about their infertility
treatments on their blog (6:3 ^ 1:1).
The second research question examined the impact visual anonymity has on the
perceived self-disclosure of participants. A one-way ANOVA was performed between
visual anonymity variables (Table III) and the sum of the scores of the ten
self-disclosure questions (Table IV). No significant main effect was observed,
Fð4; 130Þ ¼ 0:843, p ¼ 0:500. The third research question examined the possible
correlation between discursive anonymity (Table III) and the sum of the scores of
perceived self-disclosure variables (Table IV). A second one-way ANOVA was
conducted to explore the effects of discursive anonymity on self-disclosure. There was
Per
Variable Categories Frequency cent
When you post entries in your blog,

what name do you use for yourself?
(discursive anonymity) 1. I remain totally anonymous 11 8.1
2. I use an obvious pseudonym 22 16.3
3. I use a non-obvious pseudonym 17 12.6
4. I use a partial real name 60 44.4
5. I use my full real name 10 7.4
6. I use my full real name, and also
reveal further personal info 15 11.1
What type of photos do you primarily
Table III. use when you post entries in your blog? 1. I do not use any photos 17 12.6
Mean and standard 2. I use obviously fake photos 5 3.7
deviation of elements of 3. I use non-obvious fake photos 1 0.7
discursive and visual 4. I use actual photos 61 45.2
anonymity 5. I use revealing actual photos 51 37.8
Information
Variable Mean ^ SD
disclosure
To what extent are you afraid that your blog may be read by people you behavior
know offline 3.2 ^ 1.9 *
To what extent do you write something intimate about yourself in your
blog 6.0 ^ 0.1
To what extent do you show you a softer more sensitive side in your blog 5.8 ^ 0.1 185
To what extent do you reveal things about yourself that you are ashamed
of in your blog 3.7 ^ 1.8 *
To what extent do you let down your protective outer shell in your blog 5.7 ^ 1.0
To what extent do you write things that secretly make you feel anxious or
afraid in your blog 5 ^ 1.7
To what extent do you write about your experience of infertility treatments
in your blog 6.3 ^ 1.1
To what extent do you write about your personal relationships and
conflicts in your blog 4.3 ^ 1.6 *
To what extent do you write about your thoughts and reactions about Table IV.
fertile women’s pregnancies in your blog 4.8 ^ 1.6 * Mean and standard
Imagine you had kept a personal diary or journal that is exactly the same as deviation of
your blog, to what extent were you willing to show it to people you know 3.4 ^ 2 * self-disclosure variables
no significant main effect observed, Fð5; 129Þ ¼ 0:432, p ¼ 0:826. In sum, findings
related to these two research questions show that the degree of the bloggers’ visual or
discursive anonymity had no impact on their patterns of self-disclosure.
The relations between both visual and discursive anonymity and the individual
self-disclosure questions from the questionnaire were investigated. Table V displays
the results of ANOVA tests that examined the relations between discursive anonymity
and individual self-disclosure questions. We examined the relations between both
visual and discursive anonymity and the individual self-disclosure questions from
questionnaire. Table V displays the results of the ANOVA tests that examined the
relations between discursive anonymity and individual self-disclosure questions.
In the questionnaire participants were asked to choose between six possible
categories of self-presentation (1 totally anonymous; 2 obvious pseudonym; 3
non-obvious pseudonym; 4 partial real name; 5 full real name; 6 full real name plus
personal info). Tukey HSD post hoc tests were conducted to determine which category
means were different of the two significant ANOVA results from Table VI.
Analyzing each one of these relations individually, a significant correlation was
found between discursive anonymity and question 1: “To what extent are you afraid
that your blog may be read by people you know offline” Fð5; 129Þ ¼ 4:6, p ¼ 0:001.
Post hoc Tukey’s HSD tests showed that bloggers who used an obvious pseudonym or
non-obvious pseudonym were significantly more afraid that their blog may be read by
people they know offline than bloggers who used their full name and those who
disclose their real name and also reveal further personal info. Similarly, bloggers using
their partial real name gave significantly lower ratings on question 1 than bloggers
using their real name.
Likewise, a significant correlation was found between discursive anonymity and
question 10: “Imagine you had kept a personal diary or journal that is exactly the same
as your blog, to what extent were you willing to show it to people you know”
Fð5; 129Þ ¼ 7:7, p ¼ 0:000. Tukey’s post hoc test showed that bloggers who use their
AJIM
Variable F P
66,2
1. To what extent are you afraid that your blog may be read by people
you know offlinea 4.6 0.001 *
2. To what extent do you write something intimate about yourself in
your bloga 0.4 0.9
186 3. To what extent do you show you softer more sensitive side in your
bloga 0.7 0.6
4. To what extent do you reveal things about yourself that you are
ashamed of in your bloga 1.7 0.2
5. To what extent do you let down your protective outer shell in your
bloga 0.5 0.7
6. To what extent do you write things that secretly make you feel
anxious or afraid in your bloga 1.7 0.1
7. To what extent do you write about your experience of infertility
treatments in your bloga 1.1 0.4
Table V. 8. To what extent do you write about your personal relationships and
Univariate analysis of conflicts in your bloga 0.8 0.5
relations between the 9. To what extent do you write about your thoughts and reactions about
variable “When you post fertile women’s pregnancies in your bloga 1.4 0.2
entries in your blog, what 10. Imagine you had kept a personal diary or journal that is exactly the
name do you use for same as your blog, to what extent were you willing to show it to people
yourself?” and you knowa 7.7 , 0.001 *
independent
a
self-disclosure variables Notes: Analysis performed using ANOVA test; * significant on 0.05 level
Significant variable Categories of differences P
To what extent are you afraid that your blog may be

read by people you know offline 2 and 5 0.028 *
2 and 6 0.003 *
4 and 6 0.007 *
Imagine you had kept a personal diary or journal
that is exactly the same as your blog, to what extent
were you willing to show it to people you know 1 and 5 0.009 *
1 and 6 , 0.001 * *
2 and 6 , 0.001 * *
Table VI. 3 and 6 0.001 * *
Statistically significant 4 and 6 , 0.001 * *
mean differences between
groups Notes: *significant on 0.05 level; * * significant on 0.01 level
full name and also reveal further personal info about themselves scored higher in the
question about their willingness to show their journal’s content than the other
participants. Similarly bloggers who use their full name gave significantly higher
ratings on question 10 than the bloggers that remained totally anonymous. As
expected, the results show a relation between the self-presentation of the bloggers and
their fear that their blog may be read by people they know offline. Results show that
the more identifiable the blogger is the less anxious she is that someone she knows
offline might read her blog. Contrarily, bloggers who prefer to present themselves Information
anonymously on their blog are more afraid to be identified by their offline social disclosure
connections. Further, when asked about concerns regarding written diaries,
participants that are more identifiable would be more willing to disclose the content behavior
of their diary to people they know. These findings further emphasize that bloggers who
post personal information may be more interested in being identified by their readers
and be recognized for their ideas, thus they are willing to share personal thoughts and 187
stories. Furthermore, the more identifiable the bloggers are, the more willing they are
to share the content of their journal with people they know offline.
Table VII displays the results of the ANOVA tests that examined the relations
between visual anonymity and individual self-disclosure questions.
A significant correlation was found between visual anonymity and two questions:
(15), "To what extent are you afraid that your blog may be read by people you know
offline” Fð4; 130Þ ¼ 4:3, p ¼ 0:003 and (24), "Imagine you had kept a personal diary or
journal that is exactly the same as your blog, to what extent were you willing to show it
to people you know” Fð4; 130Þ ¼ 4, p ¼ 0:004. Post hoc tests could not be performed for
the above mentioned variables because they had fewer than two cases. Analyzing the
distribution of means of the six groups we can conclude that bloggers who were more
visually anonymous were more afraid that their blog may be read by people they know
offline and bloggers who were more visually identifiable showed more willingness to
show the content of their journal.
Since bloggers have the option to have visual anonymity, discursive anonymity, or
both at the same time, the fourth research question examines if there is an interaction
Variable F P
1. To what extent are you afraid that your blog may be read by people
you know offlinea 4.3 0.003 * *
2. To what extent do you write something intimate about yourself in
your bloga 0.5 0.7
3. To what extent do you show you softer more sensitive side in your
bloga 0.7 0.6
4. To what extent do you reveal things about yourself that you are
ashamed of in your bloga 2.0 0.1
5. To what extent do you let down your protective outer shell in your
bloga 0.6 0.6
6. To what extent do you write things that secretly make you feel
anxious or afraid in your bloga 0.9 0.5
7. To what extent do you write about your experience of infertility
treatments in your bloga 0.7 0.6
8. To what extent do you write about your personal relationships and
conflicts in your bloga 1.5 0.2
9. To what extent do you write about your thoughts and reactions about Table VII.
fertile women’s pregnancies in your bloga 0.5 0.7 Univariate analysis of
10. Imagine you had kept a personal diary or journal that is exactly the relations between the
same as your blog, to what extent were you willing to show it to people variable “What type of
you knowa 4.0 0.004 * * photos do you primarily
use when you post entries
a
Notes: Analysis performed using ANOVA test; *significant on 0.05 level; * *significant on 0.001 in your blog?” and
level self-disclosure variables
AJIM between different types of anonymity. In answering this question we used
66,2 cross-tabulation and associated Chi-Square Tests which require two categorical
variables. For this purpose we recoded the existing six groups of discursive anonymity
into two groups: “discursively anonymous, and “discursively identified".
Respondents who give no personal information and those who use either
pseudonyms or only a partial real name were labeled as “discursively anonymous”,
188 and the remaining two categories were labeled “discursively identified” (see Table VIII).
Such a division is justified in that people in the first category essentially provided no
profile information, whereas those in the second category volunteered at least some
kind of identifying information.
Similarly, people who do not post any pictures, and who use obviously or
non-obviously fake photos, were recoded as “visually anonymous” and all others were
labeled “visually identified" (Table IX).
Cross-tabulation was performed to analyze the relation between discursive
anonymity and visual anonymity variables (see Table X).
Variable: discursive anonymity

Discursively anonymous Discursively identified
Table VIII. I remain totally anonymous I use a partial real name

Recoding of discursive I use an obvious pseudonym I use my full real name
anonymity variable I use a non-obvious pseudonym I use my full name, and also reveal further personal info
Variable: visual anonymity

Variable: visually anonymous Variable: visually identified
Table IX. I do not use any photos I use actual photos

Recoding of visual I use obviously fake photos I use revealing actual photos
anonymity variable I use non-obvious fake photos
Visual
Anonymous Identified Total
Count 17 33 50
Discoursive Anonymous % within discoursive 34.0 66.0 100.0
% within visual 73.9 29.5 37.0
% of total 12.6 24.4 37.0
Identified Count 6 79 85
% within discoursive 7.1 92.9 100.0
Table X. % within visual 26.1 70.5 63.0
Cross tabulation of % of total 4.4 58.5 63.0
discursive anonymity Total Count 23 112 135
and visual anonymity % within discoursive 17.0 83.0 100.0
groups discoursive * % within visual 100.0 100.0 100.0
visual cross tabulation % of total 17.0 83.0 100.0
Out of 135 participants 37.0 percent (n ¼ 50) were discursively anonymous and 63.0 Information
percent (n ¼ 85) were discursively identifiable. Out of 135 participants 17.0 percent disclosure
(n ¼ 23) were visually anonymous and 83.0 percent (n ¼ 112) were visually
identifiable. Out of the total of participants of the sample that are visually behavior
anonymous 17.0 percent (n ¼ 23), 74.0 percent (n ¼ 17) are also discursively
anonymous. Out of the total participants of the sample that are discursive anonymous
37.0 percent (n ¼ 50), 34.0 percent (n ¼ 17) are also visually anonymous. 189
A Chi-square analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between
discursive anonymity and visual anonymity X2ð1; N ¼ 135Þ ¼ 16:16, p . 0:05.
Findings from Table XI show that bloggers who use visual anonymity are also
likely to use discursive anonymity.
The fifth research question examined the extent that participants worry about the
negative consequences of blogging, that is, their perception of the possible
repercussions their self-disclosure could have on their lives. Among the 135 survey
respondents, 64 expressed concerns that what they blogged could negatively impact
their lives. Among these respondents, 14.0 percent (n ¼ 9) reported that they were
afraid that someone from real life: acquaintances and family members may read the
blog, 22.0 percent (n ¼ 14) worried that what they wrote might hurt their friends’ or
acquaintances’ feelings and the same number were afraid they might become socially
vulnerable through self-disclosure and 6.2 percent (n ¼ 4) of the respondents
mentioned potential damage to their careers if their employers were to be able to
associate their blogs with them.
Discussion
The present study investigated two elements of the information disclosure behavior of
women bloggers suffering from infertility, anonymity and self-disclosure patterns.
Findings of our study show that infertility bloggers reported high levels of
self-disclosure that resulted in bloggers revealing intimate details of their lives,
relationships, marriages, letting their defences down thus showing their more sensitive
side. Two concepts are relevant when analyzing and discussing the results regarding
the information disclosure behavior of the bloggers, blogs as “public spaces” and blogs
as ”protected spaces”. At first sight it may seem paradoxical to publish highly intimate
content in a public space like the Internet for all to see, for these kinds of writings are
usually kept secretly in a one’s drawer in the form of a written diary. The online spaces
Chi-square tests
Asymp. Sig. Exact Sig. Exact Sig.
Value df (two-sided) (two-sided) (one-sided)
Pearson chi-square 16.2a 1 0.000

Continuity correctionb 14.3 1 0.000
Likelihood ratio 15.8 1 0.000
Fisher’s exact test 0.000 0.000
Linear-by-linear association 16.0 1 0.000 Table XI.
Number of valid cases 135 Chi-square: interaction
effects between visual
Notes: a0 cells (0.0 per cent) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 8.52; and discursive
b
Computed only for a 2x2 table anonymity
AJIM created by the bloggers in this study reflect Youngs’s (2007, p. 3) assertion that
66,2 characterized the internet as “an international public (as well as private) space or series
of spaces” and reflects that as a result of the Internet as an enabling technology,
“women are more public beings than they have ever been, and it could be argued that
this is a radical development”, (Youngs, 2007, p. 3). Leggatt-Cook and Chamberlain
(2012) asserted that the balance between what to retain as private and what to
190 disclosed to express authenticity and build community relationships requires constant
negotiation.
Unlike their hard-copy counterparts, that is written diaries where these disclosures
are generally kept private and often secret, blogs are posted publicly and, unless they
have been limited by their creators for viewing by specified users only, are readily
available for all who wish to read them (Robinson, 2001). In addition, the blog form of
these narratives generally solicits comments and responses by users. This leads to a
second useful concept in explaining our results, namely the concept of the blog as
“protected space” (Gumbrecht, 2004). Gumbrecht’s research found that bloggers try to
maintain a delicate balance between satisfying themselves and their audience with
their content. If the equilibrium is disturbed, bloggers find that they are “protected”
from immediate retribution because of the limited interactivity of the blog and their
control of the content. Bloggers decide how frequently they post, what details they
choose to give, whether they abandon the blog altogether. This could explain why a
large percentage of the bloggers in this study (64.4 percent) felt secure enough to
present themselves on their blogs using identifiable information. This finding is
supported by Lee et al.’s (2008) study that claims that blogs are perceived as protected
spaces because they provide a dyadic (i.e. safe) boundary within which self-disclosure
is considered secured. This boundary is created by the physical invisibility that
characterizes online communications that facilitates self-expression and gives bloggers
the power over the content on their blogs and over the identity they choose to reveal or
conceal from their audience. These patterns of information disclosure echo findings in
other studies about blogging (Bronstein, 2013; Chen, 2012; Herring et al., 2004; Nardi
et al., 2004a; Ressler et al., 2012; Viégas, 2005). An example of blogs perceived as
protected spaces is brought by Heilferty’s (2009) study about illness blogs that
suggested that this kind of blogs have gained popularity over the past few years
because they are used by patients to share emotional support and support personal
narratives, and accounts of personal experiences.
Findings about the relation between the visual and discursive anonymity and
self-disclosure rise some interesting points. The current study found that the majority
of the participants that chose to identify themselves on their blogs reported higher
levels of self-disclosure and were more willing to share the content of their journal with
their offline relationships. Contrarily, bloggers who chose to conceal their identity
reported lower levels of self-disclosure and were afraid that their blog might be read by
people they know offline. These results echo Qian and Scott’s (2007) study that
suggested that increased visual anonymity is not associated with greater
self-disclosure. Furthermore, this finding emphasizes that bloggers who post
personal information may be more interested in being identified by their readers
and be recognized for their ideas, thus they are willing to share personal thoughts and
stories to make a social connection with other women suffering from the same health
condition. This finding support Ko and Chen (2009) assertion that most bloggers
recognize that their self-disclosure helps to maintain and consolidate existing Information
friendships and extend new interpersonal network, which will bring social benefits. disclosure
Keim-Malpass et al. (2013) characterized self-disclosure as “social behaviour” by which
bloggers update their audiences, express opinions to influence others, seek others’ behavior
opinions and feedback, and think through writing to release emotional tension.
Based on these findings we would like to suggest that the difference in the
information behavior of the bloggers could be related to their motivations for blogging. 191
This explanation is supported by a number of studies dealing with bloggers’
motivations. Qian and Scott (2007) explained that bloggers that choose to present
themselves anonymously do so because they are motivated to blog to vent their
thoughts and emotions. Studies have found that putting emotions into words through
writing can be beneficial, both physically and psychologically (Pennebaker and Seagal,
1999; Smith et al., 2005) and blogs have been described as a medium for processing
emotionally charged situations (Nardi et al., 2004b; Yao, 2009), while providing
participants with a therapeutic release and a way of reflecting on the events in their
lives (Yao, 2009). Moreover, studies examining self-disclosure on illness blogs revealed
that blogging acts as a coping mechanism and positively impacts chronic illness and
pain (McCosker and Darcy, 2013; Ressler et al., 2012) by helping to raise the volume of
the patient voice in health care (Heilferty, 2009). Neal and McKenzie (2011), in their
study about endometriosis patients, posited that bloggers may find informational
value in blogs, especially for affective support and epistemic experience.
In contrast, bloggers whose goal of blogging is not self-disclosure might be more
incline to identify themselves using their real names. This group of bloggers might be
socially motivated to blog as shown in several studies that indicated that the need to
share information and to help others are strong motivations for blogging (Bronstein,
2012; Lenhart and Fox, 2006; Trammell et al., 2006; Walker, 2000). Neal and McKenzie
(2011) claimed that bloggers find emotional value in blogging that is related to social
engagement and Hollenbaugh (2011) found that a strong motivation to blog is the need
to share information to help and encourage others in some way. Hence, we propose that
the bloggers in this study who did not conceal their identity, blog to share their
knowledge about infertility with other women suffering from the same condition and to
make their struggle more public, thus achieving a sense of community and support.
This assertion echoes Chen’s (2012) study about women bloggers that found that
women with a high need for affiliation will be more likely to report that they see
blogging as a means to connect with other people, versus blogging as a way to express
their own voice or have power or influence in the blogosphere. She further explained
that blogging for women is not just about expressing oneself, as earlier studies have
found, but that gaining influence in the blogosphere and forming connections with
other people are also important motivations for blogging
However, for the third of the bloggers in this study who chose to present themselves
anonymously the concealment of their identity was important. Out of the total
participants of the sample that reported being visually anonymous (17.0 percent), 73.9
percent were also discursively anonymous. Since bloggers have the option to have
visual anonymity, discursive anonymity, or both at the same time, these findings are
relevant because we can see that when bloggers want to remain anonymous they will
recur to both types of anonymity. We propose that these bloggers were motivated to
blog to express themselves freely and to vent about their infertility, they view their
AJIM blogs as venues of self-expression, they were not interested in so since being identified.
66,2 Self-expression was also found to be an important motivation for blogging in previous
research about blogging (Bronstein, 2013; Lenhart and Fox, 2006; Nardi et al., 2004a, b;
Trammell et al., 2006).
This study shows that infertility bloggers take advantage of the characteristics of
blogs as protected spaces that enable self-expression and release, but are aware of the
192 negative consequences of unlimited self-disclosure. Almost half of the survey
respondents were concerned that unlimited self-disclosure on their blogs might bring
negative consequences in their lives offline. Being a public space, the content published
on the internet is searchable, and a total sense of privacy is almost impossible to
achieve. Viégas (2005, p. 2) posited that as “once their thoughts are published on the
Web, they automatically become part of the most public, fragmented environment in
existence today”.
The study presented has two main limitations. First, the study sample is small and
includes primarily Caucasian bloggers. In addition, the use of convenience sampling

and self-reported data could present bias in the reported results. In the survey
administered, bloggers were asked to self-report on a number of blogging behaviors.
As in any other research based on self-reported behaviors the perceptions people have
of their own behavior can differ from their actual behavior, therefore accuracy is
difficult to verify since no external validation was conducted for this study.
Conclusion
This study has shown that the blogosphere offers the infertile a place to chronicle their
personal stories, seek support, and share information about their condition. The high
levels of personal self-disclosure reported by the participants show that blogs have
given infertile women a voice, drawing from Mitra’s (2001, p. 459) metaphor used to
show that the internet could give marginalized groups a place to be heard. She
explained that when a person creates a blog “a voice has been placed in the cybernetic
space where the traditional limits of real life could be irrelevant”. The duality inherent
in blogs is reflected in the bloggers’ perception of their blogs both as a “protected
space” that allows them an anonymous outlet for their emotions and a “public sphere”
in which openly discuss their experiences and struggles with infertility, defying the
privacy of these treatments. Thus, the unsolicited and interactive features of blogging
uniquely position blogs as distinct from other personal expressions of the personal
experience. This study identified two distinct blogging behaviors regarding
self-disclosure. Bloggers who concealed their identity reported lower levels of
self-disclosure whereas bloggers who identified themselves tended to self-disclose
more. In other words, bloggers in this study managed their online identity and their
level of self-disclosure influenced by the desired degree of engagement with their online
audiences and with their offline social connections as well as by different motivational
needs such as self-expression or information sharing.
This study aimed to investigate a group of bloggers who write about their infertility
issues. Since previous research has shown that the target audience also influences the
degree of self-disclosure and anonymity (Qian and Scott, 2007) a larger and more
diverse random sample of health blogs dealing with sensitive issues would allow for
more generalizable conclusions on self-disclosure, anonymity, motivation. Further
research can explore the two variables of the present study: anonymity and
self-disclosure, using different theoretical perspectives like target audience, personality Information
or temperament. Also, in-depth interviews with some of the bloggers that participated disclosure
in the study could provide more information on their motivations for blogging.
behavior
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Appendix. Survey on blogging behavior

If you keep at least one personal diary/journal type of blog, please kindly respond to each of the
questions below.
(1) How long have you been blogging?
.
Less than 3 months.
.
3 to 6 months.
.
6 months to one year.
.
1 to 2 years.
.
2 to 4 years.
.
More than 4 years.
(2) How often do you update your blog?
.
3 times per day.
.
1 to 2 times per day.
.
2 to 3 times per week.
.
At least once per week.
.
Once every few weeks.
. Once every month.
.
Less than once per month.
(3) How many personal diary/journal type of blogs do you maintain?
.
One. Information
.
Two. disclosure
.
Three. behavior
.
Four.
.
Five or more.
199
Demographics
(1) Age
(2) Education:
.
Elementary school.
.
High school.
.
College/University.
.
Masters/Professional Degree.
.
PhD.
(3) Ethnicity:
.
African.
.
African-American.
.
Asian.
.
Asian-American.
.
Australian.
.
Caucasian.
.
Latino/Hispanic.
.
Native American.
.
Pacific Islander.
.
Other.
(4) Marital status:
.
Married.
.
Single.
.
In a relationship.
(5) E-mail address (optional).
(6) Please provide the URL of your blog.
(7) If you have more than one blog, the following questions only apply to your primary
personal diary/journal blog, that is, the one that you spend most time on.
(8) When you post entries in your blog, what name do you use for yourself? (Please only pick
one that you use primarily.)
.
I remain totally anonymous (no name, no personal information at all).
.
I use an obvious pseudonym (e.g., graveyard or catlover).
.
I use a non-obvious pseudonym (e.g., John Philips, which sounds like a real name but
is not your real name).
.
I use a partial real name (like your real first name, or last name, or initials only).
.
I use my full real name.
AJIM .
I use my full real name, and also reveal further personal info (like age, location, job
etc.).
66,2
(9) What type of photos do you primarily use when you post entries in your blog? (Please
only pick one that you use primarily.)
.
I do not use any photos.
.
I use obviously fake photos (e.g., a borrowed picture of celebrities).
200 .
I use non-obviously fake photos (readers may mistake them for real pictures of mine).
.
I use partial actual photos (e.g., my real pictures but with my face doctored or hidden
in the shadow).
.
I use actual photos (real pictures but not quite revealing about my life, e.g. mug
shots).
. I use revealing actual photos (real pictures about you in your real life, even with my
family or friends included).
Please answer the following questions using the scale provided:

.
To what extent do you think you are anonymous on your blogs?
Totally anonymous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Totally identifiable
. To what extent safeguarding your anonymity is important to you?
Not important at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely important
.
To what extent are you afraid that you blog may be read by people you know offline (in
real life).
Not afraid at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely afraid
.
To what extent do you write something intimate about yourself in your blog?
Not at all intimate 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely intimate
.
To what extent do you show your softer, more sensitive side in your blog?
Never 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Always
.
To what extent do you reveal things about yourself that you are ashamed of in your blog?
.
To what extent do you let down your protective “outer shell” in your blog?
.
To what extent do you write things that secretly make you feel anxious or afraid in your
blog?
.
To what extent do you write about the experience of infertility treatments in your blog?
.
To what extent do you write about your personal relationships and conflicts in your blog?
.
To what extent do you write about your thoughts and reactions about fertile women’s
pregnancies in your blog?
.
Imagine you had kept a personal diary or journal that is exactly the same as your blog, to
what extent were you willing to show it to people you know?
Not willing at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Totally willing
About the authors Information
Maria Knoll is a graduate of the MA program in Information Science from Bar-Ilan University.
She also holds a BA in English Literature and Linguistics from Petru Maior University in disclosure
Romania. She currently works as a taxonomer and content specialist at Realmatch company. behavior
Jenny Bronstein is a lecturer at the Information Science department at Bar-Ilan University.
Her research interests are in LIS education and professional development, self-presentation and
self-disclosure on different social platforms and information seeking behavior and she has
published in refereed IS journals. She teaches courses in information retrieval techniques, 201
information behavior, academic libraries and business information. In the past, Dr Bronstein
served as an academic librarian and an information professional in corporate information
centers. She holds a PhD and a MS in Information Science from Bar-Ilan University and a BA in
History and Linguistics from Tel-Aviv University. Jenny Bronstein is the corresponding author
and can be contacted at: jenny.bronstein@biu.ac.il
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Aslib Journal of Information Management

An examination of the information disclosure behavior of infertility bloggers: Patterns of self-

Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

their miscarriages, medical treatments, strained relationships and the psychological

fully without fear of embarrassment or stigmatization (Malik and Coulson, 2008).

constitute a communicative genre in which self-disclosure has become a norm, as

Categories Mean ^ SD/Frequency Per cent

Age 33.0 ^ 4.84 *

Blogging pattern Categories Frequency Per cent

How many personal diary/journal type of blogs do

As a second element of the information disclosure behavior, self-disclosure patterns

When you post entries in your blog,

Significant variable Categories of differences P

To what extent are you afraid that your blog may be

anonymity and visual anonymity variables (see Table X).

Variable: discursive anonymity

Table VIII. I remain totally anonymous I use a partial real name

Variable: visual anonymity

Table IX. I do not use any photos I use actual photos

Pearson chi-square 16.2a 1 0.000

includes primarily Caucasian bloggers. In addition, the use of convenience sampling

Western Journal of Nursing Research, Vol. 35 No. 10, pp. 1309-1324.

S&F Online, Vol. 5 No. 2.

Sociolinguistics, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 439-459.

Appendix. Survey on blogging behavior

Please answer the following questions using the scale provided:

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com

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