Alan Drew at the Daily Propaganda blog has written an interesting piece taking myself, Iain, Unity, PragueTory and Tom Watson to task for encouraging apathy, cynicism etc etc about politics. Ironically, the post that was linked to here was one of those exceptionally rare occasions where I did a "blogging about blogging" post and pointed out the absurdity of Unity's sudden denunciation of the guy that defected to the Tories in Ealing.
However, I think it's worth addressing the criticism that Alan makes just so I can do two blogging about blogging posts in one day. I think Alan would have a point but for one small problem which is the premise. At the very base of his argument is the assumption that the so-called "blogosphere" is special. It isn't, and, frankly, I think I would be bordering on delusions of grandeur if I thought otherwise. Blogs, and the online community in which they operate, are merely disjointed bulletin boards. Each is its own private forum where the author is the Nazi moderator everyone loves to hate once in a while. They have their lurkers just like any other, but crucially, they are speaking to a niche group of people who are already engaged anyway.
The pettiness and point scoring is merely a reality of the social space. The flames, the cross posting, the fisking. It's just the Internet, and no amount of high-mindedness is going to stop it. You only have to look at the 'Melissa Kite' incident to see that even journalists stepping into the arena find themselves engaging with the sub-culture on its terms, not theirs. And we shouldn't forget as well, that your average Joe probably hasn't heard of any us anyway.
Put simply, I don't think the point-scoring or the gossip is negative or dangerous to debate. I think it's far more dangerous to believe that this tiny virtual space in which we exist is more important than it actually is.
8 comments:
Thanks for the response - although perhaps I did not express myself very well. My main point was that the political point scoring (and the like) on blogs is a symptom of something bigger. We are not very important, but what we write in our posts just reflects what it is like in real world campaigning and modern party politics. And there are those of us that do make the news.... you have a time or two...
Well put Dizzy!
:p You suck!
(this was a demonstration of the low brow childish humour of blogs to illustrate your point - it has nothing to do with the fact that it's after midnight and I'm not sober)
I blame the MSM: their readership is somewhat higher than the "opinionated bloggers" and fans.
How about balanced reporting. How about publishing unnewsworth stuff like facts and stated policies. Stop swallowing spin and presenting it as journalism.
Alan, agreed that I have, occasionally, created news. But it's more luck than anything else. I;m still not sure I follow this argument you're putting forward though. On the ground in elections, it is about issues.
Blogs are 99% unimportant and 1% a vital channel for politics, and a growing one.
1. Stories often kick off on blogs.
2. The real politicians admit they read the blogs. So do journalists.
3. Numbers of hits and visitors keep climbing. CH had 38,000 hits on one day recently. Iain Dale claims a monthly readership bigger than the New Statesman.
4. Most people don't trust the main media as it is tightly controlled. Blogs are chaotic, but clearly genuine opinions being expressed, for which there is a growing market.
5. People used to have access to one or two main channels - newspaper, TV. Blogs like CH enable you to read all channels quickly wherever you are.
6. Blogs have a high readership from international visitors. Blogs are part of the earth flattening process affecting all apsects of life. Local snarling is tempered with greater breadth of vision.
7. Alastair Campbell could not have operated his media reign of terror so easily if blogs had been active then. New Labour type propaganda regimes will never be able to swamp the airwaves unchallenged again. Keep writing one and all.
I don't necessarily disgaree with you. What worries me is people make them out to be more than they are. On the stat porn stuff I don;t pay attention to that anyway. As a proffesional sysadmin who has to work with servers that get thousands of hits a second, I tend to be sceptical of assertive claims about unique readership statistics.
Blogging!! It is very entertaining and sometimes enlightening so I tend to agree with you and disagree at the same time.For although most blogging is mundane and on a subject that does nothing for me, some hit the nail on the head that the mainstream media totally miss or delibrately fail to report. I tend to think that it is actually more important than you think because politicians the world over do not like it.
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