You might like to read this first.
Right, now my post:
For quite some time I’ve been wondering about how the blogosphere is allowed to go on when it almost certainly militates against the powers that be.
I mean, at some point, surely they’ll have to pull the plug, as in China.
At least, that’s what I thought.
At a simplistic level, party politics and government, they don’t have the power yet in this country or the U.S.A. to close us down on a pretext although there’ve been attempts, not least the two tier blogosphere and other proposals.
What does seem to be happening is that it’s killing itself off and it’s marginalized. Let’s face it, we don’t go to any blog to hear or see the news – we go to the MSM, in my case the Telegraph first, followed by Reuters, the BBC, Google for the U.S. news and The Age for the Australian. Don’t remember the last time I looked at the Guardian.
If we want analysis, we have our blog of choice – Dale, DK, Denninger, whoever. The rest of us, busily typing away, are at best marginalized, no matter how perspicacious we may claim to be. We don’t reach anyone except those wanting a quick, thirty second grab.
Therefore, the powers that be, the genuine ones, Them, have relatively little to fear, which won’t stop them fearing, as all totalitariansm does in its own paranoid way.
Perhaps the blogosphere peaked in late 2006/early 2007 – certainly I saw a lot more cut and thrust around that time.
I wonder how you see it these days?
Didn't blogging co-ordinate the resistance to abortive plans to exempt MPs' expenses from public scrutiny?
ReplyDeleteI think political blogging; my own chief interest, is a way of honing one's opinions or abandoning them if superior argument or new facts come to light. Without the likes of Old Holborn and Guido and Devil's Kitchen [not to say EU Referendum, Ambush Predator, House of Dumb and Ranting Penguin] going into considerable detail about the the warp and the weft of Britain's contrived decline; exposing the details of our corrupt and corrupting new way of government,it might be easy to fall into a fairytale dream of how everything's really going to be alright and when the Tories get in it'll be FINE.
The Telegraph is now more centrist than erstwhile and is seemingly lackadaisical about the inexperience and ideological nullity of the Tories' leadership.
The chief reason I am able to maintain my distrust of the mainstream media for its betrayal of professional journalistic standards is because such culture warriors as those - and numerous others - are on the case on a daily , or thrice daily, or on a weekly basis.
Knowledge is power, and the MSM want to keep it to themselves and their Political Class clique.
The blogosphere, in its intellectual guerilla war has smashed that monopoly, and long may it do so.
It's an interesting point. Maybe the sphere is becoming more mature and mainstream. And possibly this is killing off some of the more out-there blogs.
ReplyDeleteHowever it seems to me that the Libertarian/Right-Liberal part of the blogosphere is going from strength to strength.
Except for die hard bloggers who actually have something worth saying ,and reading, the sphere is dying out.I think the novelty has worn off for the majorityn of bloggers who jumped on it as a fad,and have now moved on to the latest fad-Twitter & Facebook.
ReplyDeleteNNW says it correctly James, for me at least.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am a little more international.
Knowledge is power. Each MSM has its own agenda. Blogs balance it.
Also, the type of blogs I visit go digging for the truth.
Going the way of Citizens Band radio, I guess. And sooner or later, most of us get around to realizing that "action direct" get better results. Still a place for it as HM loyal and vociferous opposition while the Tories try to be all thhings and none. But liberty begins at home.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with Uber that blogging has a lot of rivals these days. I know of people who I thought had stopped blogging but they are doing it on facebook, myspace or friends reunited. I suppose we all only have time to click into so many sites a day.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to really say something on the net blogging is still the best platform!
ReplyDeleteI don't do Facebook even though lots of people ask me to, but I have been experimenting with Twitter. I have found works well in my blog sidebar. People from the Twitter site or people who visit my blog have a link to my more serious blog posts. I have experimented recently by adding links to posts from other blogs that I think my readers/Twitter contacts would be interested in. I have seen evidence that people have followed the link ;-)
MSM and others!!! follow my serious posts, so no I don't think blogging is dead!
The posts you and Liz have made have lead to one on my blog too.