Comments on: Opposition response to the state of the blogosphere address http://davecole.org/blog/2008/01/24/opposition-response-to-the-state-of-the-blogosphere-address/ Thoughts, notes and comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:49:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: jameshigham http://davecole.org/blog/2008/01/24/opposition-response-to-the-state-of-the-blogosphere-address/#comment-665 jameshigham Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:32:10 +0000 http://davecole.org/blog/2008/01/24/opposition-response-to-the-state-of-the-blogosphere-address/#comment-665 ...more thinking by bloggers, at the moment, goes on towards the Labour end of the spectrum... Really, Dave? :) …more thinking by bloggers, at the moment, goes on towards the Labour end of the spectrum…

Really, Dave? :)

]]> By: Paul Evans http://davecole.org/blog/2008/01/24/opposition-response-to-the-state-of-the-blogosphere-address/#comment-657 Paul Evans Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:44:35 +0000 http://davecole.org/blog/2008/01/24/opposition-response-to-the-state-of-the-blogosphere-address/#comment-657 Very interesting. I suppose my take was based on the "tabloid blogosphere" which I tend to inhabit, because I just don't have that much time. I'd generally always felt that internet reading habits are so far removed from the way we read papers or journals that it was rather an obligation to play to our short attention spans (hence, even Guido's brief posts need to be prefaced with colours and ++BREAKING NEWS++ warnings) - but I accept that others are looking for something different. I think the Euston Manifesto has been an impressive example of ideological trends that perhaps wouldn't have coalesced or got much platform otherwise, coming to the fore with the help of the internet. But it's like the Tribune or the NS, non-Labour people really have little part in the discussion - partly because Labour's incumbency is an instant turn-off factor and support for it isn't attractive, and partly because the debate is very far removed from most people's experience. Compare with Iain Dale's Diary, which despite being ferociously pro-Tory and rarely that well written, attracts a massive cross-party following. I'll put in a brief word of defence for swear blogs - I can't think of any I read except Devil's Kitchen - like every style, it only works in the right user, Chris Mousney is obviously massively erudite and consistent in his ideology so he can. I think there is a value to just "tearing things down" - it's a perculiar socialist idea that commentators should offer something useful as an alternative. What I was alluding to in terms of the power of blogs I suppose was "momentum," which the really big blogs in the US have shown - the fact that Little Green Footballs or Kos has entered the national consciousness of such a huge nation is pretty impressive (in the same way as the syndicated radio shows, people like to feel part of something national yet "community feeling") - maybe I'm wrong to assume the British blogs are going to develop in the same way, it's true that we don't have the same political climate. The trap (into which we are both perhaps guilty of falling) is not appreciating that the medium of blogging is increasingly a characterless medium, in that it has a an endless variety of purpose. It's compounded by the fact that whereas the Sun looks nothing like the New Left Review - most blogs do look rather like one another. So I do agree with a lot of what you say, perhaps next year I shall make my address only to the political PopBlogs which scrutinise, reveal and campaign in digestible form - which in truth, I do read most keenly. Sorry this is a bit all over the place, I'm a bit rushed. Enjoyed your post (and found it odd to get so much attention for mine – I've had about 20 times more readers in the past couple of days!) Drink up thy cider, Paul Very interesting. I suppose my take was based on the “tabloid blogosphere” which I tend to inhabit, because I just don’t have that much time. I’d generally always felt that internet reading habits are so far removed from the way we read papers or journals that it was rather an obligation to play to our short attention spans (hence, even Guido’s brief posts need to be prefaced with colours and ++BREAKING NEWS++ warnings) - but I accept that others are looking for something different.

I think the Euston Manifesto has been an impressive example of ideological trends that perhaps wouldn’t have coalesced or got much platform otherwise, coming to the fore with the help of the internet. But it’s like the Tribune or the NS, non-Labour people really have little part in the discussion - partly because Labour’s incumbency is an instant turn-off factor and support for it isn’t attractive, and partly because the debate is very far removed from most people’s experience. Compare with Iain Dale’s Diary, which despite being ferociously pro-Tory and rarely that well written, attracts a massive cross-party following.

I’ll put in a brief word of defence for swear blogs - I can’t think of any I read except Devil’s Kitchen - like every style, it only works in the right user, Chris Mousney is obviously massively erudite and consistent in his ideology so he can. I think there is a value to just “tearing things down” - it’s a perculiar socialist idea that commentators should offer something useful as an alternative.

What I was alluding to in terms of the power of blogs I suppose was “momentum,” which the really big blogs in the US have shown - the fact that Little Green Footballs or Kos has entered the national consciousness of such a huge nation is pretty impressive (in the same way as the syndicated radio shows, people like to feel part of something national yet “community feeling”) - maybe I’m wrong to assume the British blogs are going to develop in the same way, it’s true that we don’t have the same political climate.

The trap (into which we are both perhaps guilty of falling) is not appreciating that the medium of blogging is increasingly a characterless medium, in that it has a an endless variety of purpose. It’s compounded by the fact that whereas the Sun looks nothing like the New Left Review - most blogs do look rather like one another. So I do agree with a lot of what you say, perhaps next year I shall make my address only to the political PopBlogs which scrutinise, reveal and campaign in digestible form - which in truth, I do read most keenly.

Sorry this is a bit all over the place, I’m a bit rushed. Enjoyed your post (and found it odd to get so much attention for mine – I’ve had about 20 times more readers in the past couple of days!)

Drink up thy cider,
Paul

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