I’m speaking at the AEF conference in Canberra today on the subject of blogging and politics. Except that I’ve unlitaterally decided to extend it beyond blogging and to talk about the uses of the Internet in politics, with a few examples.
I’ll summarise the speech after I’ve delivered it, but as you can probably tell from the title, I’ll be expressing some skepticism about just exactly how important and influential blogging really is. Looking at phenomena like Facebook I wonder whether blogging still means what it used to.
October 11, 2008 | Graham
Getting blogged down
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The Tsunami of blogging is smothering real perspective.People no longer have faith in their political or religious leaders.Opinion means nothing unless it is underpinned by real experience.
Moodies for example rated sub-prime mortages as AAA.Where is their credibility?They are still functioning as if nothing has happened.
The real dilemma we all now face is,who do we trust?
Comment by Arjay — October 11, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
I must admit there was a time when I was enthusiastic about the internet as a means for political change. JS Mill regarded the media as a key to a successful democracy but as Chomsky (the manufacture of Consent) and Gore (the assault on reason) have documented the media has let us down; there is no serious scrutiny of public policy.
The internet does not appear to be much better. Firstly there is the tendency for it to result in the pooling of ignorance; urban myths are not only spread faster they are given a veneer of respectability. (most academics/teachers would have experienced their students using wikepaedia as their primary source of information.)
Secondly there is the demand for orthodoxy – this site has experienced some problems already with the climate change debate; one only has to read the posts to some topics to find people teetering on the edge of abuse.
Thirdly there is the abuse of fora such as this by lobby groups keen to push their particular barrow they ensure that their voices drown out opposition; here it is a numbers game – truth belongs to those with the most posts.
However, there is a role for the internet. Once we get decent broadband speeds it should be possible to run national and international conferences on line.
Comment by John Tons — October 12, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
As with all new technologies there is an ebb and flow effect determining the viability of its usage. Facebook is an invaluable tool for promoting thought and discussion as the social rules for speaking are overruled. For example, there was a time when it was impolite to dicuss religion and politics. Perhaps the capacity for the other party not to enter a dicussion they wish not to, but simply to view it,becomes an avenue in which thoughts can be circulated more easily than if depending on the spoken word. Personally I have learnt a lot about politics by taking up facebook and reading the national forum. Interstingly what has happened is,because there is now a panel of dicusion available, people are able to voice their thoughts and think them through. My thoughts now have a “credence” and I am therefore able to explore the ramification of them. I believe that the internet is an invaluable tool for promoting discussion on politics, religion or any agenda one might wish to promote discussion on.
Comment by Suzan — October 12, 2008 @ 6:11 pm
Some pictures from the conference here:http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2008/10/aef-annual-conference/
Thanks Graham for your great presentation which will be covered in a separate blog post.
Comment by Jennifer — October 13, 2008 @ 11:01 am
Arjay, you asked
That question has been around since the Dawn Of Time. A partial answer might be: those who behave honestly and fairly and who are always striving to win the trust of their fellows.
John Tons:
True enough …. but I’m still optimistic.
Graham:
Hope the conference was a rip-roaring success.
Comment by Graham Bell — October 13, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Arjay, you asked
That question has been around since the Dawn Of Time. A partial answer might be: those who behave honestly and fairly and who are always striving to win the trust of their fellows.
John Tons:
True enough …. but I’m still optimistic.
Graham:
Hope the conference was a rip-roaring success.
Comment by Graham Bell — October 13, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
AMBIT GAMBIT on Graeme Young at conference.
Arjay, you asked
That question has been around since the Dawn Of Time. A partial answer might be: those who behave honestly and fairly and who are always striving to win the trust of their fellows.
John Tons:
True enough …. but I’m still optimistic.
Graham:
Hope the conference was a rip-roaring success.
Comment by Graham Bell — October 13, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
Graham I’ve found both the question and the answer to our current blogging dilemmas.”Hu is Putin Bush to the torch” You see the Chinese have entrapped the US in a trade exchange,Putin has the US spending billions on defence.It was all so simple.I just love the English language and it’s ability to traverse ordinary reality.Cheers Ross.
Comment by Arjay — October 17, 2008 @ 7:53 pm