8 Comments

1. Ken Parish

   May 16, 2005

   The article makes some valid points, I suppose, but overstates the ephemerality of the blogosphere while understating the extent to which the development of a blogging community creates a fairly high level of accountability. Johnstone's tone is also quite insufferably superior and condescending. Moreover, there's no sign in his article that he has read or even momentarily stumbled across a single Australian political blog. He refers almost entirely to American blogs. It makes you wonder just how much this bloke actually knows about blogs, or how much research he bothered to undertake before committing his thoughts to paper. Rather less than the effort a good blogger would put into a piece of that length, I suggest.

2. Nabakov

   May 16, 2005

   The whole charm, originality and power of blogging, until now, was because it wasn't getting hung up on self-importance. The moment it starts making claims to being authoritive is the moment it's main distingushing feature dies. It's basically a 21st century reworking of the op-ed pages meets the letter pages.

   And we like that 'cos it's all utterly and unapologetic our interactive opinions bouncing and fluttering off people we may never meet, yet get to know almost too well.

   However the Yanks (left, right, and gone), who are more pompous than most about print and broadcast media, seem determined to try to squeeze blogging back into some archaic 20th century media straitjacket mode.

   Look, blogging is not serious. However it's important. Anyone who can't grasp that essential difference should have their keyboard cracked apart over their head like a Kit-Kat.

3. Francis Xavier Holden

   May 16, 2005

   I read it and wondered if the author had ever read a blog for more than a few minutes in order to footnote it.

   "Somethings going on and you don't know what it is - do you Mr Johnstone"

4. boynton

   May 16, 2005

   "The underlying irony represented by the vast number of blogs with 'pundit' in the title is that bloggers see themselves by their nature as anti-punditry, or rather that they have as much claim to punditry as anyone else and possibly more"

   Lucky I'm with uber...

5. Nicholas Gruen

   May 17, 2005

   Thanks for pointing it out Sophie, but a warning to other readers. Its a bit dull and academic!

6. cs

   May 17, 2005

   Normblog gets a mention!

   I had a go at it, but it's very difficult to read onscreen. Still, couldn't help noticing several neat insights, or at least half-insights, even if it is difficult to believe that any of these are original, given a subject where one can only wonder if there is anything original left to observe.

   The conclusion fell well short imo, but was nevertheless suggestive, and with more work might have got there:

   "In the end, blogs are no more authentic or true than the other kinds of writing against which we are taking such a hard line. But what they do have is a quality of naturalness, immediacy and brashness that seems to speak to us directly, telling us that perhaps we have become too clever for our own good and too remote from the things that really matter. Blogs, whether we write them or read them or both, are a way of telling us that we're part of the action. We're going somewhere. We're on the train."

   Does he mean blogs enable you to interact publicly? Instead of rubbing elbows?

7. Mark Bahnisch

   May 17, 2005

   Maybe blogging is the new elbow rubbing, Chris?

8. cs

   May 17, 2005

   That much giddy fun?