I certainly never paid much attention to wingnut columnists until they became the subject of ridicule on this blog…

Is that a good thing though, Cliff?

Bolt reaches 1.5 million readers with his conservative rants, and the question for blogs is how will they ever communicate particular issues, alternative analyses to an audience of that magnitude? Proliferating alternatives are a good thing, but how do they break out of their digital silos?

While we have blog search sites such as technorati, we need a mechanism that is capable of lifting the audience for particular issues to a level beyond those who are savvy enough to search intelligently for alternative viewpoints. Maybe part of the answer lies in sites that aggregate content from disparate sources (as any blog can in fact do to some degree). But we need something that matches the reach of newspapers that lands on the digital lawns of Australia.

he tools for cultural production and distribution are in the pockets of 14 year olds. This does not guarantee that they will do the hard work of democratic self-governance: the tools that enable the free circulation of information and communication of opinion are necessary but not sufficient for the formation of public opinion. Ask yourself this question: Which kind of population seems more likely to become actively engaged in civic affairs — a population of passive consumers, sitting slackjawed in their darkened rooms, soaking in mass-manufactured culture that is broadcast by a few to an audience of many, or a world of creators who might be misinformed or ill-intentioned, but in any case are actively engaged in producing as well as consuming cultural products? Recent polls indicate that a majority of today’s youth — the “digital natives” for whom laptops and wireless Internet connections are part of the environment, like electricity and running water — have created as well as consumed online content. I think this bodes well for the possibility that they will take the repair of the world into their own hands, instead of turning away from civic issues, or turning to nihilistic destruction.

It’s early days yet, but like him I’m largely positive.

The Mulrunji rallies have been very different to rallies organised by the ‘usual suspects’, IMO, and had a much more family/community feel to them.

There are plenty of shots of children (not just as subjects, but also as ‘background’) in that article, which was a deliberate decision – I wanted to drive the ‘family’ vibe home as hard as I could – why be subtle?

BTW the photos are all Creative-Commonsed and free for download and use with a credit/link to my site. CC is a bandwagon I hope to get a lot of mileage out of this year.

They call it the cultivation of consumer choice through liberation marketing, I call it the production of stupidity through the decrease in thresholds of appreciation. Contemporary niche marketers are artists of stupidity who properly understand the age old axiom ‘ignorance is bliss’. My prediction is that soon consumers will be sold the tools to appreciate their own stupidity. Perhaps this is what an Arts degree has already become.

Oh, this is complete and utter bullshit:

“Pomos made a point of writing impenetrable prose: it was necessary, Foucault argued, if they were to be taken seriously.”

I have not read anything remotely like this in the several Foucault books I have.

Corporates still don’t get the nature of blogging, by and large.
Most newspaper sites won’t even let you insert links.

Of course, the corporations are not going anywhere soon – brand power is even more important in a world with millions upon millions of blogs. But if LP is going to let me insert links to my work, and the Courier-Mail isn’t, I will be coming here first.

Much blogging will continue to be tiresome, predictable and not worth the effort to read, but the good stuff is going to run rings around the media – which is often just as tiresome and predictable.

I think articles like this one I wrote about a rally last November are streets ahead of the mainstream media’s websites, when you look at how I used photos, sound recordings, maps and so on.

I like that prospect, because long term it heralds more independent and curious population interested in exploring for the things that really excite them rather that the old way of some big media editor or program director deciding what’s good for us.

Exactly, Phil, and making links with others who share that excitement.

Nothing is trivia. Really.