From today’s Crikey email:
Matt Marks provided Crikey readers with some interesting observations on the relative position of the American and Australian blogospheres yesterday:
Unlike Australia, the political blogosphere in the US breaks news, is deep, extremely well developed, is regularly quoted in the mainstream media, and, particularly for the Democrats, speaks for the base in a manner that talk radio does for the Republicans.
However, he fell into a trap that many writers do — he failed to understand the basic differences that make comparisons somewhat pointless, as I’ve argued previously in my academic pieces on political blogging.
America’s political culture is quite distinct from Australia’s. While any number of differences could be cited, the relevant ones here are voluntary voting and a much stronger tradition of civic and political engagement. American blogs have given life to the Democratic base, because they’ve given it a voice it didn’t have when the party was an empty shell called into existence every election cycle to suit the needs of big donors and prominent candidates. Thus, in an environment where the danger for both parties is that their own base won’t be sufficiently engaged to turn out in large numbers, the Rove strategy of mobilising your own core supporters does have much to commend it.
While one could argue that the ALP is similarly disengaged from its base of supporters, compulsory voting means that in large part, Labor can take its voters for granted and focus on swinging voters. (The American notion of “independent” voters really describes a somewhat different phenomenon.) Does this render the political blogosphere irrelevant, as Marks claims?
I’d argue that it doesn’t. One thing that should be absolutely obvious from this year of polls and spin without end is that perceptions matter in politics. The classic texts on political sociology, most importantly the work of Paul Lazarsfeld as long ago as 1948, demonstrated that most voters pay little attention to political news.
But, conversely, the role of opinion formers — those in the community who do take an active interest — is key. People interested in politics often have more influence than news media and pollies themselves on their family, friends and workmates. It’s precisely that sort of engaged citizen who is the core readers and commenters on political blogs. Parties that can’t enthuse their own faithful have a big problem. It’s interesting, then, to observe that compared with a few years ago, the right-wing blogosphere devotes far less attention to domestic politics — perhaps a sign that the momentum of enthusiasm is with supporters of Labor and the Greens.
It’s also a poor argument to suggest that the Australian blogosphere lacks importance because it’s rarely cited in the media. The blogosphere matters, because, both left and right (and the more non-partisan blogs), it’s one of the few vehicles, aside from Crikey, New Matilda and On Line Opinion, for genuinely critical commentary at a time when the quality and focus of the mainstream media’s reporting of politics could hardly be lower. It’s one of the places you can go to for intelligent and informed discussion of issues such as climate change and the politics of work and the economy, and one of the places where the spin quotient of the commentariat can be called for what it is.
Marks is right about better broadband, though. Aside from a much smaller population, the lag in net use in Australia does make a difference.
NB Here’s the piece I was responding to:
13. Memo Australian candidates: it’s all about multimedia, not the blog
Matt Marks, managing director, Marks Strategies and publisher of Righthinker writes:
Last week US Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did an extraordinary thing. He conducted a conference call with liberal bloggers who are increasingly disappointed that the Democratic leadership has not forced President Bush to pull American troops out of Iraq and seemingly apologised to them.
Unlike Australia, the political blogosphere in the US breaks news, is deep, extremely well developed, is regularly quoted in the mainstream media, and, particularly for the Democrats, speaks for the base in a manner that talk radio does for the Republicans.
However, the Democratic or “liberal� blogosphere is both a help and a hindrance to the Democratic Party.
It helps in that it will run stories that the mainstream media will not and will relentlessly provide oxygen to stories that may otherwise die. It also energises the base, which is crucial in a voluntary voting environment. It is a hindrance in that the average commentator and online activist is hardly a Nascar dad or a soccer mum or any other key “mainstream� or “swing� voter.
US politicians treat the blogosphere as a constituency; however, the significance of blogging for politicians themselves belongs to the last presidential cycle. Why?Because multimedia is simply more effective if you are a candidate wanting to get your message across.
The blogosphere does not get swing voters engaged. It simply rallies your base. Look at an average Australian political blog for instance and you get the love Howard/hate Howard voter not the “I’m undecided and have come here to be convinced by the merits of your argument� voter.
The numbers behind the US experience are compelling. A Bivings survey conducted during the 2006 US congressional and Senate races highlighted that while only 23% of Senate candidates had a blog, 55% employed multimedia in their campaigns.
Australian politicians in a compulsory voting environment are better served by spending their time on YouTube and other multimedia and social networking areas. These efforts are more likely to help them engage with undecided voters, attract mainstream media attention and get them elected, than pandering to ranters on blogs who have already made up their minds on whom they will vote for.
There’s just one issue for Australian pols. Make sure your target audience has functioning broadband.
The American blogosphere has got more resources etc etc
For example:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
The fact that The Huff Post can call on so many writers of note means that of course it’s going to be cited more often.
If it wants to be taken seriously, the Ozpolsphere has got to be more judicious about what it posts. Group pol blogs are also the future.
Since I only read a couple of blogs these days (this one and another - mmmmm, don’t know what the another one is called), I probably can’t comment, but what is the Ozpolsphere, and who’s in it?
Is Catallaxy (very non-Australian specific, although Jason’s as cute as a button), is LP and John Quiggan (has a big beard and talks about economics)?
Sorry, the Ozpolsphere is not that impressive, and it’s quite distressing to see the mainstream media adopt the style without thought. It was very sad to read some of the drivel about the shooting in Melbourne that was attached to an article on the Herald Sun’s website. Why in heavens do people write such mean stuff after a man has done such an heroic thing and paid for his heroism with his life?
Thanks for this Mark. I’m only a squatter and was curious about what Marks had to say.
Your argument supports the argument I’m trying to make in my thesis. One of the things the blogosphere makes apparent is the divide between the interested and the uninterested, as opposed to the old focus on public intellectuals in the public sphere or class divisions (although you have to be cautious about that).
There’s also no point fantasising about the net uniting everybody in an orgy of global common humanity at this rate.
Ah, see there’s your problem, Darlene. In America taking politics is serious threads for serious cats. In Australia an excessive interest in politics by the laity is a sign of incipient mental illness.
(joke stolen from Waugh)
Heh. I’m sure vast numbers of right-wing politicoes will soon take their cues from Catallaxy, just as I’m sure Labor and the Greens are going to adopt purple talking points.
Any day now.
Just wait.
Yeah.
True Fiasco (and I lurve the avatar), and frankly the fact that an interest in politics equates with mental illness is not a bad thing.
I hope the politicos will continue to take their cues from ordinary punters (like myself) and not the talking heads.
I think that the Ozpolsphere should take a “professional” approach to blogging instead of going on with any old crap.
…with content that doesn’t suck. Sorry, but I’ve seen too many political ads on the net, passed around by political junkies. They’re just as bad on YouTube as on the TV.
Why Darlene, thank you.
Mark, about this sentence of yours on the Australian blogs:
Where’s your EVIDENCE???????????
Heh.
The US Democrats also has a significant intellectual base, whereas the Australian Left has absolutely none.
Also, in the U.S. liberalism has always been vital and central to political culture and debate; liberalism has never been important in Australia.
“The fact that The Huff Post can call on so many writers of note means that of course it’s going to be cited more often.”
But isn’t that exactly what makes it sort of unattractive in this medium, and not really all that interesting a part of the blogosphere qua blogosphere? (I can’t believe I just wrote that last phrase.)
I already know in advance what all the ‘writers of note’ are going to say about pretty much anything, long before they say it. I check out the blogosphere because I want to hear what smart people who aren’t of all that much ‘note’ have to say –thoughtful people, frequently quite accomplished in their respective fields, yet squarely off the radar, who have interesting insights and refreshing evaluations of issues partly because they don’t have a professional MSM reputation, or a Punditstan paycheck, to protect.
Just as long as they all duly get their knickers in a knot over TEH CRUSADES.
j-p-z
Don’t forget the Inquisition and the IRA.
It’s all about TEH CRUSADES!
Interesting observations about the HuffPost type of blog, j_p_z. With a few exceptions, the US netroots a list type of blog is boring as batshit (I imagine TEH CRUSADERS would have encountered some of that) - ie Kos. Just dreadful partisan puffing composed in about a second flat. That’s why I like blogs like Pandagon and Obsidian Wings where you get interesting arguments written well.
I’m with Mark and j_p_z, a lot of the American lefty blogs make my eyes glaze over. I’m a fan of Wonkette, not so much because of their inciteful commentary, but more because theit take on things is normally interesting and funny.
Machine politics is king in australia.
The full power of the Net would undermine machine politics.
Party apparatchiks therefore handle the net with fireproof tongs.
Apparatchiks want absolute party discipline and voters behaving like the zombies in that famous Apple Ad.
So far, the apparatchiks have maintained control.
One piece of evidence: the fact that Victorian Labor voters blindly elected Stephen Fielding of Family First to the Senate.
With an alert blogosphere, this may not have happened.
Katz, if I’d had more space in the piece I would have added the much more fluid and amorphous nature of US parties compared to Australian party discipline - which is arguably the most rigid around in the Westminster system - compare Britain, NZ and Canada. It’s a point I’ve made before on this topic and it’s also related to a generally passive political culture here.
I dont know wether the Australian Left needs a good intellectual base,along J.G. lines simply just observe what Darlene has to say,to figure out, the unfair comments and other Squizzy Todds just can not work it out that they are only exercising their computers and not their minds. I am not sure wether Australian interest in Politics including web based stuff like Blogs is as stated by Mark …passive. Perhaps some basic body armor maybe,but, attitudinal matters may not square with the radar. If you find yourself agreeing with someone,and you do not think you could be as clever in statement as them, and you dont make a statement hence, is it really being passive!? And what is politics if the subject is outside your range of interest or maybe immediate capability!? I long for a Renaissance in Backyarder science and technology,so that, even the more dedicated energy and environmentalist is challenged by an upheaval that makes the Academic Meisters worry enormously.That isnt being anti-Academic more, they need to be challenged as much as those who sit uncomfortably in office. If Academics were challenged, Politicians challenged and the democratic processes having to confront that expertise was itself challenged,so every Bill before a House wasnt solely dependent on experts and submissions,the status quo and the lobbying,but the fear,the backyarder and even business were colluding with communities…that the predators of creativity in all media forms had to work to find out..this would be Renaissance.The blog would be a technical report among enthusiasts. Relationships amongst people would improve automatically,talent driven activity encouraging new skill formations across all interests… by proximity. That which maybe the U.S.A. in part is population determined..they have so many walking gods that the ancient philosophers spring from their dog kennels. Finally,and not as oversight,expression rather than abundant requote of well mastered cliches is obviously required. If no-one reads it immediately,who cares,the minds been exercised.If only I could donate…
To make explict what I think is implicit in Mark’s comment at 7:42: the interesting and engaging political work in blogging in both countries isn’t even remotely party political. I think, for instance, Calpundit got a lot less interesting when he became “Political Animal”. (I also could rant about how the US’s political blogosphere deflated after 2004, but perhaps for another time).
Philip Travers, I implore you — I beg you — to more closely examine your relationship with paragraphing and punctuation.
Seconded. It makes it very hard to read your comments.
Most of the best written and most interesting US political blogs reside in the feminist blogosphere, not the A list political blogs.
We’d be much the poorer if Australian blogs took on similar roles of partisan organisation. So I’m not at all disturbed if pollies ignore them.
Darlene, you keep making the point that blogs are awful by pointing to what are essentially bulletin boards, like the old usenet or MSN. These are not blogs.
If you haven’t read any blogs which actually feature good and engaging writing, then you haven’t looked far enough. Yes, there are fewer Australian ones, but that is a matter of a much lower population.
Also, can we completely get over this idea that blogs = politics or political engagement. They can have this excellent feature. However, this is a subset of blogs. It is not a requirement.
Can has interstn communterry?
Kim
OK, I’ll bite. Would you mind linking a couple of the better ones, pretty please?
Fair enough Helen, but those comments things on mainstream sites produce bile, and they’re an attempt by the mainstream media to partially adopt blogging as a way of connecting with their readers.
When a court case happened that my sister had to attend (related to a car crash) an article appeared on the paper’s website. Fortunately, people left intelligent and sensitive comments (except one person who was just ridiculous), but I really gritted my teeth before reading them. The quality of comments is very similar on some blogs (do I mention “Bird” - tweet tweet).
Yes, there are good polblogs, but there’s some real hate-filled nutters out there who are obsessed with ideological politics. Nobody learns anything from that stuff.
There’s a lot of social diconnection played out on the blogosphere.
Rereading:
Or international politics, or politics at all, as far as I can tell. Don’t know what’s happened to the 2003-2004 Iraq boostering or yaying for organised Parties of the Right, it seems to have been subsumed by Koranic study groups and climate change ’scepticism’. Nobody any more loves foreign adventurism or any involvement with the politics of Government—in other words, the bizarre isolationism of old Black Helicopters Steve Edwards was three years before his time. They’re all libertarians now.
Am I the only one left who’ll actually barrack for realist liberal interventionism? Wither the Crusader spirit?
FdG -
“Wither the Crusader spirit?”
I can’t work out if you’re missing an ‘h’ there or not!
Hmmm. A good question, mutton chops. I’m glad you asked.
[steps away]
When a court case happened that my sister had to attend (related to a car crash) an article appeared on the paper’s website. Fortunately, people left intelligent and sensitive comments (except one person who was just ridiculous), but I really gritted my teeth before reading them. The quality of comments is very similar on some blogs (do I mention “Bird� - tweet tweet).
But this is a MSM piece, with the ability to leave comments (which does not make it a “blog” - you can leave comments at Your Say in the Age.) So, tell me again why this is not directly to do with the badness of sections of the MSM, rather than blogs? After all, we know that MSM writers , while they often presume to comment on the blogosphere, often reveal they haven’t done much blog reading at all.
Isn’t it the ability of unstable people to leave comments which is the issue here?
I’ve just been stuck in a lift so I probably couldn’t care less about this topic at the moment. I’ve been around the blogosphere for 2 or 3 years (don’t have a blog anymore and have no intention of ever doing it again - no time and I don’t have anything that interesting to say). I think you are placing too emphasis much on the supposed difference between the msm and blogs and blogging and leaving comments. There’s a lot of overlap. Yes, I think these forums (and blogs) should be moderated. I also think people should leave their real names. You’ll note that on some blogs virtually nobody leaves their real name. I suspect it’s because they know what they’re writing is nonsense, but they want to be in with the cool group and say really controversial things cause it’s such a giggle. I think blogging has merit (for example, as a way of giving certain groups a voice - I mentioned an article about Mormon feminist bloggers recently on this site), however, the Ozpolsphere is chockers with sad little boys hiding behind stupid pretend names. End of rant. I need a cup of tea.