In case you missed the link in The Age’s business section, here’s cs on blogging and politics. The shorter cs? Bad news for the columnists, and blogs will help to get some political balance in the opinion wars:
Amid all the discussion over the impact of the new forms of media on mainstream outlets, little analysis has been offered of the practical consequences for political opinion making.
These will be significant, at least in Australia. The rise of alternative online media, especially the extraordinary growth of the blogging phenomenon, may finally disturb a structural advantage long enjoyed by the conservative side of Australian politics.
Much hullabaloo has been made of independent internet sites and bloggers scooping the mainstream media in breaking stories and battering it to death with fact checking.
The new media’s limited resources mean these achievements are only ever going to be intermittent, and the independents will never substitute for the substantive news functions of the main outlets, let alone professional investigative reporting.
Mainstream political opinion makers, on the other hand, are looking straight down the barrels of the new media guns.
Another issue is that many of the op-ed writers like Devine, Bolt, Kingston etc do nothing but ad-hominems and strawmen. The internet has turned that skill into a commodity.
Thanks for that Mark (although I’m still coming to terms with the idea of “the shorter cs”!).
Not so sure you’re going to win out against MSM. Mrs O was enquiring about the munchkins (5yr old R-1s) favourite TV shows when one little girl said she had to watch the final of BB to see who won. Mrs O was a bit taken aback and asked the class how many watched BB and most of the class put their hands up. You’re never quite sure with littleys, but she wasn’t game to ask the same question about BB Uncut. Getting them young these days. How savvy will the next generation be?
“The internet has turned that skill into a commodity.”
Yes and yes. And the whole rest of the kitbag of opinionism. Hendo was the first Oz casualty of blogging.
Opinionistas need to be a cut above the blogging pack in the future.
Chris, the shorter cs is partly because I was out all day then home for about half an hour and then out at a gig so I lacked the time to write some longer thoughts on the shorter cs!
No worries Mark. I was just trying to get in before some howler monkey called my pompous. But now I see that the first thing I have to do is take Naomi to a splendiferous lunch!
Oh well observa, I discovered my pensioner mum watched BB (but not that “filthy” uncut…oh really mum, how do you know it’s “filthy”…?) Don’t kids always follow the mindsets of their grandparents?
Frankly it was good to see Ozoblogistan’s favourite fodder get their first written warning. I wonder if they have cottoned on that in their brave new world they won’t get a second, and unlike Hendo, they won’t be able to bleat about unfair dismissal.
Savvy or jaded Observa?
wbb, I think most of the really heavy hits have been scored by the right. Hendo wasn’t done over by blogs, he was done over by Jaspan. He stilll writes for the SMH, last time I checked.
Given cs’ unbroken 100% record of being wrong, I consider this article as grounds for cautious optimism.
I wasn’t as impressed as others here with the article either. cs’ idea of a good commentator seems to be someone who simply and uncritically subscribes to ALP policy. The ALP is currently casting around for an identity and a policy framework that makes it relevant to the electorate, and, more importantly, competitive as a genuine alternative government. So of course left-wing (not Labor apparatchniks) commentators take different and often divergent positions as they watch the process getting underway.
There is a qualitative difference between commentary on a government – which has power, makes things happens, implements policies – and commentary on an Opposition that simply fulminates from the sidelines and can’t actually do anything. That’s why the commentators cs dislikes focus on real-world events and their significance in terms of the national interest rather than the wispy political mythologies beloved of Margo Kingston and her ilk.
Chris wouldn’t agree but these words of his –
– seem to me to be the lodestone of good op/ed commentary. We need more of it, not less. Party hacks we don’t need, and nor does Labor.
csÄô idea of a good commentator seems to be someone who simply and uncritically subscribes to ALP policy.
Nonsense Rob. I didn’t go to what makes a “good commentator”. That’s a different topic.
And I agree we don’t need “party hacks.” Presently, I tried to argue, we have far too many.
As for Evil:
Given csÄô unbroken 100% record of being wrong, I consider this article as grounds for cautious optimism.
Why am I 100 per cent wrong? In the two major elections I blogged on, I was wrong in thinking Latham would win two weeks out from the vote, and I was right in thinking Bush would win at around the same point in the US election. Still, my business is to try to explain the past not foretell the future, a topic on which I have no better qualifications than anyone else – although, if I may be excused, this doesn’t stop me recalling that, at around the same point out, I picked the rugby world cup quite nicely, if I do say so. *boast*
Agree with cs that one of the nice things about blogs is the way sources can be drawn into the writer’s argument, letting the reader make the judgement about the worth of the source as well as the writer’s opinion, and that the feedback loop from comments can make blog reading more entertaining and informative than traditional op/eds.
Agree with Rob that I don’t want party hacks of either persuasion in the media. I want the media to be holding the government of the day to account not acting as a cheer squad. There’s a role for an op/eds that agree with government policy, but I’d rather that they concentrated on explaining why it’s good policy than saying that anyone who doesn’t agree with the policy is a dill.
Having said that, I’m not sure how effective tradional newspaper op/eds are at shaping public opinion. I’d gues that, in Sydney at least, radio jocks are much more broadly influential.
A NEW fundamentalism is stalking the Australian political landscape. Often couched in the language of religion, it is in fact deeply rooted in politics.
Its adherents, like all fundamentalists, keep their politics of hate simple. Rejecting nuance, ignoring the complex, they present us with the world according to them.
Have a guess who said that.
“Have a guess who said that”
Danni Minogue?
I was close though wasn’t I?
“The rise of alternative online media, especially the extraordinary growth of the blogging phenomenon, may finally disturb a structural advantage long enjoyed by the conservative side of Australian politics.”
I almost fell of my chair laughing when I read that.
The Coaliton has been winning despite the best attempts of the Journalists’ Union – exactly what structural advantage are you referring to? The advantage that the electorate can think? Maybe?
What great achievements have left wing blogs achieved so far? I will see each success you can name with a right wing success, and raise you one each time!
Whatever. It’s just an opinion, and everyone has one, even you. Congratulations.
And who did say that Rex?
Have a guess who said that.
Adolf Hitler.
It’s always Adolf Hitler in these guess-the-quote things.
According to Tim Blair, it was Janet Albrectson.
I have no further comment to make on Evil’s suggestion.
“In the future, everyone will be Hitler for fifteen minutes.”
Your 15 minutes are up, EP.
Fyodor I suspect anyone who has ever been a toddler has already had their 15 minutes.
Perhaps, but when will EP stop behaving like a toddler?
On the internet, everyone will be famous to 15 other people.
Brilliant, Nabs.
The Answer? I would have printed it upside down on the same page, or maybe overleaf, but there are some technical things that the blogs can’t yet do. Oh yeah, the answer – Janet Albrechtson 30th July 2003 – On lefties who hate Australia.
That’s the amazing thing about the conservatives. They can’t decide whether they’re for or against nuance.
Sorry Zoe didn’t see your comment – are you channelling him or something?
And there I was, thinking of one of those great places for lunch in the mountains! One minute splendiferous, next minute Esme’s.
*shudder*
Esmes. I just had a Proustian flashback. Fortunately it passed.
Nice article, Chris.
Should be ideal when the spring colours come out. In the meantime, I’ll do some restaurant research. I’d suggest inviting Kim too, but it’s a long way from banana land.
Done. How does a lazy late September Sunday sound?
Footy is indeed sancrosanct. Will email to firm up the day, as we get closer.
Rex, I have listened carefully to David Tiley’s tips on getting the most from google. So who’s this then – Why has savage personal abuse become such a part of public discourse, particularly from the intellectual class?
Zoe, I can’t believe you made me spend ten seconds of my life finding out who it is.
Sorry, darls, and bless for that link. Shame it wasn’t Kamahl, hey?
I just feel duty bound to comment in any thread with the word “dinosaur” in the title. That is all.
Chris, and Naomi, advise me of the date and I’ll split a banana sundae in your honour!
Nice one Zoe.
Test.