Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Can blogs affect politics and society?

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Mathew — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:11:13 -0000

Yes, thanks Jon. A fascinating issue from the Economist -- not a bad
overview. I wrote a post on it when it came out the other day.

And thanks for the comments.

Mathew

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Jon Husband — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:06:54 -0000

I assume you're aware of the recent Economist survey on New Media, which is asking the question also as to whether blogs, wikis, vlogs, social software etc. are fundamentally changing (or will) business and society.

http://www.economist.com/su...

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Jon Husband — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:04:16 -0000

There are more examples than most traditional leaders in media, journalism, politics and government, and business can shake their fingers at, and various initiatives and communities (of interest, activism and innovation) are connecting and sprouting all over the Web, all around the world. And then of course there's that pesky emerging principle of *wirearchy*, as a supplement to traiditonal hierarchy ... but I would say that, wouldn't I ? ;-)

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:05:20 -0000

I work for a nonprofit tech project called Net Squared: Remixing the Web for Social Change and we've got a list of nonprofit blogging case studies at http://netsquared.org/cases...

Thought that might be of interest! Good luck on your presentation.

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Tim Finin — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:09:00 -0000

I generally like to watch the Keith Obermann show on the US MS/NBC cable channel. It's a news show, I guess. One thing that annoys me about it, though, is that the last half hour seems to mostly be devoted to stories that bounced around on the internet that same day. So I think that the show has a bunch of young 'reporters" whose beat is to sit in a windowless room and surf the web. Talk about outsourcing!

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Mathew — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:55:42 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Tim. That's an interesting paper -- thanks for pointing it out. My own pet theory is that blogs have effectively just become part of the ecosystem that the mainstream media relies on for ideas about what is really going on in the world.

Mathew

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Tim Finin — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:48:13 -0000

While it's probably not controversial to believe that blogs influence politics and society, it may be hard to prove it objectively. An easier task is to show how blogs can influence other blogs and Web based communities. Akshay Java has been modeling influence in blog communities and has a technical report on it: Modeling the Spread of Influence on the Blogosphere. I think the work can be extended to document the spred of information and ideas from blogs to MSM. That's a bit closer to showing that blogs affect society.

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Stuart MacDonald — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:56:13 -0000

An e-Chicken in Every Pot.com

One of the things we will be exploring at mesh is the impact that social media and the interaction that web 2.0 is enabling is having on politics and society.

In the US, for instance, political blogs have almost become mainstream, with some sporting weekly reach and unique visitors numbers which exceed all but a handful of major newspapers. The Huffington Post, Captain's Quarters...the list goes on and on, and the influence grows.

Not to mention the role that the web has played...

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Mathew — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:25:15 -0000

Thanks for the link, Seth. That's quite the post from Respectful of Otters -- and it has a point. But is it that surprising that blogs would be used by one party or another to try and influence or spin a story? Seems to me it happened a lot during your elections and the Banana Boat controversy or whatever it was.

In a way, that illustrates how blogs are becoming more a part of the political infrastructure, which is exactly the kind of thing we want to talk about at mesh -- not how blogs are some kind of altruistic, lily-white voice of the people, but how they become part of the conversation... for better or worse.

Mathew

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Seth Finkelstein — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:59:45 -0000

Thanks for the offer, but what would be the point? Not to mention I live in the US. Anyway, here's an interesting link I've remembered on the topic, with particular application to Canada:

Respectful of Otters
(see Friday, April 08, 2005 entry)

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Mathew — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:50:29 -0000

I guess we'll find out, Seth. Maybe you should come and say that. Might get some discussion going.

Mathew

Re: Can blogs affect politics and society?

Seth Finkelstein — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:43:12 -0000

Bah, humbug. Is there anyone there who isn't going to say "Blogs are just the bestest most disruptorious democratic people's pamphleteering revolution. Down with the MSM! Advantage bogosphere!"?