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March 12, 2003
Some dicussion about the meaning of weblogging in the light of the possible impact of the market has been kicking around as a result of this post by Tom Coates and this post by the Happy Tutor.
I would like to connect this discussion to John Quiggin's article in last Fridays Australian Financial Review (subscription required, 7 03 2003, p. 4 Review) on various happenings in the blogosphere. This article is briefly mentioned on John's weblog Metablogging (Friday 7 March 2003).
Basically John's thesis says that weblogs have manged to recover the old promise of the internet before the commercial boom of the 1980s killed it off. The promise was:
"...a world of free information in which the hold of the mass media was broken by thousands of individuals and small groups, each publishing their thoughts to the world..the original vision of the internet has been revived in the form of the blog phenomenon....Until very recently, it seemed probable that weblogs, like Usenet and chatrooms before, would end up. in essence, as a hobby---of intense interest to participants, but largely irrelevant to those not directly involved."
John counters this sceptical view by the webloggers cutting the credibility of two Americans Trent Lott (US Senate majority leader) and John Lott (pro-gun academic) in the face of an almost silent mainstream media. The media eventually followed the trails cut by the US webloggers. Webloggers have influence and they are read by columnists in the media.
Where to now? What role do weblogs play in liberal democracy? Can they be a form of political expression in civil society? Can they be more than this? Can a cyberculture be contra the free market?--a question asked by the melancholy cultural critics at a heap of junk for code
John's tacit answer is that webloggers can act as watch dogs for democracy. They can and should seek out, and tell, the truth. The webloggers take over the old liberal idea of the media in democracy aas the fourth estate, and so are a bit like journalists. This view of weblogging is strong in the USA, and it has its proponents in Australia.
However, John rightly rejects the claim found amongst some US webloggers caught up in the revenge of the nurds that:
"...blogging will displace traditional media. Bloggers are dependent on the public record and that public record has been largely created by traditional media...it is unlikely that weblogs will displace traditional newspapers any time soon. "
So where does that leave weblogs? John's answer is to rework the original promise of the internet in terms of weblogging as protojournalism:
"Nonetheless, the dream that anyone who wants to should be able to publish their own newspaper is closer to reality at any time in history. The implications have yet to become fully apparent, but they are sure to be profound".
The broken promise is overcome with the weblogger as a journalist who is writing something like an opinion column with links.
Though attractive this conception of weblogging is too narrow. Weblogging is more than a part-time journalism, even if they are the new watchdogs criticising on the old media watchdogs for becoming the lapdogs of executive government. There is an excellent post on weblogs transgressing the limits of journalism by Chutney at myIrony.com
Though John does mention other forms of weblogging, notably the diary form, he fails to consider weblogging as diverse forms of creative writing....Many of these diverse forms of writing stand in opposition to the utility ethos of the self-organizing market. This form of writing, which I find significant, is one that overlaps with the literary institution as much as it overlaps with journalism.
As a part of a literary culture this creative writing lends a voice to suffering within a damaged life. It lends a voice suffering through interpreting the experience of suffering in a dissonant world. From this perspective one could say that it is better for weblogging to disappear altogether than to forget suffering or allowed the historical memory of acummulated suffering to be obliterated.
This signposts a different pathway to John Quiggin's conception of weblogging as a form of journalism. It is one few webloggers have travelled for the journalism option appears to be the most attractive. However, the alternative art or culture pathway takes us into a struggle around instrumental rationality, freedom and democracy.
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