Philip Gomes

On The Insiders this past Sunday yet another big media guy made the claim (In the Sunday Papers segment - no transcript available) that the blogosphere is a media of rumour, unlike newspapers.

This time it was regular panelist and journalist Brian Toohey making the claim.

Well the news papers are following into the spirit of the blogosphere here, we're reporting rumours and this one is a rumour, rumours abound that Peter Costello may quit politics.....

For the sake of argument I'll assume an Australian political blogosphere.

Toohey's comments are of course a sad joke. There is no effective Australian political blogosphere to rumour monger.

It was stillborn several years ago when the big media players like News Ltd smartly leveraged their way into the format in their online media properties.

That development effectively killed off a developing independent political media infrastructure that may have been on it's way to becoming one like the highly effective American netroots version.

The political blogosphere in Australia is now 'owned' by corporate media entities like News Ltd and Fairfax - with the independent remnants of the early-to-mid 2000's toothless in terms of influence, and without the critical mass to make a difference.

In terms of independence we are left with media like Crikey and New Matilda but I don't think they qualify as truly so - they are as much a part of the corporate political class in Australia as a News Ltd or Fairfax.

Lastly, Toohey is wrong on substance when it comes to the Costello rumours.

Australian political leadership speculation has always been the exclusive preserve of the Canberra political class and press gallery, and it regularly graces the front pages of their newspapers and TV screens.

So, If the rumours come from anywhere now it's corporate media; with the independent political blogosphere a mere mirror of their sins.

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Long before there was The Punch, the Australian blogosphere was graced with the Stoush. Is the independent Australian blogosphere reawakening?

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I'm seeing this kind of thing appear more frequently. Is it just me that finds it odd and totally unnecessary that some bloggers post Tweets of the Day, Week or Month of their own stuff?

Isn't that the definition of lazy blogging?

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New media is a wonderful thing. Apply the filters and follow the links and you have a 'newspaper' worthy of the name. While social media filters are now an important part of how I select what I read, RSS feeds remain the foundation of my personal news.

I was going to blog a quickie about Malcolm Colless' bizarre argument against taking action on global warming but Deltoid did it for me.

You'd have to be a journalist working for The Australian to bring up a case where a international treaty is successfully solving an environmental problem and try to use it as an argument for inaction.

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Dave Winer.

Our blogs are still there, as is the web and the Internet. They never went away just because we foolishly flirted with something fast and easy and seductive. Our blogs never went away, they're still ready to share our ideas and connect us with others. 

It's true. I think we're all traveling this road, blogs to social media and back.

Blogs are still the foundation of the social web. It's where thoughts are built into something of substance - it's where you establish your social cred. 

If you have a now neglected blog, fire it up and write a post - something more than 140 characters and connect - if you don't, start one....now.

Sure, broadcast it to Twitter or Facebook, link and comment there if you like, that connectivity has become incredibly important too.

Build on a thought or an idea, like I'm doing here, produce something that lets us know more of who you are, what you're doing and what you think.

Something more satisfying than the aggregated snacks we now consume.

Why? Because we're going to need blogs now more than ever if we're to (re)build a news, information and ideas infrastructure outside of soon-to-be erected paywalls.

Blogs are what brought us to this point - the information, ideas and news blogs and bloggers bring us are what old media sees as it's nemesis.

It can't be done in 140 characters, a status update or shortened URL.

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Conflation occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, become confused until there seems to be only a single identity — the differences appear to become lost. ... Wikipedia.

Mark Day Mon 10 Aug 09 (05:34pm)

A general point: In the first 40-odd comments below there’s very limited support for paid news sites. Are we surprised? No. It’s fully anticipated (along with the abuse which some of you persist with, goodness knows why) and emphasises the point I make in the column ... the blogosphere is opposed, almost by definition. But my wider question remains - are there enough people in the rest of the world who do not share your passionate belief that news should be free, and are therefore willing to pay? I guess there’s only one way to find out - suck it and see.

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Mark Day

The instant Rupert Murdoch last week confirmed his plan to introduce charges for News Corporation websites around the world (including The Australian), the blogosphere lit up with condemnation.

I’d say 99 per cent of the reaction was negative, ranging from the adamant “I will not pay, full stop”, to the slightly more wistful “Bye-bye News”. 

On the face of it, any sensible marketer would fold the tent and move on. But I don’t believe what the bloggers say, and here’s why.

First, people who respond to blogs or website polls do not represent all people and cannot be described as a reliable cross-section of society.

Sure, there are an awful lot of them around the world and they can make a lot of noise.

A large proportion is convinced they hold a special place in cyberspace because they were quick to recognise its capacity to free them from the previously confined spaces of newspapers and/or magazines and their owners who they blame for perceived biases.

They’re knowledgeable about where and how to access their special-interest needs, they’re highly independent and they love it to the extent that many delight in dancing on what they see as the graves of last century’s media moguls.

But they’re not the total market.

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Just riffing off the above Tweet, where, once again, someone in established media (print/TV) has confused the roles of blogger and commenter.

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