Senator Andrew Bartlett
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
 
Politics & the Power of Blogs – Potent or Pissweak?
Views wanted

Occasionally I read something – usually on a blog - about the power of the blogosphere and its revolutionary implications for politics. Unfortunately, my own experience when I say “I have a blog” to somebody – even politically engaged people – is that 95% of them will reply “what’s a blog?”

I’m all in favour of mechanisms which better connect people with political processes and better empowers the ‘average’ person. However, I’m also in favour of avoiding self-delusion, so it’s not useful to overstate the impact that blogs currently have, particularly in Australia. The big question for me is what the future propsects might be.

Next month in Sydney, I’m giving a presentation at BlogTalk Down Under, a two (and a bit) day conference devoted to blogging. The Conference theme is “Emergent Conversations”. A lot of the program has yet to be published, although one of the headline speakers, Rebecca Blood, sounds very interesting to me. If you are interested in the current and future options of blogging as a form of communication, it would be worth going to (plus you get to hear me speak of course, which is always a treat).

I will be talking on the topic of blogging and politics, with a particular interest in its impact from politicians’ perspectives.

A recent report in the The Times details a new blog site, set up by people aligned with the UK Conservative Party, which styles itself as a discussion forum for conservative beliefs. This follows an article by former Tory Leader, Iain Duncan Smith saying that the “blogosphere will become a force in Britain, and it could ignite many new forces of conservatism”. This seems partly predicated on the belief that the mainstream media is left-wing and blogging enables right-wingers to circumvent this bias. I can’t see much evidence of this in Australia I must say, but maybe the media is different elsewhere. Still, it is a welcome development that politicians overseas are seeing value in the medium.

Whilst there are many politically focused blogs in Australia, I haven’t found many amongst Aussie politicians, especially when compared to the UK and North America. A former Liberal Minister, Graham Keirath, made a very good effort when he ran as an (unsuccessful) candidate at the recent WA election and I’ve seen a few around for local Council candidates. There’s one by Carlo Carli, a State MP in Victoria, and from Meg Lees and Malcolm Turnbull at the federal level – all of which I have to say I find a bit sterile (sorry guys).

I expect blogging amongst Australian politicians will increase to some extent, but I’m not sure how useful it will be, especially at a national level. As with any area of endeavour, most politicians won’t do something unless they see some value in it, and it has to be of use or interest to a sufficient number of others for it really to have much wider community or political value.

I would be interested in any reader’s views about whether blogging - whether by politicians or by people interested in politics - could be (or is) of value to the political process. I’ll write some more on this a bit closer to the BlogTalk conference.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, April 06, 2005 Permalink
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