A very interesting debate (thanks to Nudge blog for pointing this out) about whether blogs are good for democratic engagement is available on the link below. Linking behaviour on blogs to counter-views is seen as an important pattern of behaviour in the role of blogging in democracy. Susstein also gives some interesting views on how self-regulation might improve the blogosphere. Volokh gives also some strong points on the importance of not censoring blogs and the improvement blogs can bring in terms of democratic debate
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/11548
2 comments:
It strikes me that blogs are largely the preserve of insomniacs, people with too much time on their hands and other assorted cranks [happily, I fulfill at least two of these criteria].The notion that blogs have something to do with the health or otherwise of democracy reflects a certain hubris. Is there any evidence that it matters? Eh, no but if it makes you happy hey "rave on, John Donne". Indeed the "blogosphere" [yuck] may have a pernicious effect by persuading well-meaning but naive individuals that this is somehow a meaningful form of social engagement or political activism. It is popular because the marginal cost is low notwithstanding the fact the marginal benefits are probably zero.
And thats my 10cents
Kent Brockman
some benefits of blogs
- maintains debate outside of normal forums.
- allows a more dynamic way of keeping in touch with relevant developments in your field than simply signing up to journal alerts
- linking behaviour allows cross-talk between many groups
- facilitates a sense of community
- allows more experienced people to pass on information to less experienced quicker than was possible before
- creates some awareness of a group working on different things and potentially fulfills a role for seeking out like minded people
- in some sense (and im sure others have argued this) they are like the cafes in vienna where a lot of ideas were debated before they influenced the mainstream viewpoint.
- in general though, you'd have to distinguish blogs like ours which is more like a message board from political blogs and tech blogs where people tend to really go at it. the blog as message board has such huge technological advantage over things like email lists that i dont think it will go away anytime soon.
Post a Comment