The Impact Of Blogging On Society And Politics

Slide 1: The impact of blogging on society and politics Conclusions from the discussion held on 27 September 2007 at the « East Meets West » European Journalism Bloggers (Un)conference Moderator: Luc Van Braekel

Slide 2: « impact » Awareness  Opinion  Behaviour  Public agenda  Media  Blogosphere  Web  Market of ideas  2/10

Slide 3: Trust in journalists and MSM is waning 16% of British adults trust journalists to tell the  truth [Ipsos Mori poll, 2005] (politicians scored 20%) Not because of what they write, but because of  what they don’t write Public broadcasting: dependent on politics  Commercial media: dependent on advertising and  profit Bloggers can learn some things from journalists:  writing style, techniques, general guidelines. 3/10

Slide 4: facts, opinion, objectivity The new age is the age of opinion, not  facts Importance of credibility  Credibility depends on « honesty »,  not on « objectivity » or « impartiality ». 4/10

Slide 5: From web 2.0 to politics 2.0 Political campaigns are already changing into a  more participatory way as a result of web 2.0 and blogs. This effect is probably still superficial, impact on  political programs is still low. Effective for fundraising (e.g. Dean campaign)  Higher impact in the US, but Europe will following  It’s not only about politics, but about society  « Grassroots » movement (cfr. Wikinomics)  Ideas are flowing from bottom to top instead of top  down. 5/10

Slide 6: Group blogs vs individual blogs Individual blog can be very important  Independent voice  Active citizenship  Group blog has many advantages  Diversity  Higher posting frequency  6/10

Slide 7: Countries without free media « the bigger the impact, the higher  the pressure » More difficult to get wide  coverage/audience Sometimes indirect, via world media  or foreign websites news about censorship:  www.globalvoicesonline.org 7/10

Slide 8: How to measure impact Hits/pageviews are not that  important Quality of readership (« opinion  makers ») Surveys can be useful to  discover who is reading your blog. 8/10

Slide 9: 9/10

Slide 10: 10/10