Do not peek at my blog

There is nothing quite as awkward as finding out a family member has looked inside your diary. And even worse if they found out something you never wanted them to know.

They might have discovered a silly cartoon of themselves surrounded by expletive adjectives, or secret evidence of your true sexuality. So many scandalous sightings all point to the same thing – the diary was not meant to be read by others.

What a different world we have entered. The blog, in some perspectives is like an online diary, but in complete contrast, it demands to be read. It is representative of a world where we have become increasingly connected, and wish to communicate more and more. We no longer wish to be the muted receivers of information from so-called “gatekeepers”, the all knowing Journalist. We wish to make and spread information ourselves. Voyeurism has entered all mediums and issues.

All this has been made possible by the arrival of Web 2.0. Although coined in 2004, the term represents a complete shift in the last half a decade in the way the World Wide Web works. It describes changing technology and functions that have enhanced creativity, collaboration, sharing, and the ability for the average consumer to create the Web without needing to learn complex and chaotic codes. It has led to the development of such features like

- Social networking sites (like the famous Facebook)
- Video Sharing Sites (the monopoly being of course, YouTube)
- Wikis – online encyclopaedias, which can be edited by anyone.
- Folksonomies – the ability to tag content to organise and direct traffic to certain things and maximise hits when something is searched for.

And of course the great online splurge of thought –
- The Blog.


In this intriguing article, the rise of the blog has created a paradigm shift in the world of journalism and information. Now Mr Random IP can create his own “publishing empire”, and the traditional gatekeeper faces competition.

Yet do we really care what the common layman has to say about the world? Why should we? It seems the blog has evolved to become far more important than anyone could have anticipated.

Wayne Hurlbert explores in an article here how one popular purpose of blogs is to be activist, or promote societal change in areas that may be traditionally ignored by mainstream journalists and politicians alike.


Activist blogs are many and varied, including topics like feminism, birth, libertarian politics, to the legalisation of weed.

It has become more and more common for issues to become popular in the “blogosphere” even before they reach the mainstream. If enough tens of thousands, or millions of people read the issues, a shift in the power relations of information occurs, in the direction of the grassroots.


How does the mainstream media compete? Well, by admitting “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. The old traditional gatekeepers have embraced blogging. Most online versions of major news organisations will have a series of blogs. Here is one of the most popular, seen by millions across the world. The author, like many others, knows his ramblings may be scrutinised as much as his evening broadcast, so quality standards remain vital.

Even so, the more informal style, and comments system are the precise point – they create a more real-time, 2-way, communicative style of information, to be complained about and commented by the audience.

The new information world is dawning, and nothing symbolises it better than the blog. No longer are we scrambling to hide our leather bound secrets under the bed. We want to read, be read, hear and be heard.

We have things to say and we are saying them.

Citizen Journalism and Democracy

When Dr Andy Williams of Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies delivered a lecture on the role of Citizen Journalism in democracy, it got me thinking -

Do citizen journalists make democracy better?

The fundamental definition of democracy is where the supreme power has landed the job in a free electoral system by the people. So at the basest level, the media's role in a functioning democracy is to report and cover the people and parties seeking office.

But one of the old limitations of the mainstream media, is that to find out most of the information we need to about politicians, we are slave to the judgement and choices the hacks on Fleet Street make.

This can therefore profoundly shape the fortunes of democracy, and the successes of individual politicians. How can we vote for someone if we do not know anything about them? Excusing of course information the politicians themselves advertise to us out of their own pockets. But most routes to finding out about our govermentnts have traditionally been through the media.

Until now.

The rise of Citizen Journalism is a recent thing, particularly within the last few years. Most of it is to be found springing up all over the World Wide Web. The average joe is reporting on the issues of the day, and his copy, video, audio and pictures are being seen by millions.

And Citizen Journalism's role in democracy is being seen right here right now, all around us. Next month one of the most important elections around the world will be decided. Will it be Obama or McCain? So simple to sum up, but isn't this bipartisan choice so, well, simple? Is there not more on offer?

Just ten months ago, there actually was, as the primaries gave the chance for voters to elect someone from over 20 different personalities in the main two US parties alone. Sadly, 20 is a lot of people to cram into broadcast timeslots or newspaper margins, so enter the citizen journalists! They had their say in trying to sway the path of democracy away from inevitability.

Nobody represents this shift better than Dr. Ron Paul. A 73 year old Republican congressman from Texas, this man captured the hearts and minds of well over a million Americans, and secured enough votes and delegates in the primaries to take fourth place in the Republican Race. An anti war libertarian, his pro-civil liberties, anti-big government views made him stand out from the rest in his party, who seemed steadfast in their support for many of George Bush's policies.

But I will both be disappointed, and yet not too surprised if most of the British people reading this have not heard of him. Low figures in the official political polls simply meant the mainstream media did not cover him enough over in the US, let alone in the UK.

The blogosphere and networking media went nuts for him. News portal websites like http://www.ronpaulforpresident2008.com/ and http://www.dailypaul.com/ would post multimedia reports covering his every move from professional journalists to an ordinary member of the public. This article showed how for a significant part of last year "Paul" was a number 1 web searched term as ranked by Technorati.

This article shows his placing as the top number of You Tube subscribers for most of his campaign - pipping Obama, who begrudgingly settled for second place. Such was the enthusiasm and buzz generated by his online rise, he managed to break fundraising records, by receiving the largest amount of campaign donations ever received in one day in US political history on December 16th, at over $6 million, all of it received online. In the final quarter of 2007, he raised over $9 million more than the second highest Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani.

I could discuss the many myriad reasons why the citizen journalist driven revolution for this man did not in the end get him elected. Perhaps their voices are not yet as powerful, and Ron Paul would have needed full, regular, supportive coverage by all mainstream media outlets to secure the nomination. Primary and Caucus voters were clearly not all active Internet users. Yet the Journalistic fire in ordinary voices tried their hardest in making a different, perhaps better choice than Obama or McCain.

Citizen Journalism is clearly causing a stir in the outcomes of democracy, but it has not yet seen clear revolutionary results to suppass the efforts of the mainstream. In fact the relationship between the mainstream and the alternative media is crucial to its success. When the two are combined, does it help or hinder democracy?

Take a look at this video, where Fox News utilised User Generated Content (UGC) in the form of a post debate text poll, which frequently crowned Ron Paul the winner of the Republican debates.

The issue of quality standards is ongoing - can we trust what the public thinks as truthful and accurate?

Sean Hannity as the major pundit is clearly displeased and disbelieving of these polls, claiming the Congressman's supporters must have texted in repeatedly.

As the regular political commentator, who are we to believe? The earnest texters, or the adamant proclaimers of the phrase "he has no chance of winning"?

When there is a discord between what the public say and think and what journalists tell us to think, you begin to realise Journalism's role in making democracy better may yet have a long way to go.