Three questions for the future of the blogosphere
Posted on December 12, 2010It’s a measure of Iain Dale’s huge success as a blogger that his departure from the blogosphere has led people to question the very future of political blogging itself.
A blog is dead, but blogging will live on – there is no reason inherent to blogging why the medium itself should die out, unless Government sets out to destroy it. Twitter is a complementary not competing medium, offering an outlet for snap reaction, jokes and debate but not providing space for longer analysis.
The real questions over the future of blogging are about its form and freedom. To my mind there are three essential issues about what may lie ahead.
Who will blog? With the departure of Iain, Tom Harris and Will Straw it’s clear that some of the first wave of big bloggers are moving on.
There is a natural churn in any industry or hobby – but to have churn, new must come in as old departs. This blog is still a relatively new arrival on the scene, but I confess I can only think of a couple of other new political bloggers. Of course that may be because i haven’t found them yet, not because they don’t exist. Which brings us on to the second question:
How will the blogosphere function? The right wing blogosphere has developed – utterly organically – an infrastructure. Three main hubs (Iain Dale, ConservativeHome and Guido Fawkes) pull together the blogging that’s out there and transmit traffic to blogs further down the food chain.
One of those hubs has been removed, though I know Iain has expressed an interest in keeping the Daley Dozen feature going.
It’s not particularly healthy for any sector to be so reliant on so few hubs. The Big Three didn’t set out to build a monopoly – nor could they if they wished, given the way the Internet works. All three have in fact gone out of their way to provide a ladder for smaller blogs to garner extra readership through regular linking.
Really it’s down to the rest of us to work harder to build a new infrastructure in Iain’s place – either through a scrap that results in the emergence of another big beast or, more likely, through greater cooperation and linking between a number of medium-sized beasts.
The third and final question is the long-term and ultimately fundamental one. Who will control the blogs?
Iain’s departure is at least in part because his blogging has generated other work, such as his LBC show, which has ended up taking over his time. The ConHome team have long been able to work as essentially full time bloggers, while Guido seems to be taking the middle road of overseeing the blog while Harry Cole becomes News Editor. In the States, the professionalisation of blogging is best seen in the growth of the Gawker Media network.
This an understandable shift. Iain felt he had the choice between blogging and making a living in his dream job. Guido has strengthened his position enough to be able to afford to employ Harry but as a result has a business that consumes much of his time.
My concern is what this means for smaller blogs. On the plus side it means there is hope that at least some people can make a living from blogging.
On the down side, I fear this professionalisation may have unintended and perhaps inevitable consequences.
Look at the history of newspapers. When printing first became relatively cheap and widely feasible, in the 17th Century, it was an anarchic, free speaking and hugely popular industry that leant itself naturally to scepticism of power and authority.
The pamphlets produced were of varying accuracy and quality, but the public were free to decide what they liked. Ultimately, the pamphleteers’ radicalism was one of the driving factors in the English Civil War and the birth of the libertarian movement in England. The parallels with the recent history of blogging are obvious.
But the pamphlets eventually changed. Essentially, they became modern newspapers. Writers were able to become professionals, and quality improved – but regulation tightened its grip, and eventually a turgid morbidity set in. 300 years on, those weaknesses led blogs to become appealing, necessary and successful.
So maybe we’re seeing a similar shift taking place online (only faster, given the speed of modern technology). Professionalisation of the blogosphere is market-driven, so there’s little we can do about that. What we can and must do to escape the eventual fate of the pamphleteers is resist regulation. Hazel Blears has already led calls for the regulation of blogs, and I’m sure more such voices will follow – keen to stamp out a source of uncomfortable criticism and scrutiny.
There is a danger that as leading bloggers become professionals, Government will use the shift as an excuse to regulate what they can portray as an industry. Only by nipping that in the bud will hobbyists, spare-time bloggers and potential stars of the future be able to keep going. As with any market, to ensure competition and innovation the barriers to entry must be kept low.
If some bloggers are able to become professionals, then good luck to them – but to keep the medium relevant and therefore alive it must remain open, cheap to do and above all free to speak as it wishes.
Tags: Blogging, Conservative Home, Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale, Left Foot Forward, Media, New Media, opinion, Political Blogging, Politics, Tom Harris MP, Twitter, Will Straw
Categories: Culture, Opinion, Politics
By ‘professional’, you presumably mean paid. Some blogs manage to produce regular, original, high-quality content without being ‘professional’: indeed, they are more professional than many professional journalists. The political blogs that succeed are those which have something to say: like the pamphleteers, they succeed because their message chimes with a sizeable constituency. If the Government (or, more likely, the EU) attempts to regulate this, bloggers will simply morph into another movement. The genie is out of the bottle: clamping down on blogging freedom risks a civil cyber-war and further fracturing and fragmentation of the dissemination of information.
20.12.2010 13:23
Your Grace, I do indeed mean paid by any other name – your blog is a good example of one which is professionally produced but run purely at the cost of your own time and effort.
I too am thinking of taking advertising, if MessageSpace will have me…
20.12.2010 14:07
Adam Boulton reckons that the blogs that have thrived have effectively become mini-news organisations, because comment alone doesn’t cut it. Nick Denton’s Gawker is moving away from blogging towards a magazine like format.
20.12.2010 13:29
Funny that from Boulton, because the ‘macro’- news channels are little more than comment and opinion themselves. Why should blogs obsess over the distinction? It’s content (bland or spicy) and then click on a link.
BBC, Sky….no different.
21.12.2010 16:31
…but His Grace easily devotes 20 hours a week to his august blog, which possibly makes him ‘semi-professional’. Though he earns not a bean, or a crust – the blogosphere stipend is meagre. He is thinking of taking advertising…
20.12.2010 13:47
Good article and I agree with pretty much all of it.
The brilliant thing about blogging is the low entry cost. This combined with changes in technology mean the format keeps on evolving. But it is hard work to produce consistently good content when you have a full-time job elsewhere. On Platform10 we try to improve our chances by sharing the workload between three of us.
As you say, we have found the three main hubs to be very supportive in taking what we do seriously. It is always a good feeling to be linked elsewhere! I also hope the Dailey Dozen continues as it’s probably the best place to find out about new Conservative blogs. But I do also have a nagging feeling that there is a space here for another type of right-wing link up group, one that offers support and camaraderie, even if you don’t see eye to eye on everything. It’s important that this group is there to support bloggers and has no political agenda apart from supporting right-wing blogging in all its forms.
Talk of wanting to ‘regulate’ blogging reminds me why I started doing it in the first place! Plenty of laws already exist which can be used to stop libelous and pernicious activity. Blogging gets it strength from its freedom.
20.12.2010 13:51
There is an uncanny silence in the blogosphere, not just from the blogs that have announced closure, or as in Iains case, moved on, but from some who have just fallen silent with no explanation.
Nick mentions support and camaraderie, and that is an important aspect , if we are not supportive to each other, we will be lone targets for the government to pick off. I was disappointed to see some of the attacks on Iain over the past week – which really don’t need to be made public. Perhaps we could all help by presenting a united front to the governmental enemy and not tearing lumps out of each other in our quiet moments.
It wasn’t mini cabs themselves that forced the government into regulating the industry (such as it is) it was the constant petrol bomb attacks from one firm to another that focussed attention on the wild west aspect of the business – ably abetted by the licensed taxi firms who were only too happy to point out the outrages.
Some of the things I see written on-line make me wonder whether blogging has a death wish…….
20.12.2010 15:09
I have thought about setting up some kind of networking event, but thought it would just end up being talking about blogging to no useful purpose – which is what the left do at their events. Content is what matters for success…
20.12.2010 15:19
I agree content is king. I would also add that persistence, geekyness and having a slight touch OCD all help if you want blog! Having an event may not be of much use, especially if it just ends up as a navel gazing thing. Off the top-of-my head maybe something like a online service where new bloggers can e-mail questions to an experienced panel who will then respond. It could also inform people about relevant events. A couple of months ago I want to something run by YBF on how to be a better blogger which was really worthwhile
20.12.2010 16:36
A quick up-date. I have just come across an advert for a Net Roots conference which is happening on Sat 8 Jan. It’s full of useful workshops, offers great networking opportunities and is only a fiver. Of course, the downer is that it is for those on the left.
http://www.netrootsuk.org/workshops/
21.12.2010 21:50
Will Straw? First Wave. I think not. Hanging on to the coat tails, more like
20.12.2010 16:01
Surely successful blogging will evolve into some kind of magazine-type publication, as it becomes more successful it requires some kind of financing to keep going. Perhaps Guido should consider a paywall…
20.12.2010 16:38
Good post that, in truth, replays some of the issues discussed in several blogs that make up the Macblogosphere. I think the Planet Politic’s blog and Better Nation blogs have certainly raised these issues, funnily enough bemoaning the lack of a Dale figure in the Scottish blogging scene.
20.12.2010 17:46
Doesn’t this whole talk of a blogging infrastructure rather misunderstand the nature of the web? Whilst it would be wrong to suggest it can’t be curtailed, the measures needed to do so would require such an impingement on freedom of speech in general that I suspect blogging would be the least of our worries.
In addition I’d quite like to know what rights established political bloggers feel they require that aren’t afforded to professional journalists? Surely not the right to libel? But if not, then what?
20.12.2010 22:22
Just as we didn’t know that Iain Dale or Guido Fawkes would blog before they began blogging, we don’t know who will start blogging. We can only know who has started blogging.
The blogosphere will always be disorganised. The lack of organisation and the independence of ammature bloggers is what makes the blogosphere different from online print media. The success of blogs with few readers depends on them being promoted by bloggers with a large audience or by the media, and on their authors blogging regularly.
Some blogs will be individual blogs, and others will be team blogs. There will always be a combination of individual and team blogs, but team blogs may get more exposure and therefore be able to attract bigger audiences.
20.12.2010 23:24
Not so sure that blogging has to move to be a news medium as well as comment. To cover the news means you need to be full time
As others have said, content is king, this can be comment on current events or something that adds depth to a story
If you feel the need to post something about every newsworthy event that is tail wagging the dog and quality will suffer or resource demand increase to the point of being full time.
I have noticed people tend to read less and less about politics if politics is all a blog talks about. If a blog talks about the political aspect of a particular issue and backs that up with well written and accurate content then that is a recipe for success.
Politics does not exist in a vacuum, that is the trap that some of the mainstream media have fallen into. They assume that because they care about the tittle tattle of Westminster, everyone else will do the same.
Political blogging has to avoid that or else why bother
21.12.2010 08:54
This is a good assessment of the current world of British political blogging. Remember however that this is just one very small part of the blogging universe. In other sectors the trend has been for a few ‘professional’ blogs to become part of the formal media while smaller operations have become champions of single issues or just carried on down one particular route without trying to become a credible news source.
For me I blog for pure enjoyment. My blogs are (generally) about the communication of politics and campaigns which is where my experience is and what I do. Running my own communications business I don’t have time to try and build an uber blog to fill the gap left by Iain Dale. Nor would I want to.
The right of centre owe a lot of thanks for the role Iain played in building an online community and acting as a great source of news and gossip. He has left a gap that can, hopefully, be filled by 10 smaller blogs which will strengthen not diminish the right of centre in British politics.
21.12.2010 10:28
Interesting. What makes amateurs venture into the blogosphere? Ease of entry may only be a minor factor, and the desire to do something more than simply contribute comments to other people’s threads will be relevant but not overwhelmingly so. Perhaps there’s something echoed in the title of a John Redwood book – “I Want To Make A Difference (But I Don’t Like Politics)” – which would explain in part why many bloggers on the right would not wish to become involved in local Conservative Policy Forum groups because of the sheer futility of contributing time and effort that will only be ignored by those on high. OK, writing online material will not guarantee an audience but it’s much quicker and easier than giving up an evening once a month for no useful purpose.
21.12.2010 12:42
Many bloggers will not need to professioanlise as it is a hobby. Good luck to Iain for using it to make a career choice for himself, but this is not typical. Most blogs stop becuase people run out of steam and enthusiasm.
Another key question is why do people blog? Will Straw wanted to become known in his party and chose a channel to further his own ends. Iain got his media career. My blog is a hobby so is less likely to stop because it has no impact on my non-blog life, perhaps more akin to Cranmer.
A new generation can take up the baton. However, the regulation point is a real danger – much of what was written a few years ago would now result in court cases following Yasmin Alibi-brown’s approach. Twitt
21.12.2010 16:16
I was rather amused to see you describe these people as being part of the ‘first wave of bloggers’. Fifth wave, perhaps. UK political blogging existed for years and years before Iain Dale, and many good bloggers came and went before Dale and Straw et al decided to jump on the bandwagon.
28.12.2010 10:39
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