With blogs discussing everytyhing from how to deal with infection if travelling to how laughter can be the best medecine, this would be described as a media circus were it not for the serious nature of the problem. Every blog I read regularly and have come across by accident recently has dealt with the topic, and it really has gripped the world, if not with terror, than at least with curiosity.

xkcd's take on online swine frenzy

‘anything s grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage’

Most television could easily fall into that category. Women with exposed hair and bodies, premarital sex, contraception, evolution; all are accepted parts of life for the majority of people and all offend at least one section of one religion. If this bill is passed and upheld, comreg will become the busiest semi state body in history.

There are a few reasons for this. One is the anonymity factor I mentioned earlier. Explained in a slightly more concise fashion here. Actually, most other reasons are branches of this central one. They are

1. Nobody knows if you’re lying, or even if you’re who or what your profile says you are.

2. Typically, the personality type that posts on forums extensively is somewhat repressed and insecure in the real world(or IRL if you will) and so will try to assert their dominance over others in the forums because they have more time to be witty and respond than IRL. This will take the form of intimidation via superior knowledge, or simply calling the prospective opponents sexual orientation/religion/existence into question.

3. If not type two, people will very often purposefully try to annoy those who are type two, via disinformation or treating them to some of their own medecine.

4. Forums are dominated by white male heterosexuals. Only if you ingratiate yourself to this majority will it be accepted that you are not a part of it.

There are no links in this post because any popular site(imdb, youtube, boards.ie, even the college view) will have their forums dominated by the above practices. So if you call on forum knowledge or advice just be wary of what you’re receiving.

Oh, they’re similar alright, oh you betcha. But only in the way that books are similar to newspapers. It doesn’t matter how corrupt or blinkered(thanks Zeitgesit) they are, I’m always going to go news sites for news stories, and I’m not alone here. As i’ve mentioned in pretty much every post, the Irish Times’ site leaves a lot be desired as a website. Does this limit their site traffic? Not one iota. People still want news from reputable news sources. If I want a personal(and usually long winded) or funny appraoch to a story I’ll go to some of my favourite (topic specific) blog sites, be it for gaming, music, technology, or just plain inane humour. I won’t be going to any of these sites for a news digest, but if I want specialised information, they are my port of call. This is exactly why blogs won’t ‘kill’ the paper. They are best utilised as a source of information on a specific topic, not for journalims. And why exactly is this? Becasue any news blog worth its salt gets its news from the same news sites as all the mainstream papers anyway.

The real difference made by Zeitgesit and Addendum is how they proliferated their message. Most theories of greater enlightenment require a subscription fee and some form of pledge(The Secret, Scientology et al). The members of the Zeitgeist movement have made their ideas and videos free to all, and their only stipulation in regard to reprinting of their material is that you don’t attempt to make a profit off the copies. That such an anti-establishment message can be so easily accessed speaks further volumes for the power of online journalism. We might not save the world, but we can tell you how you can.

The biggest and most recent example I could find of convergence empowering the media was the video on the guardian’s website showing the unprovoked attack by police on Ian Tomlinson at the G20 summit. I know I’m probably the last person to mention this, but the fact that an important piece of visual media was first broadcast online on a newspaper’s website rather than on a TV news channel speaks volumes for the importance and power of the online journalist. Add to this the fact that it wasn’t a guardian staffer but a member of the public who first recorded the video and have the merging of media mixed with the power of hyper local journalism I mentioned in an earlier post. It seems journalism dates almost as quickly as computers.

The most salient point in the blog is that the people most likely to respond to a request for their opinion are, by definition, going to have an opinion preformulated, and it often doesn’t matter how reasoned your argument is, their side must be heard, and then be taken with the same amount of credence as yours, even if you know much more about the topic in question. As was said by Sean McTiernan in a recent issue of the college view, we are all equal, but that does not mean your opinion is as valid as someone who has done the research. Add to this the anonymity of the internet and you get serious problems, mostly centred around people trying to pick fights with the author of the piece, other comments and very often people who aren’t even there(look at the comments on any youtube video). Accountability is essential for journalists, and the internet offers the easiest way to do this(unless, like the Irish times, you don’t allow comments on any articles except opinion pieces), but if you open the floodgates marked ‘free comment’ you have to be ready to deal with some utter nonsense.

Sean addresses the important fact that Twitter has lost much of it’s exclusivity potential, as most news organisations have caught up with the act.

Much of the appeal of twitter is updates from admired persons, famous or otherwise. Unlike many other celebrity endorsed social networks, which rarely have any substantial information, celeb twitters range from excellent and insightful to sadly lacking.

Despite all of this, Twitter remains an important journalistic tool. The article Sean links to highlights the handy ability to pose interview questions as one of its key strengths.

While 140 characters is a little short, even for attention drained generation that exists today, it very often gets the job done.

As much as I agree with Stephen’s point that revenue from hyper local journalism is something of an untapped source, I’m slightly more idealistic in my praise. This is news that comes straight from the source, and by avoiding news organisations it retains a personal touch, something journalistic articles by definition cannot do.

It is a topic much loved by bloggers, partly because it affords them the opportunity to perch themselves upon a soapbox and become just a little self-important. But many of these blogs simply report on work done by other people. This is not really their fault, as they can’t force themselves to live in strife torn, censorship rife areas.

Even when they are revisionist posts, like this one, they still have a fantastic air of credibility lacking from even the best foreign correspondents.

The 2006 census states that 41.9% of the then population had competency with regard to the Irish language, while just over half a million were everyday speakers. Most people would say that in terms of a worldwide population this is small number, at best. Tá sé fós níos éasca eolas a fháil as gaeilge ar an idirlíon ná í a fháil i leabhair(it’s been a while, so my syntax probably leaves a lot to be desired). Firefox, Internet explorer and Wikipedia are all available as Gaeilge, Irish recipes are available on most cooking sites and Cu Chullain and the Tuatha De Dannan have made themselves at home in the blogosphere. That this tiny a minority still holds sway in the endless democracy of the world wide web speaks not only for the power of the blarney, but also for the internet itself.

In terms of online journalism the Irish language has a rather strong showing and, due to being something of a special interest, its news is maintained rather better than that of its English language counterparts, with interactivity on beo.ie being far better than that of say, the Irish Times, and even includes a glossary of terms on each article for non-gaeilgórs. However, much like everything else, there is good and bad. Lá Nua is almost impenetrable, and only contains downloads of issues, both in text and artistic form.