The Bloggers Neighborhood
Through some convoluted route that I won't take the time to reconstruct I arrived at weapons of mass distraction HOW THE WEST WAS WON AND WHERE IT GOT US and scrolled to the bottom, please individual archives, where Bias in the Blogosphere(original link broken readable in parts on google was described as a good read. How I missed this I'm not sure I try to read this Aussie Blog, Mentalspace , regularly and recommend it highly.
It begins:
This is the result of my harebrained scheme to involve blogging in my university studies. That's right, I've joined the noble tradition of undergraduates attempting to gain credit for their hobbies. In this case, I've attempted to apply the Herman/Chomsky propaganda model to the blogosphere, and submitted the essay for my Politics and the Media class.
It is definitely a good read and my personal experience bears out much of what he says.
You know how it is you discover a new blog and suddenly you see it everywhere, so I was not too surprised when I found that the author of weapons of mass distraction is also writing at WarbloggerWatch and is currently taking on Eric S. Raymond's "Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto" in a lengthy but worthwhile analysis entitled Anti-rhetoric non-manifesto outlined as follows:
This is not a counter-manifesto, but a reality check for the new western fundamentalists. Bit by bit, an overview of the collection of platitudes echoed down from the most ardent celebrity columnists rooting for mass brainwashing:
manifesto-rhetoric: what it boils down to
* what has really been exposed
* the new western taleban dogmas
* revaluating political propaganda over mass bigotry
* recycling the good old 'clash of civilizations'
* making Al Jazeera happy
* build your own barbarians
* pop will save us
* even the government isn't THAT stupid
* trendy word of the year
* militia-men paranoia in full swing
* a very successful hunt
* Rumsfeld begs to differ
* more paranoia and an NRA endorsement
* hilarious adventures in unknown territory
A lot of reading here, but if you're tired of the link and post cliche ridden posts too many of us indulge in you will enjoy this refreshing bit of rational discourse.
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Comments
It is a good read, but I had some issues with it. Issues of methodology, really.
For one thing, the 'evidence' offered of gender bias consists entirely of one instance in which Doc Searls referred to 'babes'. There may well be gender bias in blogging--in fact, I suspect there is--but the evidence wasn't there to support the author of Bias in the Blogspheres assertion. Likewise with some other claims--there just wasn't the support required. Which made some of the conclusions, though intuitively reasonable, not really in any way demonstrated by the essay.
Also, there was too much reliance on so-called 'a-list' bloggers as evidence of their own impact. To demonstrate that, say, what Doc writes and reads precludes me from 'succeeding' by writing something else requires exploring the marginalized blogs, not only the most visible ones.
Still, I was glad to see asking questions that more of us need to pay attention to and write about, even if Bias doesn't provide a complete model for how to explore them.
Posted by: steve | October 25, 2002 10:51 AM
There is nothing that you said that I would disagree with. It was more an outline than a fully developed essay. the section on the enforcer certainly resonated with me having experienced it first hand. I viewed it as a good point of departure for further discussion.
Posted by: Norm | October 25, 2002 6:55 PM
Absolutely. It's a great place to jump off, and I appreciate that someone got the conversation started. I think it now falls to those of who read the essay to carry on the discussion.
Posted by: steve | October 26, 2002 6:16 AM
Thanks Steve, a clarion call to action if ever there was one. Now the difficult part, getting off our butts long enough to do it.
Posted by: Norm | October 27, 2002 1:21 PM