New Statesman: Bloggers are ‘the fifth estate’
Blogging on New Statesman, Laurie Penny writes:
Cosy members of the established commentariat eye bloggers suspiciously, as if beneath our funny clothes and unruly hair we might actually be strapped with information bombs ready to explode their cultural paradigms and destroy their livelihoods. This sort of prejudice is deeply anodyne.
Bloggers aren’t out to take away the jobs of highly-paid columnists: we’re more ambitious than that. We’re out for a complete revolution in the way media and politics are done. While the media establishment guards its borders with paranoid rigour, snobbishly distinguishing between “bloggers” and “journalists”, people from the internet have already infiltrated the mainstream.
Penny adds some great insight from online publisher, blogger and “digital activist” Cory Doctorow into bloggers’ role as “the fifth estate” with an ability to challenge and bring down traditional media approaches to commentary, especially political commentary. She concludes:
One thing, however, is certain: journalism is changing forever. The notion of political commentary as a few-to-many exercise, produced by highly-paid elites and policed by big business, has been shattered beyond repair.
Tags: bloggers, blogging, blogs, Laurie Penny, political commentary
Similar posts:
- Currybet.net: Will social media’s influence on political engagement continue post-election?
- Online commenters are like ‘particularly aggressive sub-editors’ says Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow
- ConservativeHome blogger granted lobby pass
- Bloggers to stand in Malaysian election
- William Hague and the power of the political blogger
