Can weblogs change politics?
Are you interested in the political implications of weblogs and social software? Then come to Can Weblogs Change Politics? - an event held in the House of Commons on July 14th. Here's an quick excerpt from the proposed topics of discussion:
"Weblogs (‘blogs’) and associated "social software" tools have been this year’s big news online. But can they be used politically, and if so, how and to what end?"
I'm really looking forward to discussing this component of the programme, because I think that it's one of those statements that could only be made by someone directly involved in politics. The assumption seems to be that the weblogging publishing system is a tool created that one could use to effect political change - presumably by allowing MPs to communicate more fully with their constituents or by being a point to actively campaign around. What's completely missed are the potential implications of a massive group of people interacting with each other and with information and news in massively more active ways. We're not in that kind of world yet, and indeed we may not ever be, but if large blocks of the citizenry started to organise their relationships with each other, with information provision and with government and mass media then that would have a dramatic effect on political life in this country. When we see the whole Trent Lott debacle in the States, and the effect and importance (for good or evil) of people like Glenn Reynolds who quickly became politicised loci for massive numbers of warbloggers, then the question stops being "Can they be used politically?" and starts being, "Are they changing the nature of the citizenry?". And if you need some help with that one, check out GW Bush's presidential campaigning website and particularly the middle panel of this page...
So anyway - it should be a good debate, even though (typically) all the invited parties seem to be relatively short-term webloggers who are employing them as tool to facilitate their day-jobs. It's a shame that there aren't any representatives of the culture itself on the panel. I'd have liked to have seen one of the UK's directly political (or community 'embedded') webloggers (the Politx crew for example) represented. But the UK has always been more suspicious of trends and behaviour that emerges from the masses than the States has, so I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised...
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
You said: "...the question stops being "Can they be used politically?" and starts being, "Are they changing the nature of the citizenry?""
I don't think the question will change, it won't be one for the other, because surely it goes both ways. Not only could weblogs be used as a means for MPs to communicate more directly with voters in their respective constituencies, but this should go hand in hand with the potential for communities to organise themselves politically. As it is, there's no real debate as phrases - carefully worded, meaningless jargonism - gets flung from side to side. Weblogs and online social networks at least habe the potential to bring debate back to democracy.
→ Posted by: MacDara at July 6, 2003 1:00 PM
Big thanks for posting this, Tom. If you have any of your frequent thoughts on this you want to print up and hand out at the event then let me know; i'm trying to put together some "material".
→ Posted by: James Crabtree at July 6, 2003 1:15 PM
Maybe it's just me, but it seems the web and weblogs have made *party* politics more irrelevant and antiquated. Politics these days is more like a state of being. Ironically perhaps, despite being ever more catalogued, we are slipping out of the net, power is slipping from grasp of political dinosaurs and a kind of 'individual anarchism', as it has been called, though it was always there, is coming to the fore. Though the web blinkers people, it also unblinkers people after another fashion. The new power is that of revealing oneself. Oldtime politicians, existing in a world of spin, cannot afford to do this, unless they are small fish. So to me the territories facing up to each other are the power of simple truth and honesty against political spin. Tom Watson, MP, for instance, has shown himself to be eminently approachable with his blog, and his personal experiment is a success, but I doubt you will see him coming in drunk and stoned one evening and posting some rant about Anne Widdecombe. He has to preserve decorum. The old order demands it. This shows I think that blogs are for individuals, and party politics doesn't like individuals, they are a danger to the herd, they can cause a stampede with their wild frolics in the undergrowth. And the populace is in general stupid and will stampede with them. What is changing is the nature of personal sovereignty. The party politicians are becoming surplus to requirements. Their power is limited to soap opera and if you don't have a television, like myself, what impact do they have? Bugger all. Fuck 'em, they're dead.
→ Posted by: Biroco at July 6, 2003 1:30 PM
Being a blogger who has a long-term interest in politics I have to say that I'm intrigued that you have registered an interest in this event.
Just out of curiosity why don't you do the political compass test and post it on your site?
→ Posted by: irritant at July 7, 2003 4:31 PM
I kind of like the idea that it's starting from a different position to the usual. I mean, yes, getting down and dirty with the community aspect is all well and good, but the people on the panel are genuine, I think, rather than fly by nighters. Let's see what happens.
Anyway, while we're not on the panel, I'm definitely planning to attend. This floats my boat on pretty much every level.
→ Posted by: bobbie at July 7, 2003 5:09 PM
Irritant - I did the relevant test and my results are here. I'm not sure I completely buy its results, but it's roughly accurate - centrist with libertarian and left-wing tinges. I'm surprised that you find it surprising that I should be interested in these areas - I don't tend to talk about politics on my site, but that doesn't mean I'm not engaged...
→ Posted by: Tom Coates at July 7, 2003 9:43 PM
From looking at your site in the past I never seen anything with a political opinion either way.
Seeing you had mentioned your interest in this seminar I searched your site via google and still couldn't find much either but that can be due to search techniques and algorithms.
While people don't need to discuss politics to have political values I had genuinely wondered if you were avoiding expressing political views and that's what prompted my query.
My own scoring is clearly marked on my site because although I don't comment on politics much, it can be helpful for readers to know where I'm coming from. However that's just a personal decision.
See you at the seminar.
→ Posted by: irritant at July 7, 2003 10:39 PM
You can find a little summary on the Dean 's Net-campaign and also on his used of weblog. Netpolitique.net tries to understand why and how a weblog is interesting on Net-campaign. Blog perhaps is efficient in Personalisation, humanisation and linking.
http://www.netpolitique.net/php/articles/dean_uk.php3
→ Posted by: Clems at July 9, 2003 9:54 AM
Party politics and representative democracy are facing a crisis. Politicised webloggers are a reallity, an ever increasing force for change. The question "But can [blogs] be used politically, and if so, how and to what end?" only indicates to me that the power elite have been caught on the hop, and as per usual are out of touch with what is happening at grassroots level...
→ Posted by: Human B Leever at July 13, 2003 8:39 PM