Blogging, David Farrar and Information as Power

I blog because I believe that on-line debate is a really important part of the public sphere in New Zealand. Indeed, blogging is an incredibly powerful tool in shaping public opinion.

And the recent hysteria across the political spectrum against the Electoral Finance Act has made me realise why I blog. The frothing at the mouth by many B grade public figures and opportunistic politicians, fanned by conservative blogs like Whale Oil Beef Hooked, David Farrar and others, lets those of us who don't like getting on bandwagons to bash governments realise the importance of presentation of information on-line.

Bill Ralston in his column in the Listener recently commented that most blogs are no better than letters to the editor, and many far worse. Nevertheless, he admits he reads many of them, and this love-hate relationship between much of the online New Zealand public and blogs characterises why they're so important...It's because people can read blogs for free when they want to!

If I wasn't a political junkie, and wanted an update on politics here in NZ, I wouldn't go out and buy a Herald for maybe two or three articles on how John Key is the newest incarnation of Jesus Christ and how the Electoral Finance Act is turning New Zealand into North Korea.

No!

I'd hop onto Google and search for something that interested me within NZ politics, or alternatively I would cruise around all the links on people's blogs. I imagine this to many bloggers and blog readers, this above statement would be incredibly redundant. But for a large number of people living in countries like New Zealand with high internet access rates (and too much spare time in the office before Christmas), it's a really important self-realisation that bloggers, big and small, are becoming the opinion-shapers of debate in New Zealand.

Information is power. And bloggers these days can often put a more interesting spin on information than the traditional mass-media. And they summarise what are often complex issues into relatively simple paragraphs.

Despite loathing his politics, this is why I think David Farrar is rightly one of the most powerful individuals in the New Zealand media.

[Incidentally, the 'Supporter Image' pages of David Farrar's Anti-'Free Speech Coalition' show that supporters of the Sense of Life Objectivist Movement (Lindsay Perigo's current rather fragile personal political bandwagon) are rather numerically superior to any other group. If David Farrar and John Boscawen want to build a popular movement against the EFA, they're not going to get many average Kiwis wanting to join up with pro-George Bush free marketeer Islamophobes on their marches!]