THE HALF PAGE given over by the Irish Times today to the impact of blogs on Irish politics makes the point that the message matters more than the medium of blogging. Few TDs will conduct a buzz metric of their parishes prior to the next national election.¹ No politician in government today cares about tagging, trackbacks, flame wars or what Richard Waghorne had for breakfast. What would you expect from a cohort that opts out of facilitating comments on existing websites? The insinuation of Irish Corruption may pique interest but its author might think twice about future commentary since his blog shows up prominently on web searches for the term "gardai".
It's significant that mention of "blogging" now puts this social networking tool into the mainstream pages of national papers--out of the shadows of the technology ghetto where blogging gets most of its column inches in Ireland. It is also significant that political reporters are looking for easy ways to cover emerging agenda items. That reporters are hoovering blogs to find stories is nothing new. That political reporters are elevating blogs as touchstones of Irish chattering classes is potentially misleading because those who keep blogs in Ireland often fail to vote in their local constituencies. Pollsters know that and have advised the major parties accordingly.
It would be useful if the existing collective of politically astute Irish bloggers would comment on populist issues like health care, broadband uptake, road safety, cost of living, benchmarking, decentralisation, freedom of information, ethics of disclosure and value for money. As it is, most Irish bloggers recognise that the fastest way to forking the fledgling Irish blogging community is to pass around mandatory memes on political subjects. Articulate bloggers know they can alienate readers faster than a Love Ulster parade.
We will see and track a few bloggers dedicated to the cause of political discussions. But unless those blogs have a moderator as loquacious as Twenty Major they will never get as much visibility as pages discussing Aine from Sligo.
¹Liam Reid -- "Prepare for the power of the blog" in The Irish Times, March 21, 2006.
Adam Maguire -- "A brave new world in politics" in the "Life Features" section of the same paper.
MSN search for gardai (leads to corruption).
