Introduction / Thesis
During recent decade, it became clear to a considerable number of sociologists and political scientists that post-industrial realities often imply outdatedness of many classic socio-political concepts. For example, the process of economic Globalization has nowadays created preconditions for political notions to be discussed in terms of economy, for economic notions to be discussed in terms of criminology and for sociological notions to be discussed in terms of psychiatry. One of the most important aspects of post-modernity is the fact that it implies the process of private individuals engaging with mainstream politics as such that has very little effect on the body of these politics.
The recently emerged phenomenon of Internet-based political blogging, to which ordinary citizens resort to making their political opinions heard, substantiates the validity of earlier suggestion perfectly well – by becoming indulged in discussion of political issues online, people consciously distance themselves from mainstream politics as such that only formally relate to the concept of representational democracy. In its turn, this creates a paradox – even though blogging implies a certain degree of intellectual marginalization, on the part of its practitioners; it is namely web-based political blogs to which people increasingly resort as the only objective sources of information, in regards to surrounding socio-political reality. Therefore, the importance of political blogs’ sociological implications can hardly be overestimated – apparently, people’s online political activities provide us with the insight into technical aspects of Western civilization ensuring its geopolitical stability at the expense of becoming less and less associated with classical concept of representational democracy.
In this paper, we will aim to outline challenges and opportunities, associated with the concept of political blogging, and to define two research questions that will be thoroughly explored, during the course of this study’s consecutive stages.
Literature review
As we have suggested in Introduction, it is namely political bloggers’ disengagement with mainstream politics, which often define their stance on issues of socio-political importance. Moreover, the strength of people’s willingness to participate in online political discussions appears to be related to particulars of their racial affiliation. The conceptual premise, upon which Kim Eunseong had built his study’s “Are political blogs a different species?: An examination of nonelite political blogs” argumentation, has a direct relation to such our observation, because in this study, author was able to reveal the phenomenon of political blogging as such that reflects genetically predetermined emanations of people’s existential psyche: “Rather than representing the general public, Internet users (bloggers), especially early adopters, are composed of a small range of people in the population – highly-educated, wealthy White males” (2007, p. 4). The fact that Western societies are becoming increasingly multicultural, results in marginalization of mainstream political discourses – which is why, as time goes by; the very essence of these discourses is being transformed to serve the purposes of entertainment.
Therefore, it is only natural for the people endowed with high IQs to seek what Eunseong refers to as ‘discussional seclusion’. By posting articles in their blogs, politically-minded individuals simply declare their deep-seated contempt towards mainstream political discourses as being only formally discursive. In its turn, this creates preconditions for the segmentation of interactive/public democracy. Ever since political blogging had attained a status of a legitimate intellectual pursuit, we can no longer talk of the process of citizens interacting with each other politically as such that implies publicity: “Regardless of freedom from time and space limitations, online discussion groups often develop into ideologically homogeneous communities of interest” (2007, p. 5). Eunseong study’s conclusion emphasizes the counter-productive essence of bloggers’ strive towards ideological seclusion: “Online political discussions are megaphones for those with loudest voices and fail to encourage participants to listen to each other” (2007, p. 21). According to author, even though most politically-minded bloggers do believe that by posting their articles in the blogosphere they promote the concept of freedom of speech, thus benefiting society’s overall well-being, these people actually contribute to the process of rest of the public becoming increasingly depoliticized.
In her book “Cybering democracy: Public space and the Internet”, Diana Saco promotes entirely opposite outlook on the issue. According to her, the rapid progress in the realm of information technologies that had taken place, during the course of recent two decades, points out the fact that people’s physical presence is no longer necessary, in order for them to be able to engage with democracy. In fact, author implies the concept of cyber-democracy as being preferable to the concept of conventional democracy, which cannot even be conceptualized without citizens’ ability to participate in mass rallies and in what author refers to as ‘street politics’: “Our bodily needs of survival belong properly to the private realm suggests concretely that if we could be assured of the presence of others, without their bodies making an appearance, this bodiless public space would, in fact, be preferred” (2002, p. 59). Given the latest revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of computer science and the field of genetics, it appears to be only the matter of time, before people will be able to save their consciousness onto microchips – thus, attaining practical immortality.
The fact that the increased number of citizens experience growing attraction towards virtual reality, as opposed to the physical one, can have only one truly comprehensive explanation – the species of Homo Sapiens is now standing on the threshold of a new evolutionary (transhuman) jump. When this happens, the conventional concepts of democracy, political representation and pluralism will become instantly deprived of their theoretical soundness. Saco concludes her book by suggesting that it is utterly inappropriate to refer to bloggers’ tendency to seclude themselves within the boundaries of a particular political discourse as such that reflects their inability to cope with objectively existing reality, simply because in the future, virtual reality will grow to become indistinguishable from the physical one.
Such Saco’s thesis conceptually resonates with empirical data, collected during the course of Matthew Baum and Tim Groeling conducting their study “New Media and the polarization of American political discourse”, as this data implies the high degree of bloggers’ political awareness. In their study, authors have attempted to define what constitutes foremost difference between web-based and conventional political discourses. Authors’ application of a qualitative approach to researching the subject matter, had brought them to the following set of conclusions, in regards to political blogs’ metaphysical essence:
- The main characteristic of political blogosphere is its biasness,
- The main characteristic of bloggers’ approach to dealing with issues of political importance is the high degree of its ideologization,
- The main characteristic of Internet-based political discourses is their intensity.
As Baum and Groeling have rightly pointed out: “Our findings offer a striking validation for those who complain about one-sided coverage of politics in the so-called blogosphere” (2008, p. 359). In the realm of traditional politics, it is namely individual’s biasness and his or her willingness to confront its ideological opponents with whatever the means necessary, which defines this individual’s chances to attain socio-political prominence. The fact that contemporary mainstream political discourses are being associated with ‘tolerance’, as their foremost feature, suggests that these discourses have very little do to with actual politics, in the first place. As of today, there is very little difference that can be found about politicians representing mainstream political parties – the same grey suits, the same politically correct rhetoric, the same conniving smiles, and the same ability to lie most convincingly. This is why; it is namely posting articles online, to which bloggers resort in order to feel alive again, in political sense of this word.
In his study “Agenda setting and the blogosphere: An analysis of the relationship between mainstream media and political blogs”, Kevin Wallsten promotes essentially the same idea. According to author, even though the partisan Media outlets do rely on mainstream Media as the source of actual information, they are nevertheless capable of interpreting this information to correspond to subconscious anxieties, on the part of reading public – this is exactly what accounts for the process of online blogs’ popularity continuing to increase, as time goes by. The interactive subtleties of blogs’ web-posting create objective preconditions for this process to take place: “In addition to containing information about which issues are discussed, for example, political blogs contain information about how bloggers discuss an issue, how bloggers talk about the mainstream media, and, more importantly, to which sources bloggers choose to link” (2007, p. 582). According to Wallsten, the peaks of bloggers’ activity correlate with the peaks of conventional Medias’ activity, as has been illustrated during the course of 2004 Presidential elections. In its turn, this signifies the fact that, despite what many political observers assume – bloggers do react to objectively existing societal challenges and opportunities, which does not allow us to refer to them as simply Internet addicts. Apparently, by participating in web-based political discussions, bloggers declare their unwillingness to adopt a uniform outlook on a variety of socio-political issues – something that the owners of transnational Media corporations would like them to. Thus, the political activities that take place in blogosphere, should be discussed within the context of how intellectually advanced individuals strive to prevent Western societies from becoming ideologically oppressive, due to the fact that nowadays, the politically correct censorship is being indiscriminately applied to just about anything mainstream Media consider as the outbreaks of ‘racism’.
This suggestion does not mean that bloggers should be considered as representatives of nation’s intellectual elite, in full sense of this word, simply because these people’s online activities can also be taken as a sign of their existential weakness. As Larry Dailey, Lori Demo and Mary Spillman have implied in their study “Newspaper political blogs generate little interaction”, one of motivations behind bloggers’ willingness to participate in online political discussions, is their hypertrophied sense of their own importance: “Cynics see blogs as forums for narcissistic individuals, wannabe journalists, and amateur communicators—a medium forever stuck in the awkward space between public speech and private conversation” (2008, p. 53). It is namely this observation, which study’s authors rightly refer to as such that explains why newspaper-based political blogs draw little attention from readers. Nevertheless, Dailey, Demo and Spillman have failed to realize that existential narcissism is actually the foremost psychological trait of people, deeply affiliated with post-industrial realities – the more a particular individual appears to profess decadent values, the better are the chances for such individual to end up moving into secluded White suburbia. And, as we are well aware of, White ‘narcissists’ and ‘decadents’’ existential inadequacy often goes hand in hand with their ability to act as the only facilitators of cultural and technological progress in societies that grow increasingly multicultural. Therefore, even though bloggers are known for their tendency to live in the imagined reality, it does not necessarily mean that their political opinions should be rejected out of hand as overly sophisticated or unrealistic. As Plato had suggested in his famous work “The Republic” – it is namely philosophers (bloggers) who should be put in charge of designing nation’s social and political policies, because they are being capable of expanding their intellectual horizons by participating in activities that ordinary citizens perceive as utterly senseless (blogging).
In his study “The effect of the Internet on the homogeneity of the media agenda: A test of the fragmentation thesis”, Jae Kook Lee came up with paradoxical idea, which strengthens the validity of our earlier suggestions – even though Internet-based blogging does add to the process of society’s fragmentation: “Fragmentation prevents people from sharing a common experience and from understanding one another” (2007, p. 746), blogging also accounts for opposite effect – specifically, for creation of new political discourses that result in strengthening the fabric of society’s intellectual homogeneity: “Homogeneous news agenda exists among numerous political or public affairs blogs, providing evidence against the fragmentation thesis” (2007, p. 749). As we have suggested earlier – the rise of informational technologies had changed the very nature of conventional politics as such that were concerned with politicians’ ability to provide the public with only filtered information, in regards to important issues. Therefore, it will only be logical to conclude that it is a matter of comparatively short time for political blogs to attain a full informational legitimacy – the technologically and economically motivated process of society’s atomization, which continues to gain momentum as time goes by, substantiates the validity of this idea.
Research questions
The earlier conducted review of relevant literature, allows us to define research questions, which will be addressed in the study’s consecutive parts:
- What is the practical significance of an interrelation between people’s tendency to indulge in online blogging and the specifics of their ethnocultural affiliation?
(While researching this question, we will aim to discover whether bloggers’ genetically predetermined psychological anxieties affect their ability to act like productive members of society).
- What informational role will political blog posts play in the near future?
(While researching this question, we will attempt to reveal technical aspects of an online blogging as that correlate with the process of Western post-industrial societies becoming increasingly atomized, due to economic and political Globalization).
Bibliography
Baum, M. & Groeling, T. (2008). New Media and the polarization of American political discourse. Political Communication, 25 (4), 345-365.
Dailey, L. et al. (2008). Newspaper political blogs generate little interaction. Newspaper Research Journal, 29 (4), 53-65.
Eunseong, K. (2007). Are political blogs a different species? International Communication Association. Web.
Lee, J. (2008). The effect of the Internet on homogeneity of the media agenda: A test of the fragmentation thesis. J&MC Quarterly, 84 (4), 745-760.
Saco, D. (2002). Cybering democracy: Public space and the Internet. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Wallsten, K. (2007). Agenda setting and the blogosphere: An analysis of the relationship between mainstream Media and political blogs. Review of Policy Research, 24 (6), 567-587.