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Interview: Left Wing Blogging and Irish Left Review
national |
arts and media |
feature
Tuesday March 25, 2008 14:22 by Chekov
Over the last few years, blogs and blogging have started to permeate the mainstream in Ireland. Features on bloggers and blogging have started to appear with increasing frequency in weekend newspapers. However, in comparison to the US, where blogs have become an integral part of political organising, blogs are very much still seen as marginal by the Irish political establishment.
Where to find left-leaning Irish Blogging? A Selection: Irish Left Review | Cedar Lounge Revolution | Notes on the Front | Dublin Opinion | Irish Election | Splintered Sunrise | Fringe Thoughts | IE Politics | Organized Rage | Tuppenceworth.ie Q: When did you first start blogging and why? Just over two years ago. It was mainly to stop fuming quietly while reading stuff online and to order my thoughts and give them some focus. I also started up a group blog and although it was only mainly me at the beginning, the aim was to have a place where me and some of my mates could sharpen our ideas, and do so in a more elegant and sartorial style than we were capable of down the pub. One friend I hoped to rope in is living in France and a blog seemed like the perfect way to get us all doing something together again. Q: Are there many Irish blogs that have left-wing outlooks? There are a few at this stage, but the majority of blogs don't focus on politics specifically, so sometimes its hard to tell which way individual bloggers lean politically. However, I'd say there's about 10 or so Irish Blogs with a left-wing outlook. Perhaps, though, these are just the Irish blogs with a left-wing outlook that I read. There are now hundreds of Irish blogs, so surely there is more than 10 lefty ones out there. Q: Why did you set up Irish Left Review? Q: Do you think blogs and other internet projects such as irish left review will ever be able to really challenge the ideological hegemony of the right, with their giant corporate media infrastructure? Well, that's a big question. There is no doubt that a small group of people working part-time on this won't be able to give large media organizations a run for their money - in the short term - there is no comparison in terms of resources. However, it is interesting how these organizations are reacting to the web. Basically they are doing as little as possible to engage with it at a time when online audiences for news and current affairs, for example, is growing. Our objective was never to compete directly with giant corporate media and to try and supplant their message with our own. However, there will be a directed attempt to develop an alternative and coherent debate so that people who are engaged in Left politics in Ireland will have the resources (the facts, arguments, ideas, strategies) to counteract the ideological hegemony. At the moment, because of the dominance of a right-wing ideology in Ireland there is an acceptance that if you're going to debate political matters within the media that you have to do so within the parameters set down by the dominant ideology. We are going to try and show that you don't have to accept the terms of the debate as set down by the corporate ideologues. Because the public forum so far has been provided by large media organizations it has been easy for them to set the agenda. However, with the Web, you can develop other public platforms, which we hope, through the structure of a magazine, we can utilized to create another debate and that in time this will be significant and authoritative enough to challenge the cozy consensus we see regurgitated in our media everyday. |
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