Anyway, I’m inspired to post today by what seems to me to be indications of a definite move into a second “wave” or “phase” of Australian political blogging. A lot of bloggers seem to be moving towards group blogging, underwritten by advertising revenue - higher-traffic political bloggers are moving towards long-term, monetised and (hopefully) more sustainable models of content-making. (This is apart from those bloggers - the Bolts, Blairs and Dunlops - who are already operating successfully within MSM sites).

Examples:

• The group of blogs including LP, Club Troppo, Skeptic Lawyer, Ambit Gambit etc who are all operating under an umbrella of paid ads.
• Andrew Landeryou’s new “Vexnews” site, which appears to have multiple contributors.
• Possum’s new venture, Pollytics, announced yesterday:

There’s obviously a crucial tipping-point here. If anybody can make a living, or even a decent retainer, out of political blogging through advertising, this offers the prospect of long-term sustainability. Recent reports by Mark on LP suggest that some of the biggest blogs are getting close to this tipping-point. That’s good news for media diversity in a country that badly needs some.

Of course, it doesn’t wash away the problems of financing investigative journalism into the future, which even established MSM outlets seem to be having trouble with. But it does suggest that alternative political commentary in the blogosphere is getting near the point where it pays well enough to pay the rent, and that bloggers are reorganising their activities to make the most of these opportunities.

I’m excited about the new challenge, but it’s a sad moment, and the conference that Axel’s been liveblogging here has been, for me, an occasion to catch up with the colleagues who have made this job such a valuable and fascinating experience. My Gatewatching comrades Axel and Barry are included in this, but there’s also Terry Flew (who’s been a valued mentor and friend for many years), and OLO’s Graham Young who’s also become a good mate as a result of this job. I have active collaborations with all these folks that I’m looking forward to delivering over coming months.

Perhaps it’s ironic that my last act in the job before coming onto campus to pack up was attending an excellent plenary by Mark Deuze on the accelerating impermanence of life and work in contemporary culture. Mark’s presentation is part of ongoing research that extends the arguments offered in his book, Media Work. In the presentation, he was thinking through the mobility and liquidity of modern life. It was food for thought for me personally - after less than a year here, and a little over two years in a previous job in the UK, I’ll now have had more employers in half a decade than my father has in his whole career, which he’s spent happily in the city he was born in. What’s gained and lost in the move towards contant mobility?

Other people will be packing their offices today, and thinking about impermanence, including the outgoing Senators of the Australian Democrats. The Democrats have been an important part of Australian political history, but in particular bloggers and blog-watchers will be wishing Andrew Bartlett all the best in post-political life. It’s a great shame that the boldest experiment in Australian political blogging is now coming to an end. Lots of stuff about this around the blogs - I’ll leave it at linking to Andrew’s own post detailing the last question asked by a Democrat in the Senate, on child protection.

It’s also worth noting that Andrew was representing Queensland in the senate, the state in which I’ve lived my entire life (apart from the sojourn in Britain). Suddenly, there is a brace of Queenslanders at the highest echelons of public life, but people like Andrew have been central in incrementally changing the image of the State in the minds of other Australians. I think many of my friends and colleagues have been helping out there, too. I’ll be leaving the State for an extended period now, and I’ll miss it terribly, but I expect to be amazed each time I return at the rapidity of the changes happening Statewide, not least to the landscape of Brisbane.

I guess nothing lasts forever any more.

At other times it seems the wheels of the political blogosphere are greased with the oil of personal vitriol.

Indeed, on one view the chief purpose of the political blog isn’t the production of argument, but rather the staging of ceremonies of degradation and purification. The blogger’s goal is to solidify a tribe of acolytes around them, and to ritually degrade those who are seen as renegades from the cause.

Now, some of Burchell’s past work I’ve enjoyed, including his book Western Horizon, but this is pretty glib, to say the least. It’s an utterly sweeping comment to make about political bloggers, and anyone who reads political blogs regularly knows that right across the political spectrum, there are bloggers who do much more than engage in flame-baiting. Even those who do specialise in snark will usually have more interesting and considered things to say from time to time.

It’s hard to know who he means. Is Burchell including his colleagues at the Australian in this (whose work is often now presented online in “blog” form)? What about News Limited colleagues who are active bloggers, like Tim Blair, Andrew Bolt, Tim Dunlop and Jack Marx? Is he saying that they are all just “staging ceremonies of degradation and purification”? Or does he just mean independent bloggers? If so, is it really the case that blogs from Ambit Gambit to Club Troppo to LP to the psephs are all just engaging in personal abuse? These don’t seem to me to be sustainable claims. Also, whose “view” is he quoting here? None of it makes a lot of sense, or rather, it’s hard to make sense of because it’s at such a high level of generality.

One of Sauer-Thompson’s commenters suggests that Burchell’s really just “trolling in a column”, and the lack of specificity or generosity in his comments makes that conclusion tempting. P’raps he needs someone to offer him a guided tour of Australia’s blogosphere - from left to right, and from MSM to independent bloggers - in order that he might come to appreciate the diversity that’s out there.

More on this from Kim at LP.

I have been posting like a madman today because I saw how close we were to the magic milestone of 100 posts this morning. Yay.

Time to take stock. My favourite moments and biggest retrospective lulz on the way to this landmark include being “Blaired“, “Bolted” and “Parished” all in the space of a week. Awesome. Thanks for the initiation ceremony, guys. Readers’ magic moments can be added in comments.

I guess this is also a good point to make a clear announcement on the blog that next week is my (Jason’s) last one on deck full-time at QUT. From July 1st I’ll be moving to GetUp! to be their eDemocracy Director. I’ll be helping them with a number of things, including developing projects around long-term citizen engagement with the political process. More on this later. Anyway, very exciting, and a chance to achieve some worthwhile things.

I’ll still be blogging here at Gatewatching, though the character and frequency of my posts might change slightly. I’ll also be maintaining a connection with the research project at QUT, so I’ll be around the traps publishing and conferring in this field of research.

It’s been a great year working on the projects, and also helping to establish this blog as an adjunct to the research. The one thing I’ve found this year - and I think I speak for the others as well - is that the best way to learn about blogging and citizen journalism is by doing. This and youdecide2007 have been the most valuable learning experiences in my career to date, and they have been lots of fun, too. Thanks everybody!

I’m going to try to attend, but I’m hoping I won’t be wasting my money - Andrew Bolt only gives 80-1 odds on Rudd surviving his first term!

Via TOK comes some advice from Todd Zeigler on John McCain’s “spread the word” campaign, which has been seen by bloggers as a toolkit for outright trolling. (Go to the TOK post for the full story). Zeigler offers some pointers for those who want to engage with the blogosphere, and campaign on existing blogs.

Read the blogs and familiarize yourself with their communities before posting comments.

Read the actual post you are commenting on before posting anything. Read other people’s comments as well before posting.

Make sure your comments are on topic.

Participate in the community beyond simply posting pro-McCain materials.

Be civil and respectful of others members of the community,

Sounds like a pretty sensible set of guidelines that could serve more generally for anyone hoping to engage with the blogosphere to promote their services. That could include, say, large Australian banks and their PR representatives.

To put it simply - don’t just randomly add a spammy comments to every blog: if you want to get into the blogging space, do it properly and respectfully!

HT: journalism.co.uk

The report shows the top 30 - to my surprise, Huffington Post is there, but Drudge is nowhere to be seen…

In short, petrol is approaching $3 a litre on some islands. In the Strait, the main means of transport is the tinnie” - small aluminium motor boats. When petrol prices hit these levels, it affects the prospects of one of the main sources of employment in the region outside government services, the fishing industry. It also affects people’s ability to access markets for their goods, basic services, and the price of fresh fruit and vegetables. The 7.30 Report yarn made it clear that the viability of these communities is important for the rest of us too - along with preserving an amazing, unique cultural heritage, strong communities in our northernmost islands help with border security, customs and quarantine control.

But we shouldn’t have to rely on the MSM to convey all this to us in the occasional feature. It would be great if there were more people on the ground providing hyperlocal coverage of the issues affecting the Islands. This isn’t just a matter of infrastructure, but of literacy, and of actively promoting and evangelising the use of blogs and other open publishing platforms.

The State, obviously, is better-placed than anyone to do this in remote communities. That’s why I’m hoping that, along with the current emphasis on security, the Government will start to avidly spruik the potential of open publishing technologies for remote communities, so we can all get a better idea of the challenges facing our sprawling, multi-speed national economy

Today’s no exception. The headline news, which even Mr Shanahan has forced himself to read out, is that Nelson’s surge is over for the moment, and that Labor has boosted its support at the Coalition’s expense. Nice takes include Tree of Knowledge’s snarky rhetorical questions and disturbing photoshopping, Kim at LP’s questions about the media’s real influence on public opinion, Andrew Bolt’s call for Dr Nelson’s head, and Tim Dunlop’s scepticism about the whole concept of a “Honeymoon”. Pride of place, as always, goes to the psephos takes - Pollbludger’s discussion thread, Mumble’s spin smackdowns, and Possum’s detailed analysis (including wonky graphics and a Pollytracker update).

Yes, Newspoll Tuesday gives a warm fuzzy feeling of regularity for the blogosphere connoisseur. But it may be more important than that. Even though it’s based on an MSM poll, it might show that the Australian blogosphere is developing it’s own news cycles and temporality. The peculiar trajectory of the development of political blogging here (as well as the features of Australian democracy) mean that, at least once a fortnight, everyone is talking about the same thing.