United and Divided

The two editors of New York’s two Pakistani newspapers hold completely opposite political views, run two utterly different organisations and are best friends.

“Mr. Farooqi is a disheveled, chain-smoking Muslim who boasts of his journalistic exclusives. Mr. Khalil is a dapper, entrepreneurial atheist who enjoys his whiskey and boasts about the lucrative advertisements he garners for his publication.”

Link Here.

Let’s all look back together. Awww…

A wrap up of the history of the blog by Sarah Boxer for The New York Review of Books. Drops Plato, President Bush and Texan Feminists all in one article. Expansive and fun. I give it seven points out of ten. Or something.

Insiders was good today, with David Marr on one side and Andrew Bolt on the other. Got to love a political bitchfest as you’re fighting the beginnings of a monstorous hangover. See Andrew squirm as he tries to discuss climate change, despite him beliving it’s a conspiracy concocted by Greenpeace and the United Nations sometime around 1994. Hilarious.

the australian vs. the netz

“Lastly, while the internet has democratised access to the public arena, it has also coarsened debate. We admit we have not been above the odd ad hominem attack ourselves. It’s time for a little more elegance, a return to the debating conventions of earlier times, to the rules obeyed by men and women of letters.”

This is a recent editorial from the The Australian attempting to dismiss ‘The Internet ’ (notice it’s one big word, because everyone knows everyone else on the netz). Last year The Australian got in a massive war with the blogs and according to at least one esteemed commentator, came off second best. So here it is trying to reclaim a place in the media landscape long since torn away from it.

Public debate has been democratised to a large extent. Instead of debate solely existing on the illustrious opinion/comment pages of The Australian, with a select group of ‘men and women of letters’ presenting pieces to be read by the inactive and mindless public, people are finding their own outlets to argue and discuss. With blogs and websites giving academics, politics desperados and the general public greater freedom than a newspapaper page could ever allow them, it’s no suprise that the blogosphere is booming.

And it’s no suprise that an ageing format has a look in the mirror, witnesses it’s own slow demise and then turns five year old on us all and shouts ‘The internet started it!’.

- Gary Sauer-Thompson discusses The Australian’s editorial.

the concept here

Hi.

I’m doing a thesis as part of my Communications honours year at Swinburne University and I’ve set up this blog to discuss my ideas online and things to do with media and the music industry more generally. I still haven’t worked out exactly what my topic is but I’ve already cornered off areas of interest.

celebrity culture | rockstars | hyperreality | death of the real

web 2.0 | mass reporting | flashpoint news

adorno | DIY ethos | andy warhol | baudrillard | networks | glocalisation

music industry | piracy | copyright | old media | politics

Even if only a few of these ideas make it to my thesis, I’ll be commenting on all of these throughout the year.