New Zealand blogosphere
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Zealand's blogosphere is a small community of blogs that comment largely on New Zealand politics, society and occurrences.
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[edit] Political blogs
There is a considerable number of blogs that focus on the politics of New Zealand. Many of these are written by 'insiders'. These insiders include David Farrar [1], a former staffer for then Prime Minister Jim Bolger, and Jordan Carter[2], a prominent Labour party organiser. Trevor Loudon, Vice-President of ACT New Zealand also has a blog, New Zeal [3], although his blog mainly pertains to anti-communism rather than ACT party policy.
[edit] Official blogs
The ACT party leader Rodney Hide, also blogs. Hide often comments from within the House of Representatives itself. The Green party has an official blog, Frogblog, which often links to, and expands on, press releases. The blog is partly written by Greens co-leader Russel Norman. Unlike overseas counterparts, both allow comments.
Numerous politicians began blogs during the 2005 election, but these have since died.
[edit] Unofficial blogs
Many political activists maintain blogs. Joe Carolan from Socialist Worker NZ regularly updates AntiCapitaliste [4], and the blog of the new Solidarity Union. [5] Both give interesting takes on the union and antiwar movements from a socialist point of view. Peter Cresswell, former leader of the small Libertarianz Party maintains the popular Not PC blog on libertarian issues.
Stephen Marshall has a blog on legal matters, and particularly copyright [6].
[edit] Controversy
Tim Selwyn, an Auckland man convicted of sedition in 2006, is also a prominent blogger, often bringing up controversial points. The pamphlet for which we was convicted on a charge of sedition for was published on his website.
In August 2006, Sunday News revealed a blog site set up by Wellington-based national socialist Nic Miller after personal details of four Jewish families living in the city were posted on it. The details were later removed from the site.
[edit] CYFS Watch
In January 2007 another controversial blog, "CYFS Watch" appeared. The blog's stated aim was unveiling examples of alleged incompetence by the Child Youth and Family Service (known by its acronym CFYS) of the Ministry of Social Development. The Ministry responded to the publication of the blog, which published the details of several social workers, by complaining to internet company Google. The blog remained online until 22 February 2007 when Google deleted the site, due to the blogs anonymous author making death threats towards Green MP Sue Bradford as a result of her Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill 2005 [7] [8].
[edit] Media relationship
The majority of bloggers still rely upon the media for the provision of news stories to comment upon. However, they do not repeat the news, instead putting forward their viewpoint on it.
Some bloggers, such as Russell Brown, Keith Ng and Tze Ming Mok (who are part of the Public Address blog system) work within the media industry.
There have been notable examples of bloggers breaking news stories, and then having the media pick it up. For instance, Idiot/Savant discovered that neither Rodney Hide nor Heather Roy had been showing up to Parliament, and consequently, the ACT party had not voted in the budget debate. The story was subsequently picked up by The Dominion Post and The New Zealand Herald. The latter however took a rather critical stance on blogs, printing an editorial that stated "[M]ost bloggers - and we're talking 95 per cent - are fly-by-night, gutless wonders who prefer to spit inarticulate venom under inarticulate pseudonyms."[1]
[edit] Non-Political blogs
There are numerous non-political blogs. They range from music blogs to group blogs to personal blogs.
