Blogging in New Zealand is dominated by a community of around 600
blogs that comment largely on
New Zealand politics, society and occurrences.
[1] One list of over 200 "author-operated, public discourse" blogs in New Zealand (ranked according to traffic, links incoming, posting frequency and comments) suggests New Zealand blogs cover a wide range of ideological positions but lack female contributors.
[2]Blogging is an active part of the
media of New Zealand.
Cresswell
Political blogs[edit]
Relationship to politics[edit]
A 2007
New Zealand Herald article by
Bill Ralston described political bloggers as being potentially the most powerful "opinion makers" in New Zealand politics.
[28] A few weeks earlier the
National Business Reviewhad stated that, "Any realistic 'power list' produced in this country would include either
[David] Farrar or his fellow blogger and opinion leader
Russell Brown."
[29] And in 2008
The Press said that year's election "could be the time when New Zealand's burgeoning political bloggers finally make their presence felt".
[30] The article saw the increasing influence of the Internet (as opposed to
television and
radio) on people's lives and the number of professional journalists now maintaining blogs as the reason for the blogosphere's increased significance, alongside the fact that unlike newspapers blogs can link directly to facts and sources.
The blogosphere has also made an impact on parliament – Russell Brown is quoted as saying, "Every now and then you see a line from the blog turn up in a parliamentary speech" and in December 2007 then prime minister
Helen Clark accused political journalists of "rushing to judgment" on their blogs.
[30]
Much of the research conducted on the New Zealand political blogosphere has conducted by Kane Hopkins and Donald Matheson.
[31][32] Their studies looked at how blogs were used during the 2005 and 2008 general elections, particularly what role blogs played in enhancing discourse on important election issues and possible implications on
deliberative democracy. One study showed that blogs did little to determine mainstream media agendas, instead they were included to respond to and follow traditional media narratives.
[33]
Another study highlighted the significant growth of participation in a blogs comments section between the 2005 and 2008 general elections.
[34] For example, analysis showed that in
Kiwiblog the number of comments in comparative sample grew from 2177 (from 401 individuals) to 6547 comments (from 532 individuals). However, the number of people who participated in the comments sections regularly (that is, they made more than 10 comments) was fewer than 100 individuals.
Controversies[edit]
Tim Selwyn, an Auckland man convicted of
sedition in 2006, is also a prominent blogger, often bringing up controversial points. The pamphlet for which he was convicted and imprisoned on a charge of sedition was published on his website. Selwyn was also criticised in parliament for sending letters about his prison experiences to his co-blogger
Martyn 'Bomber' Bradbury, who posted them on the blog.
On 23 Dec 2009,
Cameron Slater was charged with five counts of breaching name suppression orders.
[36] The charges relate to two blog posts that contained pictures which reveal the identities of two New Zealanders. On 11 Jan 2010, Slater published a blog post that used binary and hexadecimal code to reveal the identity of a person charged with indecent assault on a 13-year-old girl. The
Nelson Bays police announced that they would investigate this further breach of New Zealand's name suppression laws.
[37]
On 1 June 2010, Dannevirke blogger Henk van Helmond was convicted of breaching a name suppression order and given a suspended sentence. The judge suppressed the publication of any details which might identify van Helmond's blog.
[38]
Relationship with media[edit]
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. The mainstream media at first was highly critical of bloggers. In January 2007
The New Zealand Herald printed 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."
[39] Since then though the newspaper has picked up multiple stories first broken on blogs (see below).
Some current and former bloggers have worked in or for the media industry, such as
Russell Brown, Keith Ng,
Tze Ming Mok and Dave Crampton. Political scientist Bryce Edwards who maintains the liberation blog has also been a guest columnist for
The New Zealand Herald[40] as has Geoffrey Miller of Douglas to Dancing.
[41]
Breaking news[edit]
There have been many notable examples of bloggers breaking news stories and then having the media pick it up. For instance, Idiot/Savant found that neither
Rodney Hide nor
Heather Roy had been showing up to
Parliament and consequently the
ACT party had not voted in the
2006 budget debate.
[42][43] The story was subsequently picked up by the media.
[44][45] In February 2008 a blog post by Russell Brown about the Wikipedia article on
Bill English being edited from a computer at Parliament received coverage in The New Zealand Herald.
[46][47] The story had first been broken on The Standard,
[48][49] a blog with links to the
Labour Party.
[30]
A similar story was that of a computer at
Air New Zealand being used to edit the Wikipedia article on
Air New Zealand Flight 901 which was first mentioned on a website
[50] and later picked up by
The Press.
[51] In April 2008, blogger
David Farrar revealed the
Green Party's preliminary party list.
[52] The story was subsequently picked up by NZPA.
[53] In June blogger 'Skinny' revealed that a photo used in promotional material about the 2008 budget was of an American family, not a New Zealand one, and the story was then published in
The New Zealand Herald.
[54][55]
Local blogs[edit]
References[edit]
