If bubble tea was yester-years’s fad, web-logging or blogging, is today’s equivalent. The trend of blogging – the e-equivalent of an online diary – is, as Rupert Murdoch observed, somewhat exciting ‘simply by virtue of being something new.’ From cyber ‘I-hate-my-boyfriend’ Bridget Joneses, to why-hasn’t-osama-been-caught-yet.com, to some other complete junk, most blogs are generally read with a pinch of salt. Established Australian web-blogger Tim Dunlop has lovingly described it as ‘a geek hula-hoop’ while acknowledging that the majority, on the other hand are just waiting for this one-hit wonder to fizzle out..
But if blogging is a fad that need not be taken seriously, why are there an estimated seventy people jailed worldwide for publishing comments critical of a government or its political nature? How did five female Singaporean students get suspended for simply criticizing two teachers and a vice-principal on their blogs? Moreover, why did Singapore arrest bloggers last few months for posting racially offensive comments on their personal websites, sentencing one to jail for a month while fining the other a hefty $5,000?
In the era of digital communication, blogging is looking less like a tenant and more like a proprietor. People are starting to pay attention to blogs and admittedly, governments have begun to recognize that. Earlier in April, Murdoch himself confessed to underestimating the challenges posed by this new media. An area he thought would ‘just limp along’, blogs have proven themselves worthy challengers for news presence with the mainstream media. And if the world’s most powerful and notorious media mogul can marvel at the tenacity of this medium, how realistic are beliefs that blogs are just a passing rage and nothing more?
But if blogging is a fad that need not be taken seriously, why are there an estimated seventy people jailed worldwide for publishing comments critical of a government or its political nature? How did five female Singaporean students get suspended for simply criticizing two teachers and a vice-principal on their blogs? Moreover, why did Singapore arrest bloggers last few months for posting racially offensive comments on their personal websites, sentencing one to jail for a month while fining the other a hefty $5,000?
In the era of digital communication, blogging is looking less like a tenant and more like a proprietor. People are starting to pay attention to blogs and admittedly, governments have begun to recognize that. Earlier in April, Murdoch himself confessed to underestimating the challenges posed by this new media. An area he thought would ‘just limp along’, blogs have proven themselves worthy challengers for news presence with the mainstream media. And if the world’s most powerful and notorious media mogul can marvel at the tenacity of this medium, how realistic are beliefs that blogs are just a passing rage and nothing more?
