If you want to find some of the most intelligent blogs around, look north, says Trevor Cook. No, not Asia. Queensland. Cartoon by Fiona Katauskas.

Japan has outstripped the US and Europe at having blogs as a regular component of its citizens’ daily media diet, according to a recent survey by Edelman, the global PR firm.

The survey reported that some 74 per cent of Japanese read blogs at least once a week, followed by 43 per cent in South Korea and 39 per cent in China. In the US, it’s about 27 per cent, and it’s even less in Europe. Australia wasn’t surveyed, but you can take it as read that we still lag behind the US.

The Edelman survey also found that blog readership is significantly higher among “influencers” – people who work in the media or are politically active – and there is no doubt that this would also hold true in Australia.

Among the growing bands of Australians dedicated to dragging Downunder into the modern world of communication are a number of Queenslanders.

In mid-January, Peter Black – an associate lecturer in law at the Queensland University of Technology – announced that the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation and the Queensland University of Technology would hold an Australian Blogging Conference on Thursday, March 8, 2007 in Brisbane. Peter’s blog is called “Freedom to Differ” (www.freedomtodiffer.com).

If this comes off, it will be a huge coup for Queensland, and one of the few opportunities Australian bloggers have had to get together and discuss the social media revolution. Such conferences are now frequent in the US and Europe.

As Peter said on his blog: “This will be an ‘unconference’, modelled on the successful BloggerCons in the United States. Instead of lengthy presentations, people will be invited to lead discussions on various topics throughout the day – some practical, such as how to build a better blog, and some theoretical on the role, influence and future of blogs.” As with the blogosphere more generally, the idea is to have a conversation not sermons.

One person certain to be leading a discussion at the Brisbane Conference is Mark Bahnisch, a sociologist who has lectured at Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland. He is now lecturing at Griffith University.

Mark writes regularly for Crikey and covered the 2006 Queensland election campaign for them. He also spoke on a panel on politics and new media at the 2006 Byron Bay Writers’ Festival and contributed a chapter in 2006 on political blogging to the first internationally published academic book on blogs, Uses of Blogs, edited by Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (Peter Lang, $50).

In March 2005, Bahnisch set up Larvatus Prodeo (LP) at http://larvatusprodeo.net/, an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. The name was inspired by Descartes.

Its visitor numbers have doubled in the last 12 months, and it now has between 3500 and 5100 unique visitors a day.
I recently interviewed Mark, by email, about his blog and blogging in Australia more generally.

Q: Where do you see LP and your own work fitting into the media spectrum?

A: “I think LP occupies something of a niche in the media spectrum. It provides another source for political commentary outside the Canberra press gallery, and also provides the possibility of making more sustained analyses over time.

“That’s partly because we’re coming from different professional backgrounds than journalists and columnists, and partly because we’re not bound by any notion of impartiality and therefore are able to actively campaign on issues and develop a case with sustained arguments, rather than reacting to the political agenda.

“This doesn’t mean that the objectivity of the analysis, or its quality, suffers, just that the fact that the analysis is politically inspired is upfront. For instance, we’re going to be pushing this year for a return to a Senate with a non-government majority. That won’t mean advocacy of a particular party vote, but will mean we’ll be highlighting the positive role the Senate can play in a way that is difficult for the mainstream media to do.”

Q: Do you think LP had any impact, for instance, on improving coverage of the Queensland election and how?

A: “I think it did, in that LP (and Currumbin2Cook) drew on independently conducted focus group polling which was able to pick up movements in the electorate and responses to issues and leaders’ messages. So we weren’t just reporting and commentating, but also disclosing information about the dynamics of the campaigns as perceived by ordinary voters.

“Some of this material – in particular the salience of WorkChoices as an issue and a swing against the Opposition from its own voters – was then highlighted in the media. The tie-in we had with Crikey ensured that what we were writing also reached a politically engaged audience, and feedback from political strategists from both camps suggested it was widely read.”

Q: Do you think blogs will play an important role in the federal election later this year?

A: “I think it will be something of an acid test for the Australian blogosphere, which is still accorded far less legitimacy than in other countries. I hope so, and we’re certainly planning to play an important role.”

Q: Do you think the blogs on media websites – by journalists and bloggers like Tim Dunlop – are reducing the opportunity and appeal of sites like LP?

A: “Most media blogs offer nothing different from op/eds because the authors are columnists who don’t engage with readers. Tim is one exception, obviously, but he was recruited from the independent blogosphere. Another is Andrew Bolt, who I think would have come to prominence as a blogger if he’d never been a journo.

“Tim’s trying to raise the profile of blogs generally through Blogocracy. Most of the Fairfax blogs are really just there to garner in traffic – with the exception of Jack Marx, they’re fluffy and light.

“News Limited are doing better – the Courier-Mail blogs could be improved, but aren’t bad – my general comment would be that even if you look at the responses to, say, Greg Sheridan’s or Caroline Overington’s ‘blogs’ (many of which are very hostile to their writing and politics, incidentally), there probably is a sense in which MSM [mainstream media] blogs are at least capturing an audience which wants to comment on public affairs and opinion pieces and who, in many cases, probably haven’t noticed that there are independent blogs. I don’t know that this actively reduces the appeal of independent blogs, but it probably points to the fact that we haven’t yet worked out how to grow our readerships to their full potential.”

Trevor Cook is a director with Jackson Wells Morris. His blog is at http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog.

Fiona Katauskas is a freelance cartoonist. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it