I’VE recently picked up the book “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. It talks about the impact of the Internet on our culture and economy and how it has created more choices (niches) for consumers. But this concept does not only apply to commerce but other aspects of society, including journalism.

This brings me Abe Olandres’ blog entry which I recently read, “Why I’m Into Open Source Consulting?”

It’s an interesting take on the state of the Philippine blogosphere, and how discussions (especially controversial ones) could spark greater discussions and some form of journalism.

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SO, is the youth wing of Malaysia’s ruling party really speaking for the youth when it urged the government to regulate bloggers?

Here’s an excerpt from the Agence France-Presse story:

KUALA LUMPUR–The influential youth wing of Malaysia’s ruling UMNO political party is pressing for “regulatory control” over Internet bloggers following two widely publicized cases, state media reported.

The proposal was made by United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) youth chief Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, Bernama news agency said late Saturday.

“UMNO Youth warns that freedom has its limits and we will not tolerate those who touch on the issue of national stability, harmony, cultural values and the personality of national leaders,” Hishamuddin said.

PROVING that citizen journalism is coming of age, NowPublic has received a major boost — namely $10.6 million in financing.

Here’s an excerpt from the Agence France-Presse article.

The financing is led by Rho Ventures in the United States and Canada.

Uses for the money will include ways to reward people that upload stories or images, and developing a system to “geo-locate” contributors so they can be found if they are in range of developments deemed newsworthy.

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SOME Filipino bloggers did not mince words, as they blogged about the recent State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Former journalist Anton DeLeon’s Slap Happy was not very happy about Arroyo’s speech. He writes:

Things are not definitely getting better. Seriously, if things were booming and zooming and talk of all this economic activity was real then i wouldn’t be holed up here in Dubai, of all places, if the prospects of all economic progress are pointing to the Philippines.

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THIS news item attests to the power of citizen journalism in circumventing censorship laws that might shackle mainstream media.

BEIJING–In the strictly controlled media world of communist China, “citizen journalism” is beating a way through censorship, breaking taboos and offering a pressure valve for social tensions.

In one striking example this month, the Internet was largely responsible for breaking open a slave scandal in two Chinese provinces that some local authorities had been complicit in.

A letter posted on the Internet by 400 parents of children working as slaves in brickyards was the trigger for the national press to finally report on the scandal that some rights groups say had been going on for years.

WE also had our share of using technology such as short message service (SMS) or text messaging to organize a mass protest against then President Joseph Estrada. But imagine if blogging was widely available at the time. We would have seen Filipinos liveblogging about it.

In China where political bloggers are censored, the recent mass protest in Xiamen against the planned construction of a toxic chemical plant dangerously close to the city core on June 1 was seen as a landmark move for China’s leading independent blogger’s collective Bullog, Global Voices wrote.

Excerpt:

With a media blackout on news of the demonstration, the time, location and target turnout of one million people were spread almost exclusively by SMS, bbs postings and on blogs. The government was able to stop the SMS from spreading for several days and nearly all bbs webmasters and blog service providers were swift to delete any related discussion, leaving Bullog members free to go on to post several in-depth posts this past week looking at various angles of the situation, including one of of the key public figures lobbying against the PX plant, Southern Metropolis Daily columnist and Xiamen resident Lian Yue.

Several other Bullogers took it a step further by attending the demonstration in person, leaving one at home to post their SMS live updates straight onto Bullog, giving it a national exclusive as to what was happening minute-by-minute down on the ground which, by the afternoon of the 1st, had attracted enough readers that Bullog’s host server was left unable to keep up. With Bullog inaccessible, the live SMScast was temporarily moved here, from where many of the below discussions mixed in with the live reporting were taken.

GLOBAL Voices Online reports that Egyptian blogger Abdulmonem Mahmood will be freed.

Here’s an excerpt from the Global Voices Online entry:

A recent clampdown on Egyptian bloggers encompassed bloggers of different political orientations. Egyptian blogger Abdul Monem Mahmood who has been detained for 46 days on political allegations belongs to the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. However, various bloggers of different backgrounds showed support to Monem without discrimination.

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OK, how many saw it coming?

After getting bloggers riled, David Bullard has launched his own official Sunday Times blog.

Here’s an excerpt from one his blog entries:

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DAVID BULLARD’S recent column “Name and shame offensive bloggers” on Sunday Times has stirred the blogosphere.

Vincent Maher did not mince words, as he answered every point made by Bullard. He says:

“I hereby dub this Bullardgate. David Bullard launched an attack on bloggers in the Sunday Times today that cannot be allowed to stand. His invective is simply not acceptable from a journalist of the calibre he claims to be.”

Poynter Institute’s Amy Gahran also highlighted this recent row, and has even pointed to more reactions from bloggers and journalists alike.
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WOULDN’T it be ironic if the alternative media represented by blogging/citizen journalism would just end up replicating some of the shortcomings of mainstream media?

This was the warning sounded by the editor of the BBC College of Journalism while talking about political journalism and blogging.

Here’s an excerpt from the Journalism.co.uk entry:

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