Public Affairs Committee Blog

In previous blogs, we discussed the benefits of free speech on the internet. We highlighted the free exchange of opinions and the interesting individual outlooks on the news. It seems only fair this week to acknowledge the opposite point of view.

The growth of the internet has created unique legal problems, best exemplified by copyright infringement. At first this was focussed on music and film piracy. There were legal challenges to online companies like Napster. Then the music industry went a stage further and successfully sued individual users for breach of copyright. Now the entertainment industry has turned its attention to sites like YouTube.

Blogging, internet chat rooms and networking sites such as Facebook have encountered difficulties with false identities and have been used for stalking. Wikipaedia has been subjected to deliberately misleading entries.

Andrew Keen (author of new book “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing our Culture and Assaulting our Economy”) has attacked blogging specifically. In an article in last week’s Observer he commented that by 2010 there will be more than 500 million blogs. He describes blogging as “digital narcissism” because bloggers broadcast their own personal views rather than listening to experts. Most people, he says, have nothing interesting to blog about anyway.

Blogging is still a new format. It is too early to judge whether it will have a significant impact on traditional media or culture more generally. It seems likely though that blogging will evolve and specialise rather than simply proliferating. Like any media, blogs have to compete for readers. Thus although there may well be millions of unspectacular blogs, these will simply not be read. In this online marketplace for ideas, the best blogs will continue to attract new readers and to offer an exciting alternative to traditional media.

Tim Kevan and Aidan Ellis