The tyranny of intimacy

Column Conclusion after a night in the blogosphere: It may be useful in private, but nothing is negotiated socially online. With
A very tired mind. The night was short, as always on long-distance trips.
It was actually only supposed to be a short trip. To Robert from
Heusinger's Herd Instinct ("How capitalism works", http://blog.zeit.de/herdentrieb): More enlightening information on the current economy can be found there than anywhere else. Then to Niels Boeing's technosphere blog (http://www.heise.de/tr/blog): all about nanotechnology and the future as it is currently being planned in the laboratories.

But I was passed on. From Spindoctor to Softmachines, via
Sixtus and China-in-the-news on netzkultur, WeMedia, netzpolitik,
continue to Blogorama and PressThink to Instapundit to Blogger to Gawker
Media ... A few dozen bookmarks further on you are wide awake, infinitely
informed and even the last of all questions is off the table: what to
will do when Fifa soon turns this planet into a "noisy,
infantilized hell" (SZ) - of course: surfing the blogosphere.

Weblogs, blogs in fact, have a reputation for talking about things that are so
exactly what you don't want to know. Showing pictures that you don't want to see
would like to. To spread gossip, which is more like stomach acid than a
thoughts.
The bad reputation of blogs is well earned. Most of what is written in
one of the easy-to-use blog software is stammered, is
Scrap. Private. Irrelevant. But presented with a grand gesture. Will
We want to know what the completely unknown Hansmeiermüller from Saftigen
about Islam, VAT and his hormonal surges at the sight of
Shakira shares? You don't want to.

But that says almost nothing about the blogosphere. Because
These days, people are looking for relevant facts and enlightenment, surprising
and context, you end up on a blog more and more often. On dozens
of explosive, brilliantly written e-journals by thinking minds.

In purely arithmetical terms, this should come as no surprise. 70 million
Bloggers are now. Let's assume - unkindly - that 99 percent
of which fed the ocean of randomness. That still left 700000
Sites that are worth a regular visit.

Blogs uncover. In some places, blogs are the only way for dissidents to
A chance to make your voice heard. Blogs (automatically) network what
would otherwise hardly come together. No wonder the NGO Reporters Without
The limits of blogging.
A brilliant upheaval is taking place. Micro-media like blogs,
Podcasts, wikis are mapping the terrain between personal communication
and the media. With as yet unforeseeable consequences for perception,
Society and politics.

Jay Rosen, the new founder of Public Journalism, enthusiastically recognizes the
The beginning of true citizen journalism and the awakening of local
Democracy ("We are the Media"). The big media make use of
increasingly in the blogosphere, with images and text, for example after the
bombings in London or the floods in New Orleans. At the beginning of May
the immense possibilities were presented at a congress in London.
staked out (
www.mediacenterblog.org/events/06/wemedialondon/home).
This vision is appealing in terms of media ecology: more and more citizens are withdrawing
the well-known media of the dumbing-down industry and network
communities according to their inclinations and needs.
And they are also rather naive: companies, commercial providers and
Party apparatuses are getting massively involved in blogging - and they
are working on processes to bring the decentralized network world under control.
take.

Regardless of whether they can succeed in doing so, micromedia in a
The public is caught up in a fundamental problem - the destruction of the public sphere.
The blogger says I. He speaks out to the skylight and hopes that one
listen to him. 400 visits to a blog are already considered excellent
Viewership. And no matter how hard bloggers try to network
it remains a pop dance. Privately and for small communities, she likes
may be useful, but nothing is negotiated socially online.

In this respect, blogs & co., like the conventional media, are only a
Another symptom of the tyranny of intimacy. Would me
should I be wrong.

Oliver Fahrni is a freelance publicist.