If it hadn’t been Grog’s Gamut, it would have been someone else. The unmasking of the popular political blogger by The Australian newspaper in 2010 served in retrospect as the moment when blogging in Australia gained something of a critical mass.

Until then, the nation’s mainstream media had treated blogs as background noise, at best, unrelated to the real business of journalism and political commentary. But when News Ltd’s James Massola revealed “Grog’s” true identity as a Canberra public servant Greg Jericho, it was clear something had changed.

The unmasking episode is the centrepiece of Jericho’s new book ‘The Rise of the Fifth Estate – Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics’, a useful modern history of the growing clout and influence of blogging in a rapidly changing media landscape.

It’s not a comprehensive analysis of the craft of blogging, if it can be ennobled with such an epithet,  but then it’s not really supposed to be. This is a very personal account of what is undoubtedly a small world – the interaction between the Australian blogosphere and social media in the context of the overall coverage of domestic policies.

A specific theme is the defensive attitude of some in the media (particularly the tribal and self-glorifying hacks of The Australian) to the rise of the enthusiastic amateur, exemplified here by the irrational and unfocused attack by Massola and his editor Geoff Elliott in unmasking Grog.

“The odd thing about The Australian’s response was the changes of tack it took over the course of a week,” Jericho writes. “On Monday, it was the partisan writing on my blog that needed to be unmasked; on Tuesday, however….(they) loved my blog and wanted nothing other than for me to keep writing it!  By the end of the week, it was being suggested that I were in America I would have had my own talkshow by now.”

The book also includes a couple of chapters looking at the growth of Twitter as a conversational and newsbreaking tool that brings a new informality and collectivity to political news, with bloggers and other amateurs engaging directly with mainstream media journalists and politicians. What’s striking about his detailed account is  the blurring of boundaries between craft journalists and amateur tweeters and bloggers in terms of what they do and how they do it.

While stressing that he is not one of those digital evangelists who think the Fifth Estate can replace the Fourth, Jericho nevertheless believes that little now separates the professional journalist and the amateur bloggers – the latter whom often have a level of specialist knowledge, network of contacts and writing skill at least on a par with those who are paid to cover politics.

The difference, of course, is the traditional ‘Fourth Estate’ denizens ARE paid to do it full-time. It is not something they squeeze in between a day job and cooking dinner. It’s how they make their living. And given the carnage being felt in traditional newsrooms right now, it seems understandable that some professionals might seek to put the upstart amateurs back in their places.

It’s also true, as Jericho admits, that journalists have something else that bloggers, however proficient, still lack. And that is access to the newsmakers. When Julia Gillard puts Grog on her list of media engagements, along with Alan Jones and Leigh Sales, we might start calling bloggers journalists.

As someone who has made the voyage in precisely the opposite direction to that of Jericho (in my case from professional journalist to amateur blogger), my view is that the debate is pointless. Bloggers are bloggers and journalists are journalists.  Neither replaces the other. In fact, the New York journalism professor Jay Rosen has an interesting theory on the supposed “war” between new media and old – in the sense that each camp is the other’s ideal.

“The relationship is essentially neurotic, on both sides. Bloggers can’t let go of Big Daddy media— the towering figure of the MSM — and still be bloggers. Pro journalists, meanwhile, project fears about the Internet and loss of authority onto the figure of the pajama-wearing blogger. This is a construction of their own and a key part of a whole architecture of denial that has weakened in recent years, but far too slowly. The only way we can finally kill this meme–bloggers vs. journalists–and proceed into a brighter and pro-am future for interactive journalism is to go right at the psychological element in it: the denial, the projection, the neuroses, the narcissism, the grandiosity, the rage, the fears of annihilation: the monsters of the id in the newsroom, and the fantasy of toppling the MSM in the blogosphere.

Put in an Australian context, you can see why an under-siege mainstream media might, be reluctant to give up the cliche of the blogosphere as the home of single-issue fanatics, wannabes and pretenders who could not survive a day in the pressured world of covering live news. Equally, you can see the dangers of bloggers forever defining themselves in opposition to the sausage machine of the corporate media – a place where hapless, overworked and underpaid hacks churn copy out to feed an insatiable machine.

Ironically, Jericho is now a regular face on ABC panel shows and is the go-to guy for harried producers when they need ‘new media person’ to fill out talkshow rosters. So you might well ask at what point is the cache of being the blogging outsider put at risk by mainstream media appearances? At what point does he stop being a maverick truth teller and become just another insider, another talking head in a machine which needs a constant flow of chatter to fill otherwise empty air time?

Is the Fifth Estate really just the Four and a Half?


11 Comments

Anonymous · August 26, 2012 at 9:59 PM

“Equally, you can see the dangers of bloggers forever defining themselves in opposition to the sausage machine of the corporate media – a place where hapless, overworked and underpaid hacks churn copy out to feed an insatiable machine.”

Greg's statement re the Fairfax cuts that “I felt zero need to read any media reports on the issue, knowing that they would merely regurgitate what was in the announcement” is a pretty good example of oppositional thinking for the sake of it.

Really? All the info you need is in the press release? In that case, I've got this bridge going cheap…

Cate Blackmore · August 26, 2012 at 10:08 PM

Hear, hear! I've not read the book but know the arguments well (in fact that is why I have not bought the book). It seems to me to be a symbiotic relationship, if not parasitic. How would political bloggers get along without the MSM? Can the MSM afford to ignore social media, let alone decline to use it for their own purposes? And as for Twitter, as someone who is 60+, lives in the bush, is educated, still interested in global news and politics and refuses to pay to breach media walls, Twitter is my one-stop-shop.

Thanks for a thoughtful piece.

Andrew Elder · August 27, 2012 at 4:30 AM

The prime motivation behind most blogs, it seems to me, is to do something that the MSM aren't doing or simply can't do (the only exceptions to that I can think of are Christine Wallace's Breakfast News compendium or Malcolm “How could anyone disagree with Michelle Grattan?” Farnsworth).

Jericho's book shows what Twitter and blogs are and the impact each has had on both the media and on its coverage of politics, and in the early stages of transforming politics itself. At its best, social media can supplement the MSM because it provides context and depth that generalist hacks don't have and disdain acquiring. He also shows how stupid it is to romanticise the busywork of the newsroom given the sheer inadequacy of its output to the audience that really matters – not other journalists, nor editors, nor even proprietors, but the public at large.

Journos romanticise the public as a means to self-justification, and promoted their interests over their own (e.g. mass sackings of teachers is just another story, but mass sackings of journalists is A Threat To Our Democracy!). There comes a point where any romanticised and disempowered people are going too reach out and slap the faces of those who treat them thus, and I'm surprised that the MSM can't cope with this better than they do.

Journos romanticise the newsroom in the same way that people in the wool industry romanticise the shearing sheds, and in the same breath wonder why the nation no longer rides on the sheep's back. They should be grateful that there are enough people who care about their fading profession, and make more of an effort in recognising such people have much to contribute to a debate that many think is reserved EXCLUSIVE for journalists.

One day soon a MSM organ will get burned badly by the new Cybercrime legislation; and when they look back at what they were covering when that legislation was debated, when they could have made a difference with an old-school campaign on the issue; they will see a lawyer who failed to open a file on a routine matter and who was panned for lacking integrity, a Liberal who went to work for an MP who left the Liberal Party, and a unionist who may have spent members' money on prostitutes. I'd sell all of that in a heartbeat for your bridge, Anonymous, because the bridge has a future that the cliché factories lack.

Jericho makes too much of access to “decision-makers”, and there'll be more on that soon enough at my blog. The MSM allocate their resources to the wrong places, and when they realise that blogging in particular will lose its momentum.

I wish the MSM was better than it is. My relationship with the MSM isn't parasitic, it's encouraging and challenging. Jericho's book makes this clear and Cate Blackmore is free to stew in her redundant 'certainties' if she pleases – but she's the poorer for it.

Mr D · August 27, 2012 at 7:29 AM

Thanks Andrew. I'm not particularly hung up on how you define journalism or blogging. I DO think Grog's book is really focused on a fairly narrow part of journalism – the Australian press gallery for the most part. And I agree with most of his criticisms, which others such as Tim Dunlop, you and others have enunciated.

Political “coverage” lends itself to blogging, because the source material is all out there in real-time. It's why newspapers these days leave their senior writers back in the newsroom during election campaigns to riff on the talking points of the day. No actual reporting is involved.

I thought Greg's book gave a pretty good account of his experience as a blogger. What's missing, of course, is the other side of the equation – which is the busted media business model and the impact that's having on journalism.

I agree with you that journalists tend to romanticise their own calling. But there's a danger that bloggers do the same thing. In the end, we're all just scribblers.

And I still think we need a strong, independent, well-funded Fourth Estate with professionals doing public spirited journalism. That costs money and it means people getting off their bums and going out to talk to people.

That that isn't happening much these days doesn't mean it isn't a good idea.

Greg Jericho · August 27, 2012 at 7:37 AM

Anon, the point is that I don't just need the press release (nor have I ever suggested such a thing – but a lovely verballing of my words by the way), but more importantly I don't just need the press release regurgitated. And with respect to that morning's announcement of the Fairfax cuts that's what you got on news websites.

I got all the information I needed that morning via social media. In fact if you kept quoting the from the paragraph you took from my blog you'd see it ends “All other information such as how journalists were reacting, how many of the positions to be cut were editorial etc I received via Twitter. In fact if I wanted to I could actually converse with those journalists personally.”

Being “first” with a press release is no longer of any use when you can get a link to that document – and more – from someone on social media.

All you need is a press release regurgitated? In that case, I've got this really crappy newspaper going cheap… but no doubt, you're already buying it.

Anonymous · August 27, 2012 at 10:49 AM

“In fact if I wanted to I could actually converse with those journalists personally.”

And how much longer do you expect those journalists to be hanging around on Twitter, answering your questions, as the organisations for which they work wither away?

Mr D's criticism is right – you (and Andrew Elder) base your critique on the softest target in Australian journalism, the Canberra press gallery.

There is actually a lot of other stuff going on out there, but because you're not interested in it to the same extent as you are in federal politics you tend to discount it.

In the broader community, federal politics is actually something of a minority taste when it comes to most people's news intake.

Notus · August 27, 2012 at 11:14 AM

The MSM is like the brontosaurus with a broken neck – it's already dead, it just doesn't know it yet. Those advocating continuing the forth estate need the work but consumers, advertisers etc are not buying this crap.

So much for the commercial media, now as the NBN is rolled out to all Australians, it is time to re-consider why we need a public broadcaster. The ABC has thrashed it's charter and nowadays its community service obligation is to offer public service positions for redundant journos.

There is nothing on the ABC that I can't get quicker and with greater quality online.

Anonymous · August 27, 2012 at 11:26 AM

I think the MSM. journalist is the poorer for the interference of “Executive Management” in the “coalface” interpretation of a news story.
The experienced MSM. journalist has, after several decades of observation, like any skilled tradesman, a inate intuition that needs no pause-to-consider interpretation and can proceed from first glance to secondary copy. But now, certain Managerial requirements for biased political outcomes has ham-strung and cut-off-at-the-knees the journalist's skill at news delivery and in consequence and frustration has opened a wide panorama for bloggers to supply an irate,but savvy community.
Continual frustration at the obfuscation and seemingly deliberate skewing of political news items has driven many to seek a more reasoned debate from a pot-pourri of blog sites, stitching together a complete picture from a variety of collage.
I cannot see, while such Managerial blindness and (in consequence)stupidity persists, there will be a lessening of demand for the bloggers.

Greg Jericho · August 28, 2012 at 12:54 AM

I enjoy Anonymous how you assume so much without any need to bother with proof. Sure there's “lots of other stuff going on” but where have I ever discounted it? Life is sure easy when you can just throw around statements and not support them. The least you could have done is gone to my blog and taken another sentence out of context.

Sure federal politics is a minority taste for most people, but that doesn't mean it is unimportant. It is also not the only issue on which people blog. Heck go read all the art, film, food, craft, fitness and book blogs and wonder if you have any need to read the “lifestyle” sections of the paper.

As to worrying about whether there will be journalists “hanging about” you again miss the point. The great thing about social media is I can talk to a primary source without the need to wait for a journalist to do it.

I spoke to journalists the day of the Fairfax not because I needed a journalists to explain what was happening but because that day they were the primary source – it was happening to them. But if the issue is something else, I wouldn't be so concerned about whether or not any journalists are “hanging around” answering my questions because I wouldn't be asking them – I'd be asking people I know on Twitter who either work in that field, live in the area or whose opinions I respect more than any random journalist (but there are some journalists whose opinions I respect so I may well ask them what they think as well).

You seem pissed because the media has a broken business model. That's not the fault of bloggers or Twitter; it's the fault of media owners who (especially in the case of Fairfax – and I speak as a one time shareholder who lost half of my investment well prior to the advent of Twitter and blogs) made crap decision after crap decision for the past 15-20 years.

You may wish the internet away, but it ain't happening. If the journalism you preach is so damn good and necessary then there will be a market for it – especially as you seem to think we bloggers don't care about it anyway.

As far as I can see the media's “business model” is “you'll miss us when we're gone”. They need a better one than that.

And the Canberra press gallery is the softest target? I am inclined to agree with you, but dear me you better let them know, because they assume they're the best in the business.

Anonymous · August 28, 2012 at 2:37 AM

Have to agree with 'Notus'in his assessment of the National Broadcaster. This pathetic,snivelling excuse for a serious news and views deliverer is becoming totally irrelevant.
Pathetic, because while its' senior management is firmly in the right-wing camp, it hasn't the guts to swing totally over to that side of politics and instead delivers a snivelling “balance” of bland, “new-entertainment” style of beige opinion.
Note the shock/suprise when one of their presenters (Leigh Sales)actually had the temerity of questioning the leader of the opposition!..GOD!..the twitterverse lit up!…and that was from the loyal base of the ABC….”Christ..who'd have thought it!”
Of course, there is certainly a place for the forth estate, I miss those moments of quiet reflection, reading a good opinion piece or in-depth news story whilst enjoying a cuppa. But buggered if 1/10th of a paper is worth 9/10ths proprietors bullshit!

jaycee.

Anonymous · August 29, 2012 at 1:39 AM

great reply, Greg.

BTW – your book isn't yet available on Book Depositry.

from another Anonymous – not the whiny one

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