My Blogging Progress and Zero Comments

I’ve been blogging for some time now.  My initial use for this blog was as a place to store links and data related to my PhD research.  Since then it’s use has grown, as I am happy to say, have the visitor numbers.  As such December 2010 is on course to be my busiest month for visitors so far, which is great.

A while ago I saw the media theorist Geert Lovink speak in the UK.  He’s an interesting guy and I enjoyed his presentation.  He was the author of the book ‘Zero Comments‘ the title of which comes from the fact that most blogs operate without any comments being added.  This creates the idea that all we are doing is talking and nobody is listening.

In this third volume of his studies into critical Internet culture, following the influential Dark Fiber and My First Recession, Lovink develops a ‘general theory of blogging.’ Unlike most critiques of blogging, Lovink is not focusing here on the dynamics between bloggers and the mainstream news media, but rather unpacking the ways that blogs exhibit a ‘nihilist impulse’ to empty out established meaning structures. Blogs, Lovink argues, are bringing about the decay of traditional broadcast media, and they are driven by an in-crowd dynamic in which social ranking is a primary concern. The lowest rung of the new Internet hierarchy are those blogs and sites that receive no user feedback or ‘zero comments’.

I saw his talk around the same time as starting to blog and I was worried I’d end up with zero comments. Thanks to the WordPress’s stat system and the fact that I do get comments (and tweets and emails) I am happy to say that this is not the case. So I’d like to say thanks to you, dear reader, for your support.

And here is Geert in action (the talk is in English, though some of the introduction is not).