One of the ironic things about conservative politics, is that while many people still hold conservative views, of one form or another, conservatives make up only a tiny minority of the chattering classes.
I used to be of the view that many educated people with conservative views were unwilling to express their views in public, but the Internet now provides anonymity and easy accessibility for those who are concerned about personal privacy and whether expressing unfashionable views may harm their career.
Let's face it, the lack of a media voice can no longer be used as an excuse for disinterest in conservative politics.
If there were a high number of literate, educated conservatives in the 20-60 year age range (which covers the overwhelming majority of those who blog, or comment on blogs) then this would probably be reflected in a healthy number of conservative sites.
However, it's not all doom and gloom. For one thing, I suspect there may be a fair amount of untapped interest in conservative weblogs among the over 60s (ok , it's not a "sexy" demographic, but don't underestimate it).
Over the past few years there have a lot of conservative-sounding comments left on mainstream newspaper website stories about emotive issues like immigration, crime and terrorism and, as an extension of established mainstream media, these websites receive a high number of hits from retired citizens, as well as being a first port of call for many of those who are new to the Internet.
While the number of "silver surfers" is on the rise, very few retirees have any familiarity with weblogs. For a start, there's the teen-centric name "blog," which conjures up images of juvenile computer geeks talking about frivolous games and gadgets rather than serious commentary or unfashionable thinking.
Even among generation-Xers, you will get a lot of eye-rolling if you suggest that blogs can be a source of intelligent analysis of politics and current affairs.
For example, I have been regularly reading mainstream news sites for over a decade, but it is only in the last 2-3 years that I have started taking an interest in weblogs. Whenever someone mentioned blogs to me, I automatically assumed they were just teen gossip vehicles like Myspace, and never bothered to investigate further.
Identifying a market for conservative blogs among retirees is one thing, but getting them to actually start reading and writing them is another. About the only constructive thing I can suggest at the moment is conservative bloggers post comments on mainstream newspaper sites, in which they mention ideas/opinions put forward by prominent conservative bloggers.
However, I don't suppose newspaper sites will appreciate rival media trying to poach patrons, so I think we need a more a viable long-term strategy.
Any ideas?
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2 comments:
Excellent idea. It's often pleasantly surprising to read comments on articles to do with nation, family and morality at (certain) mainstream newspaper sites. There's a kind of rank and file conservative opinion which makes itself heard.
So, yes, perhaps we should in comments at these sites make reference to conservative bloggers.
Which sites? The Daily Mail in England might be worth trying, and also Andrew Bolt's Herald Sun blog here in Melbourne.
The UK centre-right and centrist newspaper sites such as the Times, The Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Evening Standard all seem to be pretty open to publishing reader comments from a conservative perspective (on most issues at least).
The Courier Mail in Brisbane also appears to be pretty open minded about publishing comments, although I an not aware what sort of readership it tends to attract.
The New Zealand Herald (NZ'z biggest daily) doesn't. The main regional papers do publish reader comments through a centralised website, but this isn't as convenient as being able to post a comment at the end of a story.
From what I have seen, most of the major Canadian, South African and Irish papers don't publish reader comments, or do so in a very restricted manner, so the UK and Australian sites are probably the most accessible and promising from a conservative perspective.
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