Slugger O'Toole

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Latest comments from Paddy Hoey (see all)

Paddy Hoey has commented 3 times (0 in the last month).

1. Comment on Summer Quiz
   on 29 July 2010 at 1:01 am

   Ah, the Welsh card is played.
   I know (6) Jason Smyth & (7) Peru/ Lima and (9) is 02 – Brazil world cup wins.
   But, without googling I also know that the “twinned with Guangxi province in China, there’s no province finer” question is the recent peerless smash hit redux of ‘Newport” by Jay Z/ Alicia Keys. Which can be viewed
   here

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2. Comment on Whatever happened to the Irish political blogosphere?
   on 27 July 2010 at 11:42 pm

   With some notable exceptions, like Slugger, has the political blogosphere in either Britain or Ireland lived up to either its own hype or that of communications academics?
   I would genuinely like some opinions in this matter to help my research.
   Firstly, Is it fair to refute utterly any claims to the transformation of the political landscape in Westminster by its associated blogotariat?
   Guido, for instance, breaks stories but there is precious little debate there, just Tory wonks and assorted Daily Mail vagabonds calling Brown or whoever ‘knob jockeys’. It’s hardly the rational cut and thrust of political debate Habermas et al may subscribe to as an essential element of an effective polity.
   The Westminster blogosphere is a homogeneous mish mash of beige irrelevance produced by any of the myriad think tanks. Why has there not been a similar, if somewhat smaller explosion around the political institutions in Ireland?
   Getting back to the wider Irish blogosphere, is there a new realignment or consolidation of this new media sphere around trusted elite bloggers? Are we now content with CLR, Splints, Dublin Opinion, et al and associated Sluggers to provide an alternative to MSM?
   For my own project, could I also solicit opinions to why we haven’t seen a wider take up of the blogosphere as a channel of communication for Republicans, given its long history of activist journalism and the recent success of The Blanket between 2001-2008?
   And n one final point, Guido said that podcasting was dead and video was the frontier for successful blogging – why has multi-media failed to take off in the Irish blogosphere?
   Sorry for all the questions, but I would like some opinions.

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3. Comment on Whatever happened to the Irish political blogosphere?
   on 27 July 2010 at 12:48 am

   Mick’s right, there has been a noticeable recent take-up of Twitter by many elected representatives and concerned others, but precious few attempts at the long form ‘journalism’ that the blogosphere offers.
   Does this say that the blogosphere, much heralded by American academics as a new frontier of policy articulation is dead and wasn’t as sustainable as the digital determinists claimed?
   I don’t know, but as someone working on a long term project looking at Republican media, I am struck by the contraction in the Republican blogosphere, even among the dissenting community.
   With the exception of Anthony McIntyre, Ardoyne Republican and a few others, Republicanism has few regular bloggers – a conundrum I have been contemplating for a while.
   That said the best Republican/ left leaning blogs/ bloggers: Sinn Fein Keep Left, Garibaldy, Cedar Lounge/ McGregor, Aldous and few others are doing a sterling job covering events which would ordinarily not be covered by the MSM.
   Three points: 1) The pictures illustrating Splints’ constituency guides were the laugh out loud funniest thing in the whole election,
   2) Let’s not have The Rebels Yell in the Top 20 this year, Mick, it’s a shocking blog, and,
   3) Is Slugger hoovering up the best writers in the blogosphere? That’s not a complaint by the way. As long as Keith, Alan, Mooch etc keep producing here, we’re on the pig’s back

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