Although Malachi O’Doherty no longer has a column with the Belfast Telegraph, he’s still writing on his website. Jude Collins and Danny Morrison are also prominent commentators with their own web portals. All of these are early movers with regard to the net, but none have taken the ‘leap into the dark’ that politicians in Britain (like Tom Watson and Boris Johnson and the Republic (like Liz McManus and Damien Blake) the media has been slow to get on board with the blogging revolution. Not so in Britain (reg needed). My personal favourite amongst the new boys is Aaronovitch:
What is more, he says, there is something very appealing about writing a blog. “I enjoy the sense of belonging to a community. For someone like me, who finds it easier to talk to people on the internet instead of face-to-face – I am not incredibly gregarious or sociable – it is a perfect medium. In other words, as ever, the medium suits the people who use it. And there will be people it doesn’t suit. But if columnist-blogging develops properly, we will put our articles from various places on these sites, put our diaries and random thoughts there too, and construct a much more rounded personality.”
Readers are treated to Aaronovitch’s Times articles and thoughts on everything from Simon Hughes’s sexuality and George Galloway’s Big Brother showboating to news of a jogging injury that may yet prevent him from running the London marathon.
“If you want to be talked about in certain circles in South Africa, Australia or the US,” he says, “I think it helps if you blog. Certainly newspapers like the Guardian and the Times are pretty keen these days on their writers blogging.”
Now, we have a few vacated slots in our blogging team. So if you’re a columnist or journalist and you want to find your own “blog legs”, then just drop me a line at the email address above!
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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