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If you want to contact us,
please email info@insidepolitics.org.za
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30 July 2010
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THE SA BLOG AWARDS
InsidePolitics came fifth in the category “best blog with a political theme” in the 2007 South African blog awards.
It was beaten by Steve Hofmeyr’s blog, which won the category; Trash Media, which came second; Politics.za, which came third; and It’s almost supernatural, which came fourth.
The awards have fuelled much debate out there in cyber space, but most of it seems to boil down to a clash of personalities.
That is perhaps understandable. Generally speaking, blogging is by nature an intensely personal exercise and, more often than not, when judging a blog, you are in fact judging a particular individual, their thoughts and the way in which they choose to express them.
By all accounts, the South African blog awards are a good idea, well run and, although relatively new and not without teething problems, will one day no doubt develop into a competition with far more gravitas and a far wider impact – as, no doubt, will the medium more generally.
In the meantime, and with specific reference to the category in which this blog was nominated – politics – here are a few thoughts which might, hopefully, help strengthen the competition in the future.
First, there needs to be a greater emphasis on content. If the pretence of any blog is that it represents the thoughts and insights of an individual or organisation, then it is those thoughts and insights one should scrutinise.
It is all very well having a great many links and a variety of graphics; but if the point you are trying to make is poorly expressed, those tools will hinder rather than help.
Indeed, that is implicit in identifying the blogs by category – presumably the best political blog is supposed to offer the best insight and analysis of politics – that being its primary purpose.
While many blogs will use external links to make their point, that in and of itself shouldn’t be the mark of a good blog. There is nothing wrong with a blog that simply provides shortcuts to interesting stories; but if you are measuring the quality of comment and analysis, not to mention originality, external links should supplement, rather than define, a particular blog.
Following on from this, the panel of judges needs to include people with expertise in each category nominated. Just as it would be little use having someone without any experience in food judge the best blog about food category, so it would be little use having someone with little or no interest in politics scrutinising the quality of a blog which aims to analyse South African politics. Everyone eats food and political developments affect all citizens but, in each case, the more sophisticated and specialised the service, the more you rely on expert analysis to judge the quality.
Second, and again with particular reference to the politics category, the nomination system, as it is currently structured, seems to preclude some of the most outstanding political blogs.
Oxford doctoral graduate James Myburgh and former editor of the Sunday Times Stanley Uys, for example, run a blog called Ever-fasternews.com which for all of last year offered an exceptionally thorough, well-written and original analysis of South African politics.
In fact, over the course of 2006, with a few exceptions, it really was in a different league to other political blogs on offer. It caused much debate, not just online but in the mainstream media, most notably around its suggestion that William Gumede’s book on President Mbeki had a great many Posted on 11/4/2007
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