The New Landscape of the Religion Blogosphere

Last updated on: March 3, 2010 at 1:37 am by Justin Whitaker

The New Landscape of the Religion Blogosphere 2010-03-03T01:37:00-07:00 Justin Whitaker

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For all you bloggers who didn’t know that you’re being watched, studied, and analyzed, this is for you:

I recall noticing recently in my visit statistics a link to a list of Religion Blogs at the Immanent Frame. I thought nothing of it at the time – except that it was oddly missing many of my favorite Buddho-bloggers – but now it’s back, this time complete with a full report. Here are some snippits:

“This report surveys nearly 100 of the most influential blogs that contribute to an online discussion about religion in the public sphere and the academy…. The purpose at hand is to foster a more self-reflective, collaborative, and mutually-aware religion blogosphere. Ideally, this report will spark discussion among religion bloggers that will take their work further, while also inviting new voices from outside existing networks to join in and take part.”

I’m honored that I somehow slipped into this group of 100 – probably a reflection more on the lack of Buddhist academic bloggers than anything else. Excellent academic Buddho-bloggers Danny Fisher, Scott Mitchell and Clarke Scott all deserve to be in there. Those who did get mentioned include James Ishmael Ford’s Monkey Mind, Will Buckingham’s thinkbuddha, and some big hitters: The Tricycle Editors Blog, Shambhala Sun Space, and Elephant Journal. In any case, I’m excited by the purpose of the work and look forward to building and deepening our interconnections here in the blogosphere.

This gave me a bit of a chuckle: “Social hierarchies naturally emerge; popular bloggers have the power to drive large numbers of readers to the sites they link to, which means that they can effectively
make or break the readerships of smaller blogs.” To the best of my knowledge, the Buddho-blogosphere still lacks such power-wielding superstars, though there are some big names out there.

I feel a bit like a monkey being studied at the zoo reading about ‘social-hierarchies’ (imagining Kyle tossing who-knows-what all over the information superhighway). Also telling, and a bit funny, “Blogging is an open-ended medium that lends itself to a variety of genres and styles. Some bloggers write long, literary essays, while others stick to short, rapid-fire fragments. Some posts read like informal—even “snarky”—diary entries, while others make pretense to objectivity.”

TRUST YOUR BLOGGER?

“The informality and lack of oversight that characterizes much of the blogosphere takes its toll on readers’ trust. According to a Pew study from 2005, only 20% of Americans considered news blogs to be “mostly facts”—low, certainly, though in fact twice the level of trust registered for talk radio (Rainie 2005, Baron 2008).”

Well, at least we’re doing better than talk radio 🙂

ACADEMIC BLOGGERS

A large chunk of the report focuses on academia and blogging, which has been a hotly discussed issue in the last several years. On the positive side, there are vast potentials:

“Imagine if the great thinkers of the past could have blogged, bouncing ideas off each other in real time, engaging in rapid-fire debates across borders. Would it have led to some kind of intellectual utopia, or total chaos?” This was the question Village Voice reporter Geeta Dayal posed in an April 2005 piece on academic blogging.”

That reminds me of the great conversations generated by Amod over at Love of All Wisdom and what I would hope to accomplish at Buddhist Ethics if only I’d write there a bit more often. But drawbacks are no less real:

“[To] Alex Halavais of the State University of New York at Buffalo, they seem ‘threatening to those who are established in academia, to financial interests, and to … well, decorum.’ Not exactly dignified; a little undisciplined; carnivalesque. Sometimes signal, sometimes noise.”

Robert Boynton asked a critical question in a 2005 Slate piece: “When academics post online, do they risk their jobs?” That same year, in an oft-cited article in the Chronicle, “Bloggers Need Not Apply,” Ivan Tribble argued forcefully that blogging negatively impacts job prospects.”

Yet there is real evidence that Blogs do matter to academics: “Through his engagement with other scholars at The Immanent Frame, as well as with readers participating through comments, Charles Taylor has been working to refine the account presented in A Secular Age…”

AND THE READERS

“Given the interactive nature of the medium, most bloggers are quite attentive and highly responsive to their readerships. Noticing that certain topics garner more traffic and comments than others, for instance, might turn the course of the blog in that direction.”

“Says J.C. Christian, the anonymous author of Jesus’ General, “I believe writing to keep or gain audience is suicidal.” Adds Brad Greenberg, “If I did, every post I wrote would mention Sarah Palin in a swimsuit.”

(hoping that including the Sarah Palin in a swimsuit -oh, twice now- quote will get me bumped up on search engines somehow)

In all seriousness though, my readership is sometimes in my mind when I write and this has led at times to a reduction in more personal posts. But in general, not so much. Being a human being, with human emotions and experiences is a part of being an American Buddhist; adventures in Montana just happens to be a perk for this American Buddhist.

I don’t think I’m terribly unique in my blogging or reasons for blogging. I began mostly for myself, to work on my writing, to note interesting things going on in the world around me, and, to a lesser extent, to document interesting aspects of my own life. From these early musings a community of sorts began to grow and, as they say, the rest is history (and it’s all preserved here on the web, you can check archives of this and my other blogs for the whole not very exciting adventure).

Better yet, check out the report and the Immanent Frame and think about how you blogging serves (or detracts from) your personal, spiritual, and professional life.

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