On average I suppose I get twenty or thirty views per blog.
It has added up to nearly 12000 over the time that I have been a blogger.
As a retired Vicar I have preached to large congregations as well as small ones.
But the average was probably 20 or 30.
So to reach 12000 I would have had to preach say, 600 sermons, which at one per Sunday would take 12 years so that definitely makes blogging the better bet.
But I was fascinated to read this morning that a blogger is rising to prominence in the Italian Elections.
Beppe Grillo is a comedian and a widely read blogger, his Five Star Movement is tipped to win at least a hundred seats and it is likely that Mr Grillo will become something of a power broker.
So is this the way to gain votes and influence people?
Blogging as a pathway to power?
It is an interesting and provocative thesis, of course it helps to be widely read and it helps to be a well known comedian with a national reputation but it seems that blogging as a political strategy can work, after all it places you firmly not only in the public domain but in the public's top pocket, inside jacket pocket, hip pocket or side leg pocket on cargo pants, wherever in fact people carry their smart phones.
Then wherever they happen to be, on the bus, in the car, walking along the street, on the train or at home when they get a message advising them that it has arrived they can wake their smart phone and read the latest blog from their favourite blogger.
Opinions will be shaped and formed. Decisions will be made. Judgements will be arrived at and at the critical moment when called to vote, the smart choice will be the latest blogger to have whispered influential thoughts.
Whilst Beppe Grillo is wooing the Italian population, here in the UK politicians are going all out on twitter and facebook and social networking to claim and counter claim the advantages of their platform and their party and their promises to be fairer, offering better health care, lower taxes and better education.
The question is could a blogger emerge here as the leader of a new radical alternative party, of course it would have be popular, strike a cord with the voters, Mr Grillo is advocating a Referendum of staying in the Euro Zone, just like our own Prime Minister, a proposal for free broad band is popular with his supporters as is a ban on High Speed Rail Tunnels (could prove a vote winner in the Chilterns but Mr Grillo is not standing here).
But his most popular strategy is V Day, standing for Vaffanculo! (The English translation of this word requires the use of asterisks) on V Day he is offering the tantalising possibility of an end to politics by sending the politicians packing.
After which presumably we all become bloggers and use the vote button on our remotes to decide each individual issue on merit or text Westminster Central.
Life in the Blogosphere raising politics to a new and exciting level of public participation in politics or reducing Westminster to a kind of permanent Big Brother review?
You can read Beppe Grillo's blog in English at: http://www.beppegrillo.it/en/
It has added up to nearly 12000 over the time that I have been a blogger.
As a retired Vicar I have preached to large congregations as well as small ones.
But the average was probably 20 or 30.
So to reach 12000 I would have had to preach say, 600 sermons, which at one per Sunday would take 12 years so that definitely makes blogging the better bet.
But I was fascinated to read this morning that a blogger is rising to prominence in the Italian Elections.
Beppe Grillo is a comedian and a widely read blogger, his Five Star Movement is tipped to win at least a hundred seats and it is likely that Mr Grillo will become something of a power broker.
So is this the way to gain votes and influence people?
Blogging as a pathway to power?
It is an interesting and provocative thesis, of course it helps to be widely read and it helps to be a well known comedian with a national reputation but it seems that blogging as a political strategy can work, after all it places you firmly not only in the public domain but in the public's top pocket, inside jacket pocket, hip pocket or side leg pocket on cargo pants, wherever in fact people carry their smart phones.
Then wherever they happen to be, on the bus, in the car, walking along the street, on the train or at home when they get a message advising them that it has arrived they can wake their smart phone and read the latest blog from their favourite blogger.
Opinions will be shaped and formed. Decisions will be made. Judgements will be arrived at and at the critical moment when called to vote, the smart choice will be the latest blogger to have whispered influential thoughts.
Whilst Beppe Grillo is wooing the Italian population, here in the UK politicians are going all out on twitter and facebook and social networking to claim and counter claim the advantages of their platform and their party and their promises to be fairer, offering better health care, lower taxes and better education.
The question is could a blogger emerge here as the leader of a new radical alternative party, of course it would have be popular, strike a cord with the voters, Mr Grillo is advocating a Referendum of staying in the Euro Zone, just like our own Prime Minister, a proposal for free broad band is popular with his supporters as is a ban on High Speed Rail Tunnels (could prove a vote winner in the Chilterns but Mr Grillo is not standing here).
But his most popular strategy is V Day, standing for Vaffanculo! (The English translation of this word requires the use of asterisks) on V Day he is offering the tantalising possibility of an end to politics by sending the politicians packing.
After which presumably we all become bloggers and use the vote button on our remotes to decide each individual issue on merit or text Westminster Central.
Life in the Blogosphere raising politics to a new and exciting level of public participation in politics or reducing Westminster to a kind of permanent Big Brother review?
You can read Beppe Grillo's blog in English at: http://www.beppegrillo.it/en/
No comments:
Post a Comment