2 comments

• Harpo

  That’s a very broad definition of what constitutes an “interesting discussion”, Neha. I assume your reasoning went something like this: homosexuality -or sexuality in any shape or form- is so rarely “discussed” in the “Sri Lankan blogosphere” that one must needs take what one can get? Fair enough, but…

  Okay, I’m being facetious with the above. Interestingness is relative, etc. But I do also have a more serious bone to pick.

  Here’s a question about bridge-blogging. IIRC, the point is to provide a viewpoint into ‘local’ reality to a ‘global’ audience -a journalistic perspective of sorts. Fine so far. But when things like this get picked up as somehow representative of Sri Lankan blogger perspectives, I seriously question whether it makes any sense at all to call anything the “Sri Lankan blogosphere”. (Goes for any country too, of course, but I’m speaking as a Sri Lankan and a blogger.) I can see how you could divide the blogosphere by theme/subject/issue (the music blogosphere, the geek blogosphere, the political commentary blogosphere, whatever), but I think trying to divide it by nationality is a sacrifice of accuracy for convenience.

  I suppose it’s your phrasing I’m arguing with. If you had said “interesting discussion between (two) Sri Lankan bloggers” I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Adjective, noun. Meaning, bloggers who live in, and presumably have citizenship in, Sri Lanka.

  As it is, I just found myself wondering what, exactly, constitutes this “Sri Lankan blogosphere”, whether I was a part of it, how I had missed this interesting discussion, and -having read it- whether I wanted to be somehow, even implicitly, a party to it. Adjective, noun. Meaning (connotative if not denotative), Sri Lanka’s (singular) community/network of blogs.

  See what I mean?

  14 November 2006, 11:52 am

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• Neha Viswanathan Contributor profile »

  Harpo: By blogosphere (however clumsy that term may be) – I mean a loose network of blogs out of the same region/ language based on geo-political identity. Suppose I did state that it was between two Sri Lankan bloggers – am I then also not putting their national identity in perspective?

  The discussion moreover is not limited to the posts by these two bloggers, but also includes comments – that said, the blogosphere is not represented by the noise of majorities and minorities but is made up of smaller voices too. If I choose to ignore this – and focus only on the “majority of the issues” picked up – I am doing what traditional media has always done – ignored other issues and voices.

  I am not imposing an identity on them – merely, categorizing information according to the taxonomy considered relevant to this website. If you notice the post has also been tagged under LGBT – but does that mean that this discussion is only relevant to those who identify as LGBT? Categorizing anything under any label is in that sense an imposition – but I am not imposing this label on anyone – merely stating that this is how the information is processed by a regional editor who works with blogs in the South Asian region.

  I categorize any post on Sri Lanka, by a Sri Lankan under the country tag. s for what constitutes the Sri Lankan blogosphere – that is not for me to determine – but it is undeniable that the community exists.

  15 November 2006, 6:23 am

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