The political subject of blogs

Abstract

This article focuses on blogs as a new media form, and addresses the question of shifts in political subjectivity. The blog is seen as a new way of relating to the public sphere, and to other people, thereby involving new forms of subjectivity and political conduct. Two theories of subjectivity are discussed here, selected because of their explicit links between subjectivity and communication: these are Jurgen Habermas's inter-subjective construction of the subject, and Mark Poster's poststructuralist account of a decentred and fragmented subjectivity. These theoretical subjectivities are subsequently contrasted with the subjectivities enabled by the structural features of blogs. Thus, blog entries; the chronology of blogging; readers' comments; and hyperlinks (internal and external) are examined in terms of the type of subjectivity they support. The analysis reveals that the emerging blogging subjectivity is one that strives for autonomy and self-definition, in a way re-introducing the authorial subject, which was lost in the wake of the poststructuralist critique. On the other hand, the emerging blogging subject is not the originator of all meaning: rather meaning emerges in collaboration with others. The democratic promise of the blog might therefore be located in its potential to deliver an autonomous yet connected subject, and through this to found a new politics revolving around autonomy and solidarity. However, this promise can only be delivered if blogs explicitly address and problematise questions of power and its distribution – and in doing so, they must avoid the twin pitfalls of emotivism, the mere stating of unsupported personal opinions, and empty publicity, the spectacularisation of politics.