Sunday, January 27, 2013

What's it about? It's about nothing.

March is the Magnet's 8th birthday - paleolithic in blog years, and I guess there are a few things to take stock of. A considerable amount of web traffic is tragically, and invariably, destined solely for my archives, and that has prompted an equivalent amount of speculation about my visitors' reading interests. 

Many bloggers have moved on during the time I've been writing TDM, blogging is unpaid(just accept it) and so bloggers don't tend to keep writing for very long. Some, eg. Spicey, have moved on to bigger and better things, while others' interest or ideas have waned and some, just got a life. A few years ago, a lot of bloggers  put ads on their blogs, which brought them one one millionth of a cent every time someone read a page on their blog - and probably the reason their blogs are no more, is that they have run off to Tahiti to live a life of luxury on their (former) blog ad income...

I didn't go down that route and am really quite happy to not have any advertising here, no spam, no ads, etc. This blog began purely as an academic exercise and it has continued to fulfill that role. I have learnt much about web traffic, seo and market interest in that time and especially in recent years, with so many more posts for readers to choose from.

Certain topics generate a lot of interest - true crime is one of those areas. However, readers will find more archived true crime commentary than new posts simply because it gets a bit compli-m'-cated - it's contentious writing commentary about justice issues. If you try to add balance to the inflammatory MSM news coverage (designed to incite moral panic + disproportionate sentencing + reactionary politics), cops just don't like it.
"Don't undo our spin, Ms Magnet, or we're going to meddle in your business and generally, (censored) annoy you ...fee-fi-fo-fum, and all that other sundry, objectionable stuff... blah, blah, blah..." (Mr Plod, 2005-2013)
And, if a blogger, theoretically, empathized with Mr Plod about how spewful policing is and the inherently oppressive nature, historically, of policing in this post-penal-colony society, then the crooks & their families don't like it,
"How can we ever get a fair go if you're siding with the police...blah, blah, blah..." (*Mr Squiggle - *not his real name, 2010)
So it's a political minefield, either or both ways. Additionally, very occasionally you'll find someone who has featured in some news that has been analysed and they will feel a connection to the writer..."uh-oh," I hear you say...No, really, it's all good...ahem (shudders...) and this tends to happen more, pursuant to true crime news commentary, than other genres - seriously though, reader responses tend to reflect the fact that the blog aims to unspin some of the nonsense that sneaks out there onto the web, pretending to be news. That type of disinformation or misinformation can facilitate corruption and tear apart innocent lives, even quite legally and sanctioned by government PR people + those targeted by vilification are often unable to defend themselves with expensive litigation against big news media, or have no legal recourse via the courts. So reader responses are relative. Blogging about justice has offered a great connection to an amazing and ever-expanding global community, with an arm-chair interest in social justice, media commentary and human rights.
Even among the uptight fellows working so terribly hard to gather as much open-source-web-based intell for their automaton masters as their bony little fingers can cut n paste away minute-by-minute, every now and then, a post could evoke a tiny giggle from them and they may become momentarily animated, and perhaps, if they enjoyed that experience, they might try to laugh a bit more at life and themselves, rather than sensationalizing people's online data to bring them unnecessary grief like some paranoid androids out of a Gibson novel. (too much license? - Adams' novel... but Gibson's better)
People also trawl The Daily Magnet archives for posts with comments to add their spam to (poor old, hungry spammers) - some of my spammers have gone on to become regular readers,"hello there, you." 




Inexplicably (although, I could speculate), over the last few weeks I have noticed that the same posts are getting visited over, and over, and over(!) - and, as hard as I try to introduce new archived material to "What's being read now?" the same titles return - it's just baffling. It's like the Bermuda Triangle of blogging. For those featured in the following posts - I suspect some of you who prefer being cool, aloof and more low-profile, probably are going to feel a little awkward about the attention you draw and perhaps, being mentioned again in this post, but thems the facts.

If you have a look at the "What's being read now..." section, you'll see we can probably blame part of this phenomenon to the sudden disappearance of the weblog, Dogfight at Bankstown. The links to that blog are MIA, not even cached on Google, and I understand that must be very perplexing for readers, so I looked for Saint's archives on my rss feed reader - no dice, and so I can't repair those links - sorry, you avid D@B readers. But if you find Saint's old archives gimme a hoy. All this feverish interest is probably about his name - I'm not judging. So just to hose that curiosity down a touch, that old blog that I link to in the whistleblowing post contextualized religious dogma in real life and tried to 'out' the born-again, evangelical, snake charmers and oil sellers - must've been old school, I guess. So just to be clear, whoever the Saint was, he wasn't busted, he wasn't busted out(#NB you true-crime readers), and though it appears fairly cryptic due to the missing link, I seem to recall it may have possibly related to workplace bullying, or a change of employer, something contrastingly benign anyway, and I don't know if he was a typical Volvo driver - can we move on, now?

Another post that just won't budge out of those page rankings lately is The Magician, and it seems such a long time ago that I sat at the creepy, old, gigantic, musty, Luna Cinema, listening to the Q+A with the pretty remarkable director, Scott Ryan. The film was really original and definitely worth a look. Some films can expand our perspective and that is one, if not for it's unpretentious style, for the insight it offers into film and television funding. Another oldie that has been immovable, for ever, is As the Worm Turns, which looks at a lot of issues, one of which was the political hands-sitting on the transfer of local lady, Holly D-J from a Thai jail. She was recently paroled after having completed a degree in social work.

I'm unsure that anyone is going to be able to wrap their heads around this, but the single most visited post on this blog, of all time, is a meagre two lines long! It's very old and it's about The Man with the Belly-Button Tattoo. "Believe it or not....(cue the spooky music...)"
 
A couple years ago a website making some very interesting claims about someone with no defence via defamation law, disappeared overnight when this blog published and scrutinized their assertions and their anonymity - it vanished into thin air. That link is, similarly, as extinct as Palin's parrot. Happens.

Interestingly, another dead link that I have found in the last couple of weeks, is the first one in the Herbert Inquest post. It's probably a coincidence. I noticed when I was updating that post a few days ago, that a lot of the conspiracy theory stories after the parolee scarpered, have disappeared off the web. That particular story copped a mention because ironically, it used a completely, unnamed (+ unaccountable) source, to brand another person, indelibly, and then it disappeared - "that's a bit eerie, i'n' it?!"

Not naming sources is a tricky thing in journalism. It's a judgment and experience call - but in reality a lot of the time, busy staff journos and staff-written court reports will just make anyone anonymous, except for the person they are claiming did something wrong.

I was quite surprised one day to find in my email inbox a story from a court reporter who had completely ripped off his 2000-word "exclusive" from a wikipedia page that I had written. He pilfered it to help build up his credibility and to enhance the police fabrications he added to the copy. This is indicative of an existing, prevalent culture among the print media's "lead crime reporters," a job typically gifted to the relative of a senior police officer, or a former police officer.

Naming sources in some instances can put precious sources right in the firing line of their critics and adversaries, whereas not naming them, can leave a journo vulnerable to grifters or make them look like a b/s artist.

The generic statement on behalf of a department from "a spokesperson," is similarly worrying if no one in that department is prepared to put their name to a particular assertion or viewpoint, particularly if it is condemning someone or it's twaddle - someone needs to be responsible.There is a lot of progress and regulation required in government communications and PR - and lobbying and lobbyists can offer a tiny glimpse of those problems - lobbying is now registered and regulated (as opposed to government PR). Reform of government spin was a key recommendation of Tony Fitzgerald, evidencing the subjugation of the Fourth Estate via government-derived revenue and spin.

The tone of the posts is changing in response to the developing academic needs of the writer. Some readers like it - some readers just keep coming back for that old true crime commentary, some, could probably get some therapy. My diligent, sneaky and omnipresent sub-editor, who shall remain nameless, objects to the free-flowing nature of some of the writing :}} (she's a sciencey person), but,  there is a kind of method to this apparent, grammatical licentiousness. Glaser's off-road, free-conscious research style encourages the evolution of new ideas and discoveries, and in this humble endeavour, this is manifest in a freer writing (and research) style, and helps to bridge the divide between academic writing, news writing and a more accessible conversational voice.

So the next post here should be about New Year's resolutions - it's almost Chinese New Year...I think the first one should be to write shorter posts.

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Here but I'm gone... catch yas in a month