Another aspect of the coverage of the riots is how they are reported abroad. Following a conversation with someone it was interesting to note how relatives abroad, etc used the footage and blogs to find out what happened. I also was going through my logs and noticed my posts were driving some traffic and ranked high enough in Google. This would go some way to combatting how media abroad were reporting events and illustrate that the rioters were a small minority of thugs.

- Blogging as a phenomenon, an article of hype, the next big thing, is over. Flickr and uTube and photos ripped from the traffic cameras were as important to reporting of the riot phenomenon as any individual blog reporting.

- The real story is about networks and the capacity of new media networks to contain multiple and often conflicting views of one big story. This in tur points to the central truth is that there never really is one big story; each big story is comprised of many many forgotten or unheard and perhaps irrelevant detail - like the guys looked in the upper floors of McDonalds. Or the guy who came along 20 minutes later and was surprised to feel nothing of the heightened tension denoted in the traffic camera picture.

- The importance of the Dublin riots lies in the network both expanding and beginning to recognise the power of its entirely mutual capabilities. There may be some, I suspect, far from trivial political spin offs too. Both benefits lie in the capacity of strangers and friends to converse (like this) and turn over the value of received messages.

- Broadcast media’s greatest strength is also one of its weaknesses. It is enthralling because it is in the moment and immediate and enthralling. But it is also ethereal and possesses no public memory to speak of. New media does. And that is one of its strengths. If you didn’t get Charlie Bird’s piece on the six o’clock news, you got what he said because you read it on the net. And then maybe the papers (if the editor thought it suited) the next day.

- The challenge to the mainstream does not arise from some coterie of proto-Trotskite/Neo Con plotters in pursuit of permanent revolution, although this is what it may entail for some news organisations. Nor does it necessarily mean that any of us making ‘the challenge’ will benefit from it. We are simply (and in many cases unconsciously) benefiting from the fact that we are applying new technologies to commonplace events. It’s this action that creates the challenges to the establishment to refresh the means of doing news and cultural dissemination in a new context.

In my professional life I work with large organisations and am more than happy to use my blogging experience to help them to adapt and re-adjust to a new and challenging set of circumstances. To that extent, blogging is not a personal crusade. Nor is it about expressing animus, or dancing with egos. It’s about utilising new ways of making intelligent connections and accumulating and spending knowledge on a range of issues that matter.

In that regard, blogging is only the tip of the iceberg.

A fair number of the top bloggers are actually “traditional print/media journalists” themselves. Which may make it a case of sibling rivalry in their case.

It made me think of 1916 and how unpopular that “rising” was.

Please, don’t even begin to compare the patriots of 1916 to this shower.

Colm - I meant to say bloggers kept up with mainstream media

But all this jealousy between bloggers and traditional print/media journalists, where does it lead to?

Let me twist your key point: analysis is what makes meaning of event. Yes, there were people throwing stones; yes there were gardai in action; yes, there were political protesters who stood back from the fray and opportunists who made off with stolen goods. Quickfire photos and video are exciting. But so too is thoughtful reflection that makes connections between Saturday’s event , its context and a wider playing field.

This is the first bit of riot that’s happened in RoI since I came back here from UK. It made me think of 1916 and how unpopular that “rising” was. I’m probably being provocative by making a link. (if you’d like to read my view see my blog.)

At least no one was killed this time.

The whole point about the citizen reporters posting about the London Bombings being so insightful was that they could bring us pictures that we wouldn’t have been able to see through traditional media sources. If there was a load of videos posted on the day of the rioting then I’d be praising Irish bloggers more.

If this was the case, then bloggers deserve an even bigger applause.