Monday, September 1, 2008

Blogging - opening up non-Western cultures?

An article by Antony Loewenstein in the Weekend Australian Review sectoin (23-24 August, pages 6-7) suggests that bloggers in non-Western societies are providing a more balanced view of their cultures than we in the West are used to hearing.
He found that, 'blogs offered a window into mainly middle-class segments of societies rarely examined by the West.' They helped to elucidate such issues as what does a Saudi Arabian male thinks about his country's adherence to Wahhabism, how the average China user copes with multi-national-assisted filtering, and what is Cuba's likely future after Fidel Castro.
He also found that most people in these countries didn't want revolution, they wanted gradual change (reform), and they were actually quite happy with the way their countries were heading.
Loewenstein has written a book, 'The Blogging Revolution', about to be published by Melbourne University Press.

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