The ConstructDiscourse, Society, Language, New Media, and I

Author’s Note: This has been a very messy piece with a lot of terms thrown carelessly in the mix. I apologize if you’ve stumbled upon this mess. But such is the purpose of this blog. Mostly masturbatory and selfish.

I was working on a post entitled “Hegemony and the Pinoy blogosphere” and I can’t seem to finish writing it. It was starting to become more of a thesis rather than a blog post. For one, I don’t want to waste the better ones of my writing by self-publishing them here. And I do intend to work on this particular topic for my masters thesis.

A friend and I were discussing all the recent events in the Pinoy blogosphere. The (not so) recent issues of blogging elitism and other scandals have definitely caught our interest. The main issue of our discussion – the concept of a blogging elite.

Hegemony is the existence of dominant bloc of society, that, through influence over another bloc gained not through force but through gained acceptance by the subverted bloc.

It’s quite hard to exactly name people who belong to this “elite” group but possible members can be characterized by their scope of influence in the blogosphere and perhaps their visibility outside the blogosphere. I’d like to dub these “influential” entities in the Pinoy blogosphere as the blogging principalia. As other bloggers have pointed out, salience of thought is not a requirement for influence. Popularity can go a long way.

This is inspired perhaps by this book I was reading on the history of the Philippine elite – the principalia as rooted to the term circa the Spanish era. Now why liken the blogging elite to the principalia? Well there are several similarities.

Financial affluence is definitely one thing that these share. Blogging in itself is an activity of the society-at-large’s elite but those who can actually spend a lot of time conjuring blog posts are those who have much time on their hands. With the exception perhaps to those who rely on blogging for food, a lot of Pinoy bloggers aren’t really concerned as to where they’d get the bigas to cook for dinner.

Education is also another thing. Many of these so-called blogging elite are degree-holders and a great number are also students. According to my quick survey a few months ago, around 80% of the high-traffic Pinoy blogs use English as their medium.

Another is access to influential media. The reform movement during the Spanish colonization comprised of the principalia. And it was through the diversity of their mastery of their different crafts that these propagandistas made their points. Much like with bloggers with new media.

If we view history, while regimes and conquerors have come and gone these same elite are still the ones in power. But it is important to note that diversity is not absent in these ranks. Members of this class aren’t necessarily all share the same advocacies. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying (yet) to say that members of this blogging principalia differ in large-scope ideologies. However, they still exhibit the same power to influence. It is hegemonic still, if we go by the intrinsic meaning of hegemony.

Now my friend and I exchange a few notes here and there and day by day, we are getting a lot more into the idea. We were, after all, more of curious observer-participants in the blogosphere. Our blogs do not get a thousand hits a day. We have not had much visibility in the local scene. But we do blog and we do read other blogs. If there would be a term for us would perhaps be the blogging subaltern. But given this term, “subaltern,” am I asserting that we are to blame for the existence of this principalia (which is the case according to Antonio Gramsci)?

Some thoughts that I’d like to expound on: Influence and Popularity and Identities and Representations.