Is the Euroblogosphere an insignificant appendix to the Brussels Bubble, or perhaps (potentially) something more? Let us offer ‘citoyen lambda (européen)’ (the average EU citizen) a complimentary tour.
First, we can state that multilingual Bloggingportal.eu has grown to aggregate 635 Euroblogs (blogs related to EU affairs). In a year and a half, Bloggingportal.eu has more than doubled in size, and it continues to grow.
What more does the aggregator tell us about the state of the Euroblogosphere?
The front page offers a convenient view of a few highlighted posts (editors’ choices) daily, also available through a daily newsletter, as well as a weekly roundup. You are welcome to subscribe.
You can press the Posts button or subscribe to the Bloggingportal.eu stream for all posts to get the array of new blog entries with regard to facts, opinions, themes and languages.
There is, of course, a difference between listed and active Euroblogs. We have entered holiday season – low season for blogging - but let us take a look behind the Blogs button.
Admittedly the classifications are a bit arbitrary, but during the last seven days 27 blogs by journalists or media have published, 69 individual blogs, 19 MEP or Europarty blogs, 15 network blogs, 5 Commissioner blogs, 3 blogs by government representatives, 11 by think tanks or academics, 17 by civil society or NGO blogs.
The result is that 166 Euroblogs had published at least one post during the last seven days, when I checked a short while ago.
An impressive number of active blogs during low season, in my view.
How long can you write about UK politics if you exclude London (Westminster), or about politics in France without mentioning the institutions of the French Republic?
Likewise, it would be highly unnatural to discard the EU institutions from Euroblogs, but the subjects, viewpoints and languages of blog entries extend well beyond the “Brussels Bubble”.
At least in part, Euroblogs offer the “Brussels Bubble” feedback on the outside world of half a billion Europeans.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly, and as Eurobloggers we should promote interaction among Europeans. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:
I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.
I'm blogging *more* in the low season, as you call it, because I have more time, both to read the sort of things that might inspire a blogpost and to write the post itself.
ReplyDeleteEuronym,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your excellent blog in all seasons.
Nice look at the numbers! More than 20% active blogs during one week is indeed not bad. Let's see if Euronym is rig and let's see how numbers develop in August and September.
ReplyDeleteBrussels Blogger,
ReplyDeleteAs you can see on the Bloggingportal.eu Blogs page, some of the blogs produced a number of posts in a week, so there is considerable variety for readers.