52
Vee Vian Thien
endorsement by participants of a social practice.
51 By contrast, concrete norms need
only a desire for esteem, a much shallower mode of internalization, which in turn
enables easier amendment or abandonment of these concrete norms without overall
destruction of the abstract norms from which they stem.
52 This conceptual distinction
has powerful explanatory force for the Malaysian sociopolitical blogosphere. From a
combination of general observations and the 2006 and 2010 studies mentioned earlier,
I argue that there are four abstract norms supported by a total of twelve concrete
norms in the Malaysian blogosphere. The four abstract norms are as follows.
Responsible Blogging Tan and Ibrahim report that Malaysian bloggers are, in general,
not exceedingly conscientious about the veracity of facts in their postings.
53 By
contrast, 63.0 percent of sociopolitical bloggers interviewed in 2006 claim to doublecheck facts before posting.
54 This practice is supported by two concrete norms: the
“ see-for-yourself ” norm of linking to original materials and the norm of disclosing
one ’ s real-life identity. This abstract norm ’ s operation is illustrated by Anwar Ibrahim ’ s
2007 allegations of political tampering with judicial nominations. These claims
were accepted by bloggers once they had viewed a corroborating video clip uploaded
by Anwar.
55
Expectation of Bias Readers are ultimately responsible for checking the truthfulness
of blog posts and making their own judgments on credibility. Out of 476 readers polled
by Tan and Ibrahim who trust blogs, merely 13.2 percent admit to “ strongly trust[ing] ”
these blogs.
56 This distrust is grounded in the subjective practice of blogging, commencing with what bloggers care about most, in sharp distinction to objective, neutral,
public-interest reporting by professional journalists. This feeds into two separate concrete norms. First, bloggers are expected to disclose their ideologies and motivations.
Second and correspondingly, readers are expected to be the fi nal judge of content
quality once bloggers have made their relevant disclosure. Criticisms of MCMC proceedings against Nose4News, a popular satirical blog known for its outlandish mock
reports, demonstrate this abstract norm in practice. The blogosphere defended the
blogger by pointing to clear disclaimer notices on Nose4News as suffi cient discharge
of the blogger ’ s responsibilities to his readers.
Inclusivity This abstract norm has enabled relatively unknown individuals, such as
Jeff Ooi, to join the ranks of A-list sociopolitical bloggers. Inclusivity is highly signifi -
cant in two ways. First, it maintains conversations between bloggers and readers, albeit
weighted in favor of the blogger. Bloggers are expected to enable the comment function on their blogs and to consider readers ’ contributions as potential sources of
information. Second, as between bloggers, a concrete norm of mutual links, whether
in-line citation or the maintenance of blogrolls, sustains the existence of a community
of political bloggers through clustering. The conceptual distinction between abstract
and concrete norms is most relevant here. Based on a sample I created of 46 of the
most popular A-list political blogs, 19 do not maintain blogrolls. Nine of these belong
Vee Vian Thien
endorsement by participants of a social practice.
51 By contrast, concrete norms need
only a desire for esteem, a much shallower mode of internalization, which in turn
enables easier amendment or abandonment of these concrete norms without overall
destruction of the abstract norms from which they stem.
52 This conceptual distinction
has powerful explanatory force for the Malaysian sociopolitical blogosphere. From a
combination of general observations and the 2006 and 2010 studies mentioned earlier,
I argue that there are four abstract norms supported by a total of twelve concrete
norms in the Malaysian blogosphere. The four abstract norms are as follows.
Responsible Blogging Tan and Ibrahim report that Malaysian bloggers are, in general,
not exceedingly conscientious about the veracity of facts in their postings.
53 By
contrast, 63.0 percent of sociopolitical bloggers interviewed in 2006 claim to doublecheck facts before posting.
54 This practice is supported by two concrete norms: the
“ see-for-yourself ” norm of linking to original materials and the norm of disclosing
one ’ s real-life identity. This abstract norm ’ s operation is illustrated by Anwar Ibrahim ’ s
2007 allegations of political tampering with judicial nominations. These claims
were accepted by bloggers once they had viewed a corroborating video clip uploaded
by Anwar.
55
Expectation of Bias Readers are ultimately responsible for checking the truthfulness
of blog posts and making their own judgments on credibility. Out of 476 readers polled
by Tan and Ibrahim who trust blogs, merely 13.2 percent admit to “ strongly trust[ing] ”
these blogs.
56 This distrust is grounded in the subjective practice of blogging, commencing with what bloggers care about most, in sharp distinction to objective, neutral,
public-interest reporting by professional journalists. This feeds into two separate concrete norms. First, bloggers are expected to disclose their ideologies and motivations.
Second and correspondingly, readers are expected to be the fi nal judge of content
quality once bloggers have made their relevant disclosure. Criticisms of MCMC proceedings against Nose4News, a popular satirical blog known for its outlandish mock
reports, demonstrate this abstract norm in practice. The blogosphere defended the
blogger by pointing to clear disclaimer notices on Nose4News as suffi cient discharge
of the blogger ’ s responsibilities to his readers.
Inclusivity This abstract norm has enabled relatively unknown individuals, such as
Jeff Ooi, to join the ranks of A-list sociopolitical bloggers. Inclusivity is highly signifi -
cant in two ways. First, it maintains conversations between bloggers and readers, albeit
weighted in favor of the blogger. Bloggers are expected to enable the comment function on their blogs and to consider readers ’ contributions as potential sources of
information. Second, as between bloggers, a concrete norm of mutual links, whether
in-line citation or the maintenance of blogrolls, sustains the existence of a community
of political bloggers through clustering. The conceptual distinction between abstract
and concrete norms is most relevant here. Based on a sample I created of 46 of the
most popular A-list political blogs, 19 do not maintain blogrolls. Nine of these belong