I thought it was timely to reproduce some of the late Edward Said’s typically perceptive, but ultimately optimistic, thoughts on the alternatives to mass mediated culture – in particular the role of the independent intellectual, from which I think we can extrapolate to the role of the blogger:

On one side, a half-dozen enormous multinationals presided over by a handful of men control most of the world’s supply of images and news. On the other, there are the independent intellectuals who actually form an incipient community, physically separated from each other but connected variously to a great number of activist communities shunned by the main media but who have at their disposal other kinds of what [Jonathan] Swift sarcastically called oratorical machines. Think of what an impressive range of opportunities is offered by the lecture platform, the pamphlet, radio, alternative journals, the interview form, the rally, church pulpit and the Internet, to name only a few. True, it is a considerable disadvantage to realize that one is unlikely to get asked onto the PBS NewsHour or ABC Nightline, or if one is in fact asked, that only an isolated fugitive minute will be offered. But then other occasions present themselves, not in the soundbite format but rather in more extended stretches of time. . . . The emancipatory potential — and the threats to it — of this new situation mustn’t be underestimated. . . .

[continued at netvironments, where there is a lengthy tribute to Edward Said as well as quotes by/about him and links to related articles]

Gary also draws my attention to his defence of Said’s work on Orientalism from the attacks of Australian anti-culturalist Keith Windschuttle.