Rebecca MacKinnon asks an interesting question in her post on global blogging, with respect to the lack of global content among the mostly American blogosphere:
Why don’t American bloggers link very much to bloggers around the world? People in the room suggested there are 2 main reasons: One reason is that they don’t know where to find the good blogs from other countries – unless Instapundit or somebody has linked to them. Another reason is that people don’t have enough context or knowledge about events going on in foreign countries to blog about them.
Both explanations are plausible, but let me add a third: Sphere of Concern versus Sphere of Influence.
A huge part of the rise of the blog phenomenon – from the “A-List” to the Tail – at the expense of the MSM is the frustration of literally millions of individuals who recognize the blatantly biased, one-sided, agenda-driven product that for too long has been passed off ostensibly as “news”. As has been detailed in such books as Blog and South Park Conservatives, this disparity led to the rise of Conservative talk radio (pioneered by Rush Limbaugh, and followed by many), the FOX news network, and most recently, the mostly Conservative internet explosion known as the blogosphere. I won’t re-hash that history here; I only mention it as background.
The blogosphere is a unique addition to this rise of “New Media”. It is the modern incarnation of the combination of the power of Gutenberg’s printing press with the influence of Martin Luther’s ideas. While few bloggers fancy themselves neo-Lutheran in their ability to influence the masses and subvert the controlling authorities in the process, most appreciate their role in participating in that foundational tenet of a free society: the free-flow of information and ideas.
So what’s my point? Just this: American bloggers tend to focus their work on American issues because it is those issues over which they may – individually for some, and corporately for the rest of us – exert some level of influence. While American bloggers may – and, I would guess, most do (take, for example, Gateway Pundit) – have in their Sphere of Concern global issues, they recognize that such issues are far-removed from their Sphere of Influence.
Again, the reason that the blogosphere experienced such explosive growth – primarily among Conservatives – is that would-be bloggers recognized blogging as a means to counter-balance the MSM; in other words, the intent of blogging is to exert influence (no matter how minimal that influence may be for anyone not named Glenn Reynolds). It is logical to assume that most bloggers believe their influence could be exerted most effectively with respect to America-centric issues. Coincidentally, the first showdown between “old” and “new” media took place during the most recent American Presidential election cycle.
If this explanation holds true, then as the blogosphere matures, it will attempt to exert its influence not just in American issues, but in increasingly global issues. (Cases in point: the Darfur crisis and the UN Oil-For-Food scandal.) However, I would go even farther: the MSM focus on several global issues only because those issues are first introduced, investigated, and discussed in the blogosphere.