The BBC interviewer had read my blog post and remarked, a smile in her voice, that it was a little daunting to think that I’d blog my disappointment if I found her questions inane. Was part of the appeal of blogging the power?
Once, after an interview with a journalist who had done no research on blogs at all and expected me to give him the questions as well as the answers as well as suggestions about interesting (i.e. young sexy self-revealing webcamming) bloggers to interview, and who then, after I’d explained blogs to him for an hour, wrote the article leaving out my name, well, after that I did write a grumpy post. I deleted it though. Not really much point in alienating journalists, is there, and anyway, I can vividly imagine a lone journalist with too little time and too many articles to write. We all cut corners sometimes. And I learnt something about not taking it too seriously and how to appreciate those journalists who are actually interested in the topic.
The BBC World Service had done their research, even to reading my blog post about their interview, and I expect it’ll be an interesting program. They’re also going to be talking to Stuart Hughes, a BBC war reporter, and to an Iranian blogger I didn’t catch the name of, which gives an interesting spread. It’ll be broadcast next week sometime, in a program called The Word.
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Hasanagha
For Iranian bloggers it’s not a diary nor a toy. It’s the only way to express oneselves. It’s a way of breathing in a completely sensured society. Remember that iranian bloggers make the largest number of bloggers on the net.
Jill
Are they really the largest number on the net? I do know that blogs are very important in Iran, but I’ve not read enough about it yet. I’m looking forward to hearing the interview with the Iranian on the BBC World Service.
noah
Will there be a transcript or audio archive available online?
Jill
It looks as though the last program is online? At least the homepage for The Word has something on it. The presenter said she thought the blog interviews will be broadcast next Thursday though she wasn’t quite sure.
Hasanagha
Yes it is the lagest number, and it will be growing in the near future. The number of internet users in Iran has grown with 30% last year and it will grow more than 40% this year.
The number of weblogs in Desember 2003 was more than 100.000 and every 5 minute a new Persian blog is born.
Other interesting statistics:
Number of internet users in Iran
1994(250), 2003(3.500.000), 2004(5.000.000),
2005(15.000.000)
fivecats
On a separate sub-topic, I think it’s great that someone is aware that they may be held publicly accountable for what they do in their professional life.
Looking forward to hearing the story online. You will post a link, right?
…
Jill
That’s wonderful that there are so many bloggers in Iran. According to this recent artictle summarising various surveys of blogs and bloggers there are somewhere between 2.5 and 8 million blogs in the US alone. 2% of surveyed Americans in one study had their own blog – that’s about the same percentage as how many Iranians with net access have their own blogs, using your numbers – 100000 blogs and 5 million Iranians with net access.
That is brilliant!
Fivecats, of COURSE I’ll link to it and announce when it’s broadcast!
🙂