<nettime> shocklogs wikipedia entry

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

(dear nettimers, together with students of the masters-of-media blog at 
the university of amsterdam i have been working on a wikipedia entry 
about so-called shock logs or shock blogs. it is been an interesting 
experience to see that our entry has been deleted on a number of 
occasions because the entry term was too close to the contemporary and 
lacked reliable references. for instance, on 19:59, 6 January 2007 The 
Epopt (Talk | contribs) deleted "Shocklog" because it was a neologism. 
after this incident we brought back the entry and added a few 
references. let's see what happens next. regards, geert)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shocklog

A shocklog is a weblog that usually contains controversial, critical, 
surprising and/or appalling content. The term shocklog is a combination 
of the words shock and weblog. In the past shock has been combined with 
other words to create popular terms, for example Shock Jock, Shock Rock 
and Shock Site. In all these cases the term is used to underline 
offensive and provocative content.

Shocklogs are weblogs that use shock and slander to sling mud at 
current affairs, public individuals, institutions and so on. Authors of 
shocklogs usually comment on an item in a very provoking and insulting 
way, often resulting in even more seriously offensive comments, such as 
threats of rape and murder. Occasionally shocklogs will incite the 
reader to undertake some (online) action, usually in the nature to 
harass or harm a specific target. The shocklog has a close relation to 
the static shock sites. The popularity of shocklogs make it interesting 
for advertisers and therefore these sites become forced to provide 
shocking material, sometimes leading to harassments and false 
accusations of innocent people.

Contents
  [hide]
1 Shocklogs and the mass media
2 The Netherlands
3 Shocklog popularity
4 References
5 See also
6 Further reading

[edit]Shocklogs and the mass media

Through their provocative actions, shocklogs have attracted the 
attention of national mass media more than once. By posting content on 
their weblogs they have alerted the media about certain issues. In 2004 
Dutch weblog Geenstijl and their visitors joined in a competition to 
come up with a name for a new taste of Doritos chips. Although there 
were some debates, in the end the Doritos Geenstijl was available in 
Dutch supermarkets. In 2006 the same weblog posted confidential and 
personal information of Ernst Wesselius, who was with the justice 
department in the Netherlands Antilles. The shocking part was that the 
weblog also posted personal erotic stories written by him. Retecool, 
another Dutch weblog, was mentioned in the news in 2005 when they asked 
their visitors to post edited photos about a new Dutch television 
channel called Talpa. When Talpa send the weblog the demand of deleting 
the posts, the weblog posted this message directly on the weblog. After 
24 hours the weblog decided to delete the photos. There have been 
countless more cases in which the shocklogs attracted the attention of 
national media, usually by calling on the participation of their 
readers.

[edit]The Netherlands

Shocklogs are especially popular in The Netherlands (called 
Treiterlogs). The main shocklogs do not only post offensive content 
exclusively, but they do draw a crowd that is often interested in 
expressing their frustrations. In many cases the delicate topics 
discussed on those sites anticipate on current sentiments in Dutch 
society. In this respect an example can be seen in the community?s 
response to the messages posted regarding the murder on the Dutch film 
director Theo van Gogh in 2004. When it became clear that the suspect 
had a Moroccan background, and that he?d acted on behalf of his radical 
islamic beliefs, the discussions on various shocklogs got overheated. 
The murder on Theo (who actually was quite experienced in posing 
controversial statements himself) leads to numerous ?debates? that 
consisted merely of explicit and even racist comments. The largest 
shocklogs in The Netherlands are Geenstijl, Jaggle, Retecool and 
Volkomenkut. The unique visitors on those sites vary from an estimated 
25 thousand to 38 thousand a day. The thing these Dutch shocklogs have 
in common is a more or less provocative style describing news facts, 
other websites and blogs.

[edit]Shocklog popularity

In 2005 the popular Dutch shocklog Geenstijl won the Dutch Bloggies 
award for Best Weblog. Probably due to its popularity with its readers 
it won a Dutch Bloggies award from the public for Best Weblog in 2006. 
The popularity of the shocklogs raised concerns in the traditional 
media [1].

[edit]References

Helm, Sjoerd van der. Bloggen is zo 2004. Een onderzoek naar de 
Nederlandse weblogwereld Masterthesis. Media Studies, Specialisation 
New Media. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands: 2005
Masters of Media. Shocklog: Introducing the term to the world 
Collaborative blog. Media Studies, Specialisation New Media. University 
of Amsterdam, Netherlands: 2006
Schutte, B. The Scanning Crowd. Onderzoek naar het fenomeen weblogs. 
Masterthesis. Communication and Informationscience, Specialisation New 
Media & Digital Culture, University of Utrecht, Netherlands: 2005.
[edit]See also

Geenstijl Wikipedia entry about shocklog
Shock Site Static website that contains shocking material
Netwerk Report on web/shocklogs Netherlands: 2004
[edit]Further reading

Institute of Network Cultures Blog post concerning the MA thesis of 
Sjoerd van der Helm.

--

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_neologisms.


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