Vorspeisenplatte

Originally written for the BoBs Blog, asked to explain German blogging to the other members of the international jury.

While self-declared and even established blog experts keep discussing the influence of German blogs on the classic media and/or public opinion, they completey miss the fact that the German blog scene has developed a unique profile. A reason for this oversight might be the fact that this profile has little to do with the high hopes and deep fears that German media specialists used to have and raise about blogs.

It may be ironic, but the greatest asset of German blogs is exactly the quality that the media experts bemoan frequently:
„Zu 99,9% egozentrischer, selbstreflektierter Schrott,“ is how Lars-Christian Cords from fischerAppelt kommunikation just recently defined German blogs: 99,9 percent egocentric self-reflective junk.

Cords couldn’t be more right in his analysis, it is just the conclusion where he goes wrong: Most of the most successful (i.e. widely read and influential) German blogs are very subjective and personal with a high literary quality. What makes them popular is their subjectivity.

Of course people read wirres for its factual content, but it is the author Felix’s style and his personality shining through every posting that makes them love it and come back. And the excessively quoted success story of Spreeblick revealing a ringtone provider’s dubious sales methods was so consequential exactly because it was not an investigative newspaper-like story but a highly literary and brilliantly written mock script for a children’s TV programme.

One indication of this typically German quality in blogging is the flood of public readings: Starting in trendy and playful Berlin, they spread out over the whole republic, providing the essence of German blogging – high-quality stories read out by the apparently fascinating people who came up with them. Hardly a week goes by without a public blog reading in Germany or Austria (Switzerland has not yet joined the parade – a.more.s? Tanja? blogk family? Just say the word.).

One might point out as a contradiction that the German blog with by far the most traffic is BILDblog, a classic watchblog. But the majority of blogs high up in public blog charts contain well put personal observations of public interest.

The German blogsphere is mainly about getting a glimpse into other people’s lives, their views, their stories – thereby achieving exactly what managers and teachers try by “storytelling”.

Or to quote Anke Gröner in her (top-read) blog:

Jeder Spacken, der meint, Weblogs seien dazu da, Geld zu machen, hat keine Ahnung. Wenn’s zufällig klappt – klar, logisch, gerne, wieso nicht. Aber was Weblogs wirklich ausmachen – dass sie nämlich irgendwann viel, viel mehr sind als Buchstaben auf einem Bildschirm von angeblich doofen, einsamen Nerds, die nichts besseres zu tun haben, als über die Bahn zu meckern oder sich über Celebritys lustig zu machen –, das versteht nur, wer selbst ein Weblog schreibt. Sie sind eine einzigartige Form der Kommunikation, und ich für meinen Teil bin sehr, sehr froh, sie für mich entdeckt zu haben.

(Please don’t make me translate this…)