Political Blogging Event

Also courtesy of the Manchizzle:

Political Bloggers: A Panel at Urbis 24/9

I'm going to be moderating a panel discussion at Urbis later this month - and yes, it's about blogging! Details are below. Please come if you're remotely interested, or pass this on to someone who might be. Or both.

Political Bloggers and the New Media Landscape

On 24 September 2006, to coincide with the Labour Party Conference (Sun Sept. 24 – Thurs Sept 28), Urbis will host a panel discussion that will explore the way political bloggers are changing the media.

In the UK, bloggers are increasingly driving the news, and providing a robust and democratic new forum for political debate. A consortium of influential UK political bloggers has just set up their own advertising venture, an indication that blogging has started to reshape the media market. These self-appointed pundits are both reviled as ranting rumormongers and hailed as the prophets of the digital revolution. So what's the truth – are bloggers setting the news agenda, or is this mostly hype? And will political bloggers put traditional journalists out of work, or can the two work together?

Panelists include:

Norman Geras: blogger, author and professor emeritus at Manchester University, where he taught in the school of government for several years. His mostly political blog, Normblog was voted best UK Blog at the 2005 Weblog awards. He is also an author of the Euston Manifesto.

Martin Stabe is an online reporter for The Press Gazette. He is a frequent contributor to the gazette's journalism weblog, Blog Watches Dog and he also maintains a blog at www.martinstabe.com, which deals with politics across the Atlantic and across the channel.

Bill Jones blogs at Skipper, which covers UK politics, parliament and the press. He lives in Stockport and is a semi-retired lecturer at Manchester University specializing in British Politics. He is the editor of the Politics Today series of books published by Manchester University Press.

The event will be run as an informal panel discussion, followed by a question and answer session. Starts at 4pm. Free, booking not required

For more information, get in touch on themanchizzle at gmail.com.