New Zealand's blogosphere is a small community of blogs that comment largely on New Zealand politics, society and occurrences.

Political Blogs

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There is a considerable number of blogs that focus on the politics of New Zealand. Many of these are written by 'insiders'. These insiders include David Farrar, a former staffer for then Prime Minister Jim Bolger and Jordan Carter, prominent Labour party organiser.

Official blogs

The ACT party leader Rodney Hide, also blogs. Hide often comments from within the House itself.

The Green party has an official blog, Frogblog, which often links to, and expands on, press releases.

Numerous politicans began blogs during the 2005 election, but these have since died.

Unlike overseas counterparts, both allow comments. However, to comment one must sign in to the site.

Controversy

Tim Selwyn, an Auckland man convicted of sedition, is also a prominent blogger, often bringing up controversial points.

Media relationship

The majority of bloggers still rely upon the media for the provision of news stories to comment upon. However, they do not repeat the news, instead putting their view point on it.

Some bloggers, such as Russell Brown, Keith Ng and Tze Ming Mok (who are part of the Public Address blog system) work within the media industry.

There have been notable examples of bloggers breaking news stories, and then having the media pick it up. For instance, Idiot/Savant discovered that neither Rodney Hide nor Heather Roy had been showing up to Parliament, and consequently, the ACT party had not voted in the budget debate. The story was subsequently picked up by The Dominion Post and The New Zealand Herald.

Non-Political Blogs

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There are numerous non-political blogs. They range from music blogs, to personal blogs.

Politics of New Zealand | New Zealand media | New Zealand bloggers | Political weblogs | Blogs | Internet in New Zealand