Abstract
While the audiences for news and current affairs on the Internet are small, the Re is evidence from the United States that some online media are having a disproportionate influence on public affairs through their impact on the wider mediasphere. In particular, weblogs are credited with fact-checking the news media, widening the news agenda and forging new kinds of information networks. What is far from clear, however, is whethe R these new media contribute to a different quality of public debate or merely add a few extra voices. This paper explores the impact of weblogs on public affairs in Aotearoa/New Zealand through an analysis of the blogging of the 2005 general election.