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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! September 30, 2004 Are Blogs Revitalizing Democracy?ByBloggers are playing an important role in the 2004 election, but are they having a more far-reaching impact on society? I believe that by allowing readers to participate in the news cycle, bloggers are revitalizing democracy: The 2004 presidential campaign has marked the coming of age for Internet 'blog' journals as a cutting edge political tool for raising cash and revving up political support. These people have strong political beliefs and they share them. In many respects you sign up for a blogger in the political realm because you're interested in their viewpoint and what they're reading. They are, in a sense, an editor on your behalf," Finberg said.This year, both the DNC and RNC made history by inviting webloggers to attend and chronicle their conventions. Bloggers served up a fresh, often irreverent perspective on official events with plenty of behind-the-scenes commentary not previously available to the average voter. But besides their unique perspective, bloggers have another advantage over traditional media: real-time sanity checking of major news stories fueled by millions of readers who supply tips, stories, criticism, and live feedback. This incredible network allows bloggers to respond with lightning speed to world events and provides real-time vetting of facts, allowing frequent updates as stories develop. These are resources unavailable to traditional media: The individual blogger is backed by an army of thousands: The web diarists often see their role as pointing out errors, bias and inconsistencies in the more established press. "There's a lot of good information that's being written on these web logs There's a lot of linking to things that people might not otherwise find," said Finberg. Bloggers flexed their muscle when they played a key role in exposing documents broadcast in a CBS television program on President George W. Bush's Vietnam era military service as likely forgeries. "CBS is a prosperous network and it can afford to hire a number of fact checkers, but it can't afford to hire a million fact checkers," he said. "The fundamental fact of the Internet age for people in the media is, your audience knows more than you do." Moreover, blogs expose media bias and correct the errors of the mainstream media, which in the past has not been good about acknowledging mistakes or correcting the record. Nowhere is this more important than during an election year: "Presidential campaigning, in which allegations fly fast and furious without always being vetted or substantiated, is the perfect domain for bloggers." "It's a new accountability tool, and it's going to become more important," said Tapscott, director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank. So what are the drawbacks of blogs? Obviously, they're partisan. The mainstream media has made much of this charge, but recent news stories suggest significant partisanship exists in the mainstream media as well. A simple examination of the relative coverage given to the Swift Vets allegations and the Navy's ongoing investigations of John Kerry's medals, vs. the four-year media blitzkreig on the Bush AWOL story and Kitty Kelley's trashy drug rumors (which her main source has vehemently denied) should be sufficient to demonstrate that the media are hardly immune to bias. Indeed, a recent Rasmussen poll showed Americans believe 4 out of 5 of the major news stations are biased in favor of John Kerry. Most voters no longer trust the media; since 1994, ABC, NBC, and CBS have lost approximately 50 percent of their viewers. Brent Bozell comments: "Fifteen years ago you had about 20 percent of the American people that believed the media were biased. Today that number is 89 percent." Professional media accuse bloggers of a lack of professionalism. Responding in real time, they often post stories as they happen, which can lead to later retractions: In tone, blogs are a cross between political newsletter and tabloid tear sheet, using informal and sometimes raunchy language that may turn off some readers. And critics say that, mixed in with the reputable information, blogs often traffic rumor, innuendo, and unfounded accusation. But here again is one of the major strengths of blogs: if a story is proven false, it's a rare blogger who isn't deluged with emails and comments. Most bloggers will publish an update to correct the story immediately. I would argue that blogs are uniquely accountable to their readers in a way the MSM are not: if we are consistently wrong, our readers stop listening and find someone who can get the story straight. The article leaves out another important advantage of blogs: posts are supported by links to the sources used to support the story. The more credible blogs use multiple sources to support a post. Readers can follow the links to learn more and evaluate the credibility of the information supplied. This is not possible with the nightly news or daily newspaper. Strangely, the main advantage of blogs was never mentioned in the article, and it's an important one: blogs make the news cycle interactive. Blogs with comments enabled allow readers to discuss the news, argue policy and trade facts, offer links to related stories, correct false or misleading information, and offer their insights for debate and review by the Internet community. Even non-commenting blogs let readers participate by emailing the blogger (who more often than not will respond) and by contributing stories. Most readers like to see their names on the screen and many important stories are broken, not by the investigative work of the blogger, but by an intrepid reader with a modem and a thirst for information. By allowing readers to participate in the news cycle, break stories, investigate rumors, and share their thoughts with a vast network of other readers who care passionately about world events, blogs are revitalizing democracy. People are meeting on the web to discuss the issues instead of on the front porch or down at the corner store. But for the first time in years, they're talking. The once-disconnected and apathetic voter is getting involved in a way he or she hasn't in years, and it's exciting to see. A more involved and informed electorate is one by-product of blogging that's here to stay, and all the pajama putdowns in the world can't take that away. Cross posted at I Love Jet Noise Posted by / September 30, 2004 12:36 PM | Permalink 1 TrackBackAllah has advice for watching the Main Stream Media - go do some fact-checking, especially when the term 'moderate muslim' is used. Who should know better than Allah? Chris Roach posts a reformed Liberal's definition of Liberalism. If I have... Read More 1 Comment |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
I just wrote a short article on this on my own blog, "Old Patriot's Pen". In that article, titled "Full Circle, I try to show how Internet communities, based on common values, are becoming the equivalent of the small towns that sprang up in this country in its pioneer period. How well I supported that supposition should be judged by the reader's reaction.