Thursday 3 June 2004

bloggers anti-establishment?

The U.S. Democratic National Convention (DNC) is giving convention credentials to several select bloggers who will cover the convention via their weblogs this July. With Howard Dean’s success fundraising via his site, similar strategizing by John Kerry, and the rise of online activist groups such as MoveOn, web sites in general and weblogs in specific appear to me to have become a significant part of contemporary U.S. American democracy.

One2One Magazine editor Mary Spio disagrees that the DNC endorsement of weblog journalists means much, claiming that “The entire blogosphere is founded on the basic distrust of traditional organizations” and that “bloggers have very little interest in being part of the establishment.”

Source: AP

Filed under:   blogging
Posted by:   site admin | 05:40 | Comments (2)

2 Responses to “bloggers anti-establishment?”

1. nikkiana says:

   Thursday 3 June 2004 at 08:34

   This really all comes down to one thing. When it comes to blogging, you either get it or you don’t. Most of the time, those of us who blog don’t even notice the world of folks who “don’t get it” but all you really need to do is bring up the subject of your blog with non-tech saavy friends or realitives and you’ll hear a chorus of “What’s blogging?” and “Why on earth are you doing that?”

   This is particularly reflective of political blogging, although in some ways it’s probably a special case. Politicians have recognized the power of blogging, but I don’t think the a majority of them truely understand the medium in and of themselves which is why bloggers get lumped in with the news media. It upsets the news media because blogging isn’t a recognized form of news media (and in my opinion, it shouldn’t be) and they feel threatened by it and brush bloggging off as some meaningless child’s play.

   Blogging isn’t a substitute for news media. It isn’t part of that establishment, and as Mary Spio said, most bloggers don’t want to be, and I don’t think blogging sould be part of that establishment, instead… The relationship of the news media and the political blogger ought to be a symbiotic one.

   But it may take decades for people to get it….
2. Keith Burgin says:

   Thursday 3 June 2004 at 10:39

   I don’t expect my blog to be taken as a source of news. Quite the contrary, I would be most pleased of my blog inspired people to look beyond a single source of news, read differing opinions, and decide issues for themselves.

   And yeah, one of the great things about blogging is that it allows a yutz like me to run his mouth.