"Blog" has made it to the top of Merriam-Webster's list of top ten words of the year. [Link][comments?][Karma: 10 ( + / - )]
In today's Philadelphia Inquirer, Jeff Jarvis explains how blogs are changing traditional communication tools, such as Big Media, for the better by creating a means for anybody to hold conversations with these erstwhile hierarchical establishments. [Link][comments?][Karma: 5 ( + / - )]
Novelist and psychiatrist Sergei Lukyanenko is asking readers of his blog for their opinions on what his next book should be about. Once Lukyanenko gets the characteristics down, he'll take over the plot structure. He'll publish his book in installments on his LiveJournal site. When Lukyanenko asked himself what good blogs are for writers, he realized, "A writer needs a blog to write books." About 2,000 people have been participating in the polling. [Link][comments?][Karma: 7 ( + / - )]
At the 2004 Online News Association conference, Wonkette defended fellow bloggers who posted early results of the exit polls during this year's presidential election. Traditional newsies criticized bloggers for posting the exit polls thinking that it would influence the results. As quoted in this CNN story, at least one conferencee misunderstands the mechanism behind blogs: Mindy McAdams, a University of Florida journalism professor, applauded bloggers' efforts but urged them to adhere to ethical standards held by mainstream journalists. "Our credibility is suffering with so many people rushing to publish things without checking them out," McAdams said after Cox's speech. "Blogging is really great. I like that more and more people have a voice. That's good ... But it doesn't give people who call themselves journalists an excuse to not check out the information. The blogger doesn't necessarily have to be diligent in checking out facts (although, ideally they should be). As long as the blog has a big enough audience, chances are that at least one reader will correct the blogger or contribute additional facts to a story. This fact-checking mechanism could prove more powerful than the traditional method, since a blog with thousands of readers has more fact-checking potential than any publication's research department. [Link][comments?][Karma: 7 ( + / - )]
The Onion has hit the nail on the head yet again: Political Blogger Mass Suicide To Be Discovered In Several Weeks And Atrios is jealous that he wasn't mentioned. [Link][comments?][Karma: 12 ( + / - )]
Ralph referred me to The Nation's article about how blogs have affected this year's presidential campaign by enabling people to build democratic, rather than hierarchical, grass roots groups. Here's a good quote: The new political technology works because it gives individuals a way to pool their time, attention and resources around causes they may hold in common--and to do it without needing to become a professional activist or wait for approval from any authority figure. "It's not about the technology or the blog," says Mathew Gross [moderator of Dean's campaign blog] now. "It's about having a conversation and treating people with respect." |
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