M. Appeal (Mass Appeal)

“I would define a journalist as someone who brings news to the public,” said Martin Garbus, the First Amendment lawyer who represented Josh Wolf, a 24-year-old blogger who spent more than six months in prison for refusing to turn a videotape of a protest he filmed over to the courts (1). Garbus’s description of what makes a journalist is an accurate one, and he was advocating that his client was one. However, after a semester of contributing to and immersing myself in the blog world, I realize that this description does not necessarily apply to blogging and bloggers themselves, as much as they might like it to. Blogging has the potential to be journalism, and when it is done at its finest, it is. Much of what I have seen and done in blogging is not journalism. Blogging is however a pervasive and effective form of dissident media, one that works against hegemony and improves the dissemination of information that Stephen Brookfield, in his essay on critical theory, says is essential for an adult population to truly “practice democracy.” (2)
What stood out in the Dissident Media class blog “Renewing Political Debate” was not, for the most part, journalism, but rather analysis, opinion, and taking existing news from established media sources and compiling it in a useful way. The blogging that took place was indeed a valuable form of the practice. Even if the information was gathered primarily from existing sources, which does not “contest hegemony” as Brookfield says, the analysis and debate among the bloggers that resulted from the information, does.
As I mentioned earlier, when blogging is practiced at its finest, it is journalism. The political blog “The Washington Note” is a source for news and analysis which utilizes the immediacy and personality of blogging and combines that with original reporting and the ethic of accuracy that professional journalists carry. When blogging reaches this high plain I believe that it outmatches other traditional forms of reporting news due to its immediacy.
Good examples of this that occurred over the semester were the live blogging that was done in the classroom when the guest speaker, Newt Gingrich’s press aide, talked about the ongoing effort to renew political debate. Another was the “long blog post” assignment, which required original reporting. In these two instances the full potential of blogging, not only as a dissident media, but as a form of effective journalism, was realized.
There is no question as to blogging’s effectiveness as a dissident media. The way it allows for information to be spread, instantly shared, analyzed, and debated confirms this. In some ways it mirrors the way in which which dissident publications throughout America’s history dealt with ridicule from the mainstream press. Blogging is embraced by many in the mainstream journalism community, but there are also many who view it with extreme skepticism, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Skube. “Bloggers have all the liberties of a traditional journalist but few of the obligations,” he writes in his article “Blogs: All The Noise That Fits.” Through working with blogs this semester it is clear to me that they are an invaluable part of today’s dissident media, but at the same time I can’t help but feel some of the skepticism and worry that Skube does. (4)
Many of the specific points about blogging that cause me to feel this way are highlighted in the articles written by Steve Outing about what bloggers and journalists can learn from each other. Outing is right in that the two sides do have room to learn from each other, and need to. However, I feel that bloggers need to take advice from journalism more desperately if their craft is going to develop and maintain the trust of readers. Outing writes: “with so many new people involved in blogging, most of them having no training in journalism practices, ethics, and media law, personal legal liability is a big deal…In the years ahead, I expect to see some solo bloggers get in trouble.” This is a major issue, especially in a blogging world that is highly opinionated and is often quick to make accusations without doing the proper journalistic “legwork.” By that I mean talking to multiple sources, fact-checking, and so on. “Here’s something you frequently see with bloggers that trained journalists usually avoid: Making accusations or strong criticisms without asking the target for reaction,” says Outing (3). It wouldn’t take too many high-profile libel cases of bloggers to put blogging’s reliability and usefulness into question with American readers. I’m well aware that some in the blogging community do practice their craft with journalism’s ethical and accuracy standards, and if there were embraced fully by the blogging world as a whole, than it would be stronger for it.
As stated before, blogging is dissident media’s newest and currently most effective outlet. It successfully contests the hegemony that mainstream journalism tends to enforce, and when blogging is performed at its finest level, it surpasses mainstream modes of journalism with its combination of solid reporting and instant accessibility. Blogging is still, through my experience, a new form of media which still has a lot of growing to do, and responsibility to accept. If the blog world can keep its creativity and accessibility while adopting more of the ethics of professional journalism, it will be not only an excellent form of dissident media, but the primary news and reporting form as well.

Blog Paper
Blogging, a free way of expressing ones opinion to others indirectly and without the pressure of facing the people you’re talking to. From what I’ve heard from others on the subject on blogging, those that like to blog feel that it’s a great way to release frustrations or a pressure-less form of communication. Those who are not so fond of blogging think bloggers are a “bunch of pussies that complain about their pathetic lives online because they have no friends.” I feel that this sources’ name is unimportant, no matter how ignorant they may be.
The way that a lot of people view blogging is as an excessive form of writing that just isn’t necessary as people are paid to write opinion pieces in newspapers. However, this is not the case. Blogging is a personal form of writing in which anyone from anywhere can partake. The most important thing I feel to learn about blogging is to “let go of the idea that you must have everything nailed down, organized, and edited before you publish” as Amy Gahran puts it. Gahran also states “A blog post is not (or at least, it shouldn’t be) a writing assignment you must prep for and deliver as a finished package.” Blogging is (as I keep saying) a completely personal writing. The most enjoyable part of the blog project was the fact that I did not have to be grammatically correct all the time, and I could put videos in my writing, I could effectively do anything. The freedom that blogging gives its authors is possibly the most rewarding feeling any amateur writer can receive.
However, as much freedom as blogging gives its authors, there are some very important ethical issues and rules. As Steve Outing puts it, “Blogging isn’t just a Wild-West free-for-all of publishing with no rules or ethical guidelines.” One issue that is vital to the improvement of blogging in the future is the accuracy of facts. Outing points out that “Some bloggers are too quick to publish anything that falls into their laps — without bothering to vet the material to determine if it’s accurate, or to consider the consequences of publishing it.” Some of the consequences of which Outing speaks contain libel suits. As blogging offers such freedom in speech, emotions often come into play and through those emotions, malicious statements can be formed. However, no matter how emotional a writer maybe about his subject, all facts must be checked as blogs are published and available to the public eye.
One thing a lot of bloggers do not realize is that they are non-professional journalists and that their writing is ready available on the internet just the same as professional journalists articles are. In a democratic society, it is perfectly fine and expected that information is available to the public but as Outing says “This line of thinking suggests that the publisher’s responsibility lies in being clear about what’s been confirmed and what hasn’t been, acknowledging that the information, depending on circumstances, could be accurate or could be groundless.” A blogger can not take any information they hear from a friend and put it straight up on their blog, as this information must be checked for sources and the sources must be credited. For instance, although in a very light-hearted sense, I wrote a post about how attractive Barack Obama is. I heard through a friend that a lot of women found Barack Obama very attractive. So I checked the statement online, and sure enough I found information about women stating publicly that they thought Obama was attractive even “sexy.” Although this is a very-light hearted example, it is important that all bloggers double check their sources.
In conclusion, the most important things that blogging can teach anyone is that blogging is truly a freedom of expression in every sense of the word, and with that freedom comes responsibility to respect its ethical boundaries and legal confines.

Much has been said in recent years about the emergence of the blog. Supposedly, this new form of media can transform the structure of media power, bringing people and news sources close together. Anyone can write a blog and publish it for the world to see, from traditional reporters to politicians to soccer moms to their teenaged children. This accessibility has been said to expand the political and social discourse, closing the gap between the news makers and the news consumers and turning every citizen into a rogue journalist.

However, critics claim that bloggers are an insult to the craft of journalism. They see the “blogosphere” as rife with errors and unsupported opinions, a symptom of bloggings definitive lack of editors or gatekeepers. (Skube) Other bloggers and blog-readers fact-check the sites, which can lead to impressive results. (Welch) But the criticism of the blogosphere, or at least parts of it, as petty and argumentative cannot be denied. Skube asserts that “the blogosphere is the loudest corner of the Internet, noisy with disputation, manifesto-like postings and an unbecoming hatred of enemies real and imagined.” (Skube)

The problem with blogs is not that they are inaccurate; when a blogger makes an error, he or she typically corrects it as soon as a commenter points it out. The problem with blogs is not that they are devoid of investigative, hard journalism; Jay Rosen provides a list of important blogging accomplishments in “The journalism that bloggers actually do.” (Rosen) The problem with blogs is their pompous, egotistical nature that springs from a hatred of and unwillingness to work with and attempt to improve the mainstream media.

While the upper echelon of bloggers, the bloggers who uncover important stories that the MSM misses, offer an important contribution to the media landscape, it is often the lesser bloggers, the columnists, the political commentarians, who tout the possibly overestimated transformative power the blogosphere. “As a rule of thumb, the more disgruntled a blog is, the more vehemently it proclaims its status as the media of the future.” (Tossell)

Blogs such as these increase partisanship instead of seeking actual solutions. Tossell says that it is the partisan political blogs that are quickest to remind their readers that they are outside the filters of mainstream media. But what is it that these readers, made so aware of the alternative nature of the blogs they are reading, really want? Blogs are hurting themselves by building up their own importance. In the end, readers want the same thing from a blog that they want from a newspaper or the evening news: a story. (Tossell)

Bloggers, however, do not talk in terms of stories. Blogging has become not a way to tell a story, not a new medium, but a whole new structure in and of itself. It attempts to define itself as separate from the media, while trying to become the media. “Anyone who thinks that blogs merely enhance and compliment the media world, apparently, just doesn’t get it.” (Tossell)

So how can blogs grow and improve, as they certainly have the potential to do? While the blog is still young, only a decade old by some estimates, it is headed down a bad road. By defining themselves as oppositional to the mainstream media and as the new media, bloggers are creating a conflict of interest. If blogging eventually dominates more traditional forms of media, it will become the standard. While mainstream media has its flaws (it can be slow to fact-check, reluctant to correct mistakes prominently and unsure about questioning authority by going deeper; Outing), bloggers are doing themselves a disservice by focusing on their revolutionary position instead of shutting up and doing more of the work they claim they do.

Even the blogs that do work hard to report the news and provide expert commentary are given a bad name by the partisan, mud-slinging, self-important blogs. These blogs waste time fighting with other bloggers and engaging in immature fights, often to the exasperation of readers. Thanks to these bloggers, the very word “blog” has become a loaded word, evoking images of egoists whining away about the latest news item. “The sooner that blogging triumphalism is history, the sooner “blog” will stop being an unfairly loaded word.” (Tossell)

Of course, making such generalizations about the blogosphere is impossible; it is not one cohesive movements and there is no specific trait all bloggers have in common other than the belief that they are somehow contributing to the public body of knowledge.

Perhaps this argument could be refuted by pointing out a few humble, dedicated blogger-reporters; however, that is not the point. Bloggers need to realize that while they are working in a new medium, they are not working in a new world.

Works Cited

Skube, Michael. “Blogs: All the noise that fits.” The Los Angeles Times 19 August 2007.

Welch, Matt. “Blogworld and its gravity.” Columbia Journalism Review Sept/Oct 2003: 20-26.

Rosen, Jay. “The Journalism that Bloggers Actually Do.” The Los Angeles Times 22 August 2007.

Tossell, Ivor. “It’s not the blogs I hate, it’s their fans.” The Globe and Mail 20 July 2007.

Outing, Steve. “What Journalists Can Learn From Bloggers.” Poynter Online 20 December 2004.

Joe Layman
Comm. 275
Professor Walker
November 30, 2007

Throughout the course of history there has not been a more effective way to organize people than through the Internet. People can see results within seconds after sending an e-mail, researching a topic, or posting a blog. The speed and efficiency in which this can be done has many people questioning the consequences. However, for dissident press fanatics the Internet has become a sanctuary. Advocacy groups and especially bloggers are using the Internet as a place to get their message out. Once separated by hundreds of miles people who share a common interest are now connected. This capability has made blogging the most powerful and influential form of dissident press.

Many factors contribute to this growing trend. The most important element that has propelled blogging to the top of the dissident world is its availability. “Blogging technology has, for the first time, given the average Jane the ability to write, edit, design, and publish her own editorial product” (Welch). Unlike the dissident press of the 1800s and most of the 1900s, anyone can submit an article. Since authors hide behind users names they do not have to be afraid of posting a controversial statement or going against mainstream thought. However, some people may argue that because posts can be submitted anonymously it does not allow the blogger to be responsible for his or her comment.

Other general criticisms include the notion that most comments are not serious and that the authors do not cite reasons or examples to support their argument. While some of this may be true, I believe, at the core, bloggers are writing to start a conversation. They want their readers to start questioning and thinking about the world around them. Blogging allows the average person to contribute who would otherwise not have written a letter to the editor. It also allows people to be updated by the minute instead of waiting for the paper in the morning. The fact that people can blog at work or in school contributes to a constant flow of information. Thus it is becoming more difficult for a “news organization to sit on a big story and publish it at a set time” (Outing). This development is an example of the emerging role of blogging as a dissident media source.

Along with their emerging role is the question of whether or not bloggers are true journalist. Dissent press has evolved to an easy and inexpensive practice. Stories can be posted within minutes of an incident. Again, I believe this is good and begins the conversation. In this “on the go” society people are searching for quick news stories and bloggers are providing them. However, others can say that bloggers do not conduct the real investigation and thus are not presenting the whole story. Michael Skube of the Los Angels Times is among the group that believes bloggers only skim the surface of their stories. As he said in an August 17th article, “the disgrace at Walter Reed, true enough, was first mentioned in a blog, but the full scope of that story could not have been undertaken by a blogger” (Skube). I disagree. While Skube tries to discredit bloggers, I think that bloggers help expose stories that national newspapers or news networks would have ignored.

A story that was not covered and finally established blogging as an important form of journalism was the threat America faced from terrorist prior to September 11th. The attacks “created a huge appetite on the part of the public to be part of The Conversation,” thus propelling blogging into forefront” (Welch). Now, people take it upon themselves to question authority. With everyone contributing, dissident press has grown dramatically in the last six years. Yet, some people still question its credibility.

If this class has taught me anything it is that a single voice is powerful enough to bring about change. Voices such as Ida B. Wells, William Lloyd Garrison, and Huey P. Newton were the leaders of dissident press decades ago. Like real journalist of their time they investigated stories, used eye-witness accounts, and tried to discover the truth. Ironically, these tactics are used by bloggers today. In fact, “the only real between what they do and the work of professionals journalists is that most bloggers lack the credentials to gain access to sources as easily as their journalist cousins” (Outing). Serious bloggers do not let that stand in their way and that is why I believe their role in dissident press is just as valuable as a trained journalist.
Bloggers are not only important to journalism, but also society because of the stories that they uncover. Without them Walter Reed, the Hurricane Katrina timeline, and especially our blog topic, debate reform, would not be as popular. Their ability to start a conversation and have other people correct or strength their argument is an art not found in many other places. I also believe that because bloggers do not let the people or organizations they are criticizing defend themselves, blogging is appealing to many people who are not interested in professional technicalities. Consequently bloggers are controversial.

People argue that because bloggers do not ask for a response from the other side, they are unfair and biased. However, bloggers, and especially dissident journalist, are not supposed to give equal time to both views. In the 1830s Ida B. Wells did not allow pro-lynching articles to appear in her newspaper. Dissidents try to persuade. So, just because one type of journalist cannot do it, does not mean another should not be allowed. This is also applies to the use of unconventional writing. Bloggers may not have the most crisp or grammatically correct sentences, but this does not ruin the validity of their statement.

While blogging for the class project I found the conditions of blogging to be very relaxing. This is another reason why the bloggers role is expanding in the dissident media world. People feel comfortable writing nonstop for twenty minutes then publishing their articles with no questions asked. Bloggers are free to write about any topics that interest them. Because the rules are hard to outline I believe bloggers have an advantage over traditional journalist. Therefore blogs in the form of entertainment and dissident media will continue to grow and become even more popular.

Without waiting to confirm the facts, bloggers force news stories to the front page. They create a conversation that may motivate people to take action. Posting blogs once a week about a certain issue made me feel that I was doing something good. I felt involved and made it my responsibility to make the reader feel the same way. If our articles were in a newspaper not as many people would have read them and they definitely would not have received hits from all around the world. The idea that someone in Europe could have read my articles is exciting. It appears that although bloggings influence is immeasurable it can only continue to grow.

The use of blogging as dissident media has the capacity to be a powerful force within activist movements and an incredibly useful tool in raising awareness and recruiting other like-minded people to one’s cause. In this paper I describe why I think activists should embrace blogging and why they are especially suited to it.
Blogging certainly has the capacity to be a form of dissident media, but the Talkmonkey blog that our class maintained was not truly dissident media. As Streitmatter defines it, “in order for a publication to merit the mantle of ‘dissident’ it not only had to offer a differing view of society but also had to seek to change society in some discernable way…The publication’s primary purpose must have been, in short, to effect social change” (Streitmatter, xi). As I view it, our blog did not champion social change at all. It focused on the 2008 presidential election and generally stayed within the two-party dichotomy of our political system.
Although I do not think our blog was a form of dissident media, I do think that blogging has the best capacity out of any other media source to be used as a tool for social change. This is for several reasons. First, activists are more knowledgeable than the general population about a wide array of issues. It is first our responsibility to educate ourselves around an issue, accomplished through talking with our friends and other activists, gathering information online, reading zines, and examining the issues from a mainstream as well as radical perspective. We don’t view this as academic or forced because it is motivated by our passion for justice. One must learn before one can teach others.
Second, groups and individuals are always looking to raise awareness about the causes they’re passionate about. This mindset lends itself very well to blogging. They can create a blog, for free, that enables more people to become exposed to the injustices in the system and learn strategies for creating change.
Third, activists in general are not afraid to speak their minds. They denounce government repression, corporate domination of culture, and fight for every oppressed person and animal around the world. Since we spend so much time speaking about these issues within our communities and in the outside environment as well, it is only natural that we take our arguments and post them in a blog for people to read on a national scale. It would strengthen and increase the influence we are able to have, thereby helping our causes. Since other activists would probably be our target audience, I think that some good debate could ensue in the comments between those who disagree on tactics or approaches to change. I would have loved for our site to be more interactive and feature “news as a conversation” which the Poynter article talked about.
Fourth, activists are always on the lookout for reliable and quality news sources not owned and exploited by the corporate media. We are wary of speaking to mainstream media about our planned actions because we are afraid of the way they will portray us and pigeonhole us. Yet a blogger who is unapologetically more progressive and less corporate is less intimidating and activists would feel more comfortable being interviewed by them. A well-maintained blog with a wide or specific focus that is operated by a collective of like-minded radicals will appeal to those who are tired of the same opinions from every mainstream media source.
The experience of posting my writing on the internet drew mixed emotions. At first I was really nervous about the whole class and many potential strangers reading what I had to say. Before my first blog post I was scared that I would have nothing to write about or that what I did have to say would sound stupid. However, once that first post was done all the nervousness and pressure seemed to melt away. I often discuss my views on various issues with friends and this helped me to overcome what lingering shyness existed within me to make the weekly blog posts. I feel that this class has given me the confidence to possibly start my own blog in the near future. I have definitely been reading others’ blogs much more due to this experience as well.
What I accomplished from posting on the blog was mostly gaining confidence in my blogging ability and writing. I wish I had not been so confined in what to post about, but I know that parameters are necessary for cohesion and structure. I actually really enjoyed posting about Radical Cheerleading, one of my passions. I got to include cheers and pictures of our squad, which was fun. One of the most valuable things I have gained from this class and our blogging experience is a deeper knowledge of critical theory. I plan to use elements of that approach in activist work in the future.

Sources:
Outing, Steve. “What Journalists Can Learn From Bloggers.” Poynter Online. 20 December, 2004.
Streitmatter, Rodger. Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. New York: Columbia, 2001.

Lara Aqel Dissident Media
29 November 2007 COMM-275-001

Dissident Media: The Blog?

Introduction

More than halfway through the first decade of the twenty-first century, no source of media is producing quite as much ‘buzz’ as the blog. The term ‘blog’ is a portmanteau of the words web log, while the oft-used ‘blogosphere’ refers to all blogs and their interconnections. The advancement of the blogosphere can be traced back to the onset of the Internet. The concept of blogging, that everyone can share opinions, facts, or fiction with a potentially receptive and interactive e-audience, puts power in the hands of every interested Internet user on Earth. These users are embracing this power with enthusiasm. Just how big a phenomenon is blogging? Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 or so months (Sifry). According to Technorati’s chief executive David Sifry, fifty million blogs had been tracked as of July 31st, 2006, and approximately 175,000 new blogs are being created each day. That translates into about two new blogs for every second of the day (Sifry). Logically, this all means a new face of media the likes of which has never been seen before. One question remains however: is blogging likewise the new face of dissident media?

“Dissident”

Streitmatter believes that for something to deserve the title of dissident, it has to both “offer a differing view of society” and “champion a particular cause” (xi). If this is to be the accepted definition of what and what does not constitute dissident media, then the answer to the aforementioned questions is merely maybe, or better yet, it depends. As previously noted, there are tens of million of blogs in existence, each of which offers a different (i.e. personal) “view of society.” Furthermore, some blogs even champion causes: there are leftist blogs and conservative ones, human rights blogs, and animal rights too. The list goes on. Thus, while blogs as a whole cannot be considered, with confidence, dissident, some certainly can.
Nevertheless, the Streitmatter definition is not the only one. Therefore, others must be considered to determine whether blogging is or is not dissident media in new stripes. More common definitions of “dissident” include differing from the mainstream, and departing from established and accepted belief or standards (Define.com). In this sense, blogs as a whole can be considered dissident media. This is so by virtue of the fact that blogging is a new medium, an unconventional and neoteric one. It often looks down on mainstream media and mainstream media returns the favor. It re-writes all the rules in terms of what can suitably constitute and editorial product. As Michael Skube aptly pointed out, bloggers today “have all the liberties of a traditional journalist but few of the obligations.” Blogging is dissident media here because it is an alternative media.

Journalism?

The problem with the above definition, some might argue, is that it proves that blogs are dissident, but not that they are dissident media. This indeed is a point of contention in the public discourse surrounding the blogosphere. To label something as dissident media, one affords it the presumption of journalistic undertaking. Blogging’s critics assert that it is not journalism. Consequently, if blogging is not journalism, then it makes no sense to consider it dissident journalism.
Matt Welch is not so quick to write bloggers off. He states that they contribute “personality, eyewitness testimony, editorial filtering, and uncounted gigabytes of new knowledge” (24). Steve Outing even goes so far as to proclaim that ‘real’ journalists can learn a few things from bloggers. Some of the most prominent of these are to allow news to be a two-way “conversation” with their readers, to account for mistakes more readily and graciously, and to let themselves get “personal” with their writing every now and then.

Dissident AND Mainstream?

Furthermore, Outing also imparts what bloggers can learn from journalists, and points out a phenomenon that has heretofore passed under the radar; journalists and bloggers are working together in more ways than one. For one, mainstream media has opened its doors to the blogging world; the New York Times’ blog numbers among the most read. In return, “citizen journalists” are placing new emphasis on factual reporting. Most notably, journalists and bloggers are sharing information and sources. He remarks that almost “all journalists traffic privately in gossip, anonymous sources, and thinly veiled juicy items — they just don’t usually get to throw those things into print, and so they IM these tidbits to us bloggers. Bloggers are really just the id of the journalism world.”
All this reciprocated interaction sheds light on one last point. With all the ruckus that blogging is causing in the public sphere, and the near-ubiquity of bloggers in the world today, can it be considered anything but mainstream? If it is mainstream, it cannot also be dissident- at least not according to established understandings of the term.

Conclusion

Is blogging a form of dissident media? That is demonstrably a question of definitions, and perhaps also a demonstration that established definitions are inadequate. Regardless, bloggers are a voice (correction: many) to be reckoned with in today’s world, and they do not plan on departing the blogosphere in any e-ra soon.

Outing, Steve. “What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists.” Poynter Online. 23 Dec. 2004. 30 Nov. 2007 .
Sifry, David. “State of the Blogosphere.” Sifry’s Alerts. 7 Aug. 2006. 28 Nov. 2007 .
Skube, Michael. “Blogs: All the noise that fits.” LATimes.com. 19 August 2007. 29 November Streitmatter, Rodger. Voices of Revolution. New York City: Columbia UP, 2001.
2007.
“Dissident.” Define.com. 29 November 2007.
Welch, Matt. “Blogworld and It’s Gravity: The New Amateur Journalists Weigh In.” September/October 2003.
Vargas, Jose A. “Storming the News Gatekeepers.” Washington Post 27 Nov. 2007. 30 Nov. 2007 .

Kurtz, Howard. “Jailed Man is a Videographer and a Blogger But is He a Journalist?” The Washington Post 8 Mar. 2007.

“Politics and Sports with a Southern Accent.” Red State Diaries. www.redstatediaries.blogspot.com.

Skube, Michael. “Blogs: All the Noise That Fits.” The Los Angeles Times 19 Aug. 2007.

Welch, Matt, Mallory Jensen, and Jacqueline Reeves. “Blogworld and Its Gravity.” Columbia Journalism Review 42 (2003).

A few months ago “blogging” was word seldom used in my vocabulary. When I pictured a blogger, an image of a brooding adolescent detailing everyday woes on a laptop came to mind; little did I know I would be identifying myself as a blogger in the upcoming semester. I soon realized that blogging is more than a diary; this new form of media has successfully made waves in American society. Blogging, whether concerning politics, environmental issues, or fashion, is about stating one’s agenda, opinions, and critiques in order to propel some kind of change. Blogs are now being brought up in legal issues, written about in national newspapers, and in our case even brought into the classroom.

While blogging started off as a form of dissident media it has evolved into a type of mainstream media. It is easy to find a blog on almost any topic by quickly doing a Google search. While there are some political blogs in circulation to make a daring and different statement, most are likely to be discussing the same issues that appear in the Washington Post each day. Surprisingly, many bloggers “reject the label ‘journalist,’ associating it with what they contemptuously call mainstream media,” (Skube). Apparently the horrors of admitting to being “mainstream” far outweigh the benefits and respect that come with the title of journalist; perhaps bloggers just understand that it is not a title they have truly deserved or earned. Bloggers are not journalists. For the most part, they “have all of the liberties of a traditional journalist but few of the obligations,” (Skube). Bloggers do not have editors, deadlines, word limits, or even a specific topic to cover. Bloggers can write without any restraint on their emotion or language because at the end of the day, unlike a journalist, their jobs are not on the line. A Washington Post article on legal issues and bloggers quotes lawyer Martin Garbus as saying, “I would define a journalist as someone who brings news to the public. It’s a definition that might cause journalists some discomfort because it opens up the gates,” (Kurtz). While some bloggers might be skilled at writing, most are unlikely to have the same training and proficiency as a journalist. Garbus’ definition means that any person rattling off information on the internet can be considered a reporter.

Since bloggers have clear differences from journalists, it is unfair for them to be legally tried as a journalist would be. Bloggers do not have the option to join the Writer’s Guild and do not have the same legal protection as a journalist. Some instances contradict this (as of 2006 bloggers are protected under the California state’s reporter shield law), but generally bloggers have different rights than journalists. This became an issue when Josh Wolf, a 24-year-old blogger, was placed in jail for refusing to hand over a videotape he shot of a violent demonstration to the mainstream media (Kurtz). Wolf says there was an understanding of the confidentiality of certain footage between himself and those demonstrating. The filming taking place publicly in San Francisco, along with Wolf’s lack of journalistic merit, are two strong forces against him in this case.

Previously I was careful to state that blogging has become a “type” of mainstream media. From what we have learned I think that some blogs are mainstream and some are dissident, just as there is The New York Times and underground newspapers. Perezhilton.com is merely a tabloid posted over the internet. However, I did encounter many intelligent, well written, original, and opinionated blogs in my research. One in particular was redstatediaries.blogspot.com, a political commentary by an independent residing in Alabama. Blogs like this pinpoint what bloggers contribute to journalism and those reading them; “personality, eyewitness testimony, editorial filtering, and uncounted gigabytes of new knowledge,” (Welch 24). Blogs should not just be there to report; they are meant to bring up issues the blogger feels mainstream media might have missed or glossed over, while at the same time conveying humor and human interest. They do not need to be perfectly edited, full of impressive quotes and pictures. Blogs can only be dissident through their imperfection. Blogs are “a reminder that America is far more diverse and iconoclastic that its newsrooms,” (Welch 24).

While I am not falling on my knees to worship bloggers, my opinion of them has changed throughout this semester. Sitting at the computer late each Thursday night, trying to come up with a topic that was not only newsworthy, but interesting, proved far more difficult than I would have imagined. I can appreciate the time and effort it keeps to maintain a blog. Even more so, I recognize the ambition and dedication it takes to gain a following to read your blog once you have worked the kinks out of it. I still do not see bloggers as journalists, but I do think they play an important role in the media.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Introduction

Our modern society’s growing dependency upon the internet has revolutionized the ways that we purchase goods, book travel, communicate, and recently with the advent of blogging, the way that we obtain news. Some have cited blogging as form of citizen journalism that poses a multitude of positive and negative effect upon the media. While print journalists have spent time and money acquiring the credentials they need to succeed in the industry, a large influx of untrained, amateur journalists have taken dissident approaches to delivering news. As bloggers do not have editors that filter and revise their stories, blog stylistic methods immensely differ from that of print journalism, yet a blogger’s ability to constantly update and revise content acts as safety net. While this makes blogs more prone to spelling, grammatical and factual errors, it simultaneously offers the reader an opportunity to deliver news in a creative, alternative and decisively dissident manner.

A Dissident Revolution on the Internet

When I began to write for TalkMonkey, I could not help but compare the content and style of my stories to the articles I wrote for The Eagle as a staff writer. I discovered that blogging’s free, lenient structure allowed me to employ more humor and personality in my stories than I was able to with The Eagle. In the Columbia Journalism Review article, “The New Age of Alternative Media,” author Matt Welch states that “with personality…comes a kind of reader interaction far more intense and personal than anything comparable to print.” (24-25) This heightened sense of interaction found online comes about through readers’ ability to comment on, critique and question my writing, whereas with my Eagle stories, the reader’s only option was to acquire my opinion. What ultimately distinguishes my stories for The Eagle from TalkMonkey is the notion of dissidence I felt while writing for the latter. However, it is this sense of journalistic liberation that triggers the most criticism of the medium of blogging. In his article, “What Journalists Can Learn from Bloggers,” Steve Outing states that “some bloggers are too quick to publish anything that falls into their laps – without bothering to vet the material to determine if it’s accurate, or to consider the consequences of publishing it.” (2) Outing suggests that with this freedom comes a responsibility on bloggers’ parts to “adhere to a mission of accuracy and accountability,” at least if bloggers want to be respected by their print journalist contemporaries. (2)

What distinguishes blogs from newspapers is the readers’ ability to interact with writers. Journalism stories typical end when they are published, whereas on a blog, a story is debated, further analyzed and occasionally revised. Blogs, more than ever, are “becoming the watchdogs that watch the watchdog,” and this is understandably threatening to print journalists, because in addition to reporting, bloggers are presented with the ability to write, edit, design, and publish on their own accord, and this can be seen in blog’s stylistic differences. (Skube 1) Blogs typically do not abide to the inverted pyramid style of news writing and tend to take longer to reach the story’s central point, and therefore, it is inherently dissident in its structure. For instance, when I wrote my blog post on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial speech at Columbia, I was able to employ humor: “I couldn’t help but feel as though I was watching an episode of Maury where some disgruntled housewife called out her unfaithful husband and had the paternity test results to back it up.” This obviously would have been deemed unprofessional had I written the same analogy for The Eagle, yet it undoubtedly enhanced my report’s personality.

After 9/11, there was a public outcry that “created a huge appetite on the part of the public to be part The Conversation, to vent and analyze and publicly ponder or mourn.” (Welch 24) In Outing’s account of “What Bloggers Can Learn from Journalists,” he included a quote from media executive, Jeff Jarvis, who prolifically stated that “news is a conversation, not just a lecture.” (4) Critics of blogging often view the medium as deeply biased, for most bloggers fuse news stories with their opinion on the matter; yet presenting an author’s opinion often triggers an emotional response from the reader, and blogging boasts a means of responding through debate. In their article, “Gathering Voices to Share With a Worldwide Online Audience,” Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman conclude that bloggers are revolutionizing communication – independent of traditional forms of media – by drawing attention to widely-ignored issues and “to share ideas and brainstorm with circles of colleagues and peers who are interested in similar subjects or issues-topics that tend not to be a focus of mainstream media stories.” (46) It is ultimately this alternative approach of delivering the news that makes blogging dissident.

In lieu of the widespread decline in newspaper subscription and readership, some question if blogging will replace traditional print journalism. The fundamental problem in this logic is that it suggests that print journalism and blogging cannot survive together. Blogs are revolutionizing the way that we communicate, utilize media and attain news and blogging ultimately presents readers with abilities print journalism cannot alone. Considering society’s ever-escalating dependency upon the internet for news, it is imperative that blogging and print journalism not only exist harmoniously, but collaborate to offer readers thorough accounts of events that fuse facts, multimedia and creativity.

Conclusion: A Second Look at TalkMonkey

When I signed up for the humor section of the blog, I was not entirely sure what my duties would entail. At first I figured that I would have to search for befitting political cartoons and YouTube videos that denigrated politicians. When I wrote my blog posts, though, I began to discuss such hotly contested issues as homophobia, tasering and racism, and I discovered that I could easily explore the topics with the lens of humor. I felt that I offered an ample supply of the hard news one would find in a print journalism article, yet I spiced the stories up with a dose of humor. I honestly did not really notice how the rest of my humor group members handled their work, as TalkMonkey was an extremely decentralized blog; indeed, we had our duties, yet I found that most writers, including myself, tended to handle their stories through their own style and voice. This dispersed approach to posting posed some obstacles, as many writers were not sure when they were responsible to post. At the same time, though, this made TalkMonkey the experiment that it was. We were bestowed a great deal of freedom with our writing, and while this freedom was intimidating at times, it demonstrated how the media is evolving and our individual roles in the equation

Works Cited

MacKinnon, Rebecca, Zuckerman, Ethan. “Gathering Voices to Share With a Worldwide Online Audience.” Nieman Reports (Winter 2006): 45.

Outing, Steve. “What Bloggers Can Learn from Journalists.” Poynter Institute (2004): 4.

Outing, Steve. “What Journalists Can Learn from Bloggers.” Poynter Institute (2004): 2.

Skube, Michael. “Blogs All the noise that fits.” Los Angeles Times (2007): 1.

Welch, Matt. “”Blogworld and its Gravity”.” Columbia Journalism Review (2003): 24.

The Internet has become a vital part of the modern day world. People turn to the Internet, not just for e-mail, entertainment, and research, but also for news and information on the things going on in the world around them. Beginning in the 1990s, Americans began deserting not only newspapers but also the major networks, going to cable TV, the Internet, and forms of new media that seem to be born each day [2]. Theses days, it is so easy for almost anyone to access the Internet, and have a hotbed of information at their fingertips, and contribute their own assortment of information, as displayed by the class project for Dr. Danna Walker’s Dissident Media class.

It has given anyone the opportunity to be a journalist; reporting on topics they see fit, and putting them out there for the world to see. It has served to bring those, young and old, into the public discourse, giving those who may have felt voiceless prior to the Internet [4]. The world of blogging has taken off since its birth in the early days of the Internet and millions of people have created blogs. Online blogging sites like Blogger.com are so user-friendly, that they “allow anyone, no matter how little Internet savvy he or she possesses, to create and maintain a blog” [3].

Blogging has taken the role as the most recent from of dissident media. “They [newspapers] have become so ubiquitous in cities over a certain size, during decades when so many other new media formats have sprung up, that the very notion that they represent a crucial “alternative to a monolithic journalism establishment now stains credulity” [3]. Blogging is providing an outlet for those fed up with mainstream media. Bloggers have become the dissident voices of the new millennium.

Blogging has grown immensely from its early days. It is no longer merely an online record of the Web sites the person visits, but a source for information itself; including news, opinions, and discourse [3]. Blogging has allowed the everyday Joe to get his ideas out there for people to read. As many of them do reference other websites they have visited, they provide connection and discussion. They allow, “through hyperlinks from publications to permanent Websites, for readers to be informed, not merely of the most recent event—as in daily newspapers and TV news programs—but to be continually reminded of the movement’s overall mission statement, goals, and past accomplishments—a service that traditional news outlets refuse to provide” [2]. They are bridging gaps where mainstream media has failed. They are able to provide people with the most up-to-date information, while at the same time linking this to past happenings and other matters that may add insight.

Bloggers are providing insight and discussion on all sorts of topics. Since almost anyone can blog, “almost every criticism about blogs is valid—they often are filled with cheap shots, bad spelling, the worst kind of confirmation bias, and an extremely off-putting sense of self-worth”, but in turn there are also those who provide sophisticated contributions, claiming large readership, instilling change [3]. Many blogs have grown such followings that they seem to hold comparable circulation to some mainstream media. With numbers of visitors per day in the 100,000s, these dissident forms of media seem to be making a huge impact on the world.

The size of the numbers is not the only thing so astonishing. The mere fact that those 100,000s of people are from places all over the world shows just how much influence blogging is gaining. Blogging has been able to provide the world with something that conventional form of media has fallen short in doing, bringing together people from all over the world to discuss and share their thoughts and ideas. “It allows individuals in far-flung locations to come together, to share, and to build the strong ties and sense of community—united in ideology even if separated by geographic distance—that foster a true grassroots movement” [2]. There is also the fact that bloggers have gained ground as “citizen journalists”, in 2004, gaining press credentials to the Democratic National Convention [1].

They are instilling discussion in matters of great disputation, and the need for some reform, and are gaining ground. Blogging is “changing what is euphemistically called the national conversation” [1]. The assignment that our class was given on creating discussion on the issue of renewing political debate is a testament to this. We sought to inspire dialogue through demanding reform of the political debate structure, and we did just that through our blog talkmonkey. We were able to experience the blogging world first hand and create our own dissident media. We wrote about what we wanted to change and how we wanted to change and found those that supported our cause and linked to them in attempts of creating larger interest and involvement. Though the effectiveness of our blog itself is not as great as we would have liked, we still made lasting contributions (as they will be preserved on the Internet) to the world of blogging and dissident media.

[1]Skube, Michael. “Blogs: All the noise that fits.” Los Angeles Times 19 August 2007.

[2] Streitmatter, Rodger. “Voices of Revolution; the Dissident Press in America”. New York: Columbia University Press. 2001.

[3] Welch, Matt. “Blogworld and its Gravity”. Colombia Journalism Review. 2003

[4] Vargas, Jose Antonio. “Storming the News Gatekeepers; On the Internet, Citizen Journalists Raise Their Voices”. Washingtonpost.com. 27 November 2007.