HW 19: How Important are Blogs to the Media?

My chosen section of the piece, Web of Influence written by Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell in Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture by David Kline and Dan Burstein is about how the blogosphere influences what the media covers. They address how if the blogosphere wasn’t around the media often wouldn’t cover the stories that people are actually interested in. Consider for example in 2004 a writer for WomensWallStreet.com posted online her account of suspicious activity by Syrian passengers on board an airplane she was on and her absolute terror in not knowing whether or not they were a risk to her safety. Even more important 2 million people read her blog and soon thereafter media outlets like NPR, MSNBC, Time, and the New York Times picked up the story and prompted a national debate about the racial profiling that airlines were doing post 9/11. In short whether they like it or not personal opinion and commentary are important things for the media to consider and blogs will have a compelling effect on what the media covers.
http://Womenswallstreet.com

HW 17b: Where Do You Go For Political Advice?

I would definitely use Daily Kos as opposed to Wonkette for helping me decide who to vote for in the upcoming election. The Wonkette site is more tongue in cheek, sarcastic stuff and Daily Kos is more serious and scholarly, easier to trust. Wonkette is more about gossip and who is screwing who than about the candidates in the upcoming election. Ana Marie Cox evens says it in an interview in a book by Dan Burstein and David Kline called, Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture, “Wonkette is me after too many margaritas” (Cox 57). She doesn’t think the quality of blog writing is very good and argues that it is a creative output and that most often that is just not any good either. Daily Kos on the other hand takes themselves very seriously and they work to mobilize the politically active so that they can use their influence to win the upcoming election. I think the Wonkette is great for a laugh and some interesting tidbits, but when you want to get serious about the election I would head to Daily Kos.

HW 9: Who Are You Blogging For?

In reading David Kline and Dan Burstein’s Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business and Culture I came across an interview with Ayelet Waldman called, A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night. Waldman reminds us that in this frenzy to connect with people of like minds through blogging, there are hidden risks. As a novelist she insisted that, “writing so openly about her personal life was draining both her and her husband of story ideas. Plus it was taking up too much spare time, usually two or three hours a day” (Waldman 308). Waldman’s point is that while blogging felt right for her in the moment, upon further reflection she realized it wasn’t doing her life that much good. I’m of two minds about Waldman’s claim. On the one hand, I agree that blogging can bring unforeseen risks. On the other hand, I’m not sure that blogging can be seen as the whole reason her work was suffering. I think that blogging to reach out to people and connect is a wonderful thing, and her claiming that it was somehow responsible for her own writing going downhill seems to me like she is using blogging as a scapegoat. Perhaps there needs to be a balance between what you write about and why you’re going online. Is it to write and be heard, or is it to connect and make friends?

HW 5b: Whose Voice Matters Most?

In, I Blog, Therefore I Am a piece in David Kline’s Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture Kline urges the readers to see the effect of the accessibility of blogs to everyone, not just the typical elite, educated scholars. Kline emphasizes this with saying that we have already witnessed this dramatic shift in the way that political bloggers have played such a high profile role in bringing about change in the political arena. He also argues that it is affecting the cultural and arts arena.
In my view, however the traditional elite’s opinion will always hold sway over any others. It doesn’t matter that the ordinary now has a voice as well, the elites opinion will still be respected more that the non-elites. I think it’s a great thing that the ordinary person now has the access to voice their own opinion in matters where before their opinion didn’t count. Just because their voices are now being heard doesn’t mean that the elite’s voice will not. In fact all one has to do is make sure that they know whose opinion they are hearing, and make their judgments based on that.