Are Blogs Feminine?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Whoever you are, female Gender Studies grad student, Republican male politician, male Marine in Falluja, you probably blog (partly) in the feminine style....What do I mean? Let me get theoretical on you. Blogs are about personal relationships. Interaction. Even intimacy. Now, intimacy between leaders and the group, even if historically it has been part of male-to-male fellowship in war, sports, or politics, has elements of what students of political communication have called the "feminine style" in campaigns and elections. While this sort of classification scheme can often devolve into stereotypes of sensitive women and tough men, there is a considerable weight of research that suggests that a feminine style of public speechmaking includes the following: (a) the address is made person-to-person, intimate, with personal pronouns; (b) the speaker relates personal experiences that intentionally connect with probable personal experiences of the audience; (c) the speaker offers anecdotes and stories as justifications for positions held (d) the speaker invites the audience to actively participate in some...
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Blogs as “Scribbling Mercuries”: Marketplace of Ideas or Duel to the Death of Ideas?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
The blog is possible through the convergence of many new technologies: revolutions in human communication that were both tipping points (of ideas) and points of the tip (of new things). In parallel, more than half a millennium ago (1452-1454/55), Johann Gutenberg printed his two-volume, 1,282-page, 42-line Bible in Mainz. He produced 180 copies (150 on paper and, it is believed, 30 on parchment), using about 20 assistants in the process. His innovations included a screw press (a converted wine press) and moveable type with individual elements (periods, letters, upper- and lower-case letters). Interestingly, the small number of Bibles hardly represented a "mass" communication, but one of Gutenberg's follow-up projects did. To raise money to pay for a crusade against Muslim Turks, the Roman Catholic Church contracted with Gutenberg to print thousands of Letters of Indulgence--certificates the Catholic faithful could buy for cash, absolving them of their sins. The practice was among the chief complaints of a young German monk named Martin...
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The Coming Anti-Hillary Blogswarm–from the Left?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Natasha Celine of Pacific Views (and a veteran blogger of the "sleepless summer" of Howard Dean) writes to me: The idea of Hillary Clinton running for president really sounded good to me right after her 2000 campaign, but she killed my enthusiasm with her votes and public statements. She's wandered between Republican apologist, warmonger, 'moral' crusader and ardent supporter of women's rights. Or maybe healthcare. As if the last things should make up for all the rest of it, as if Democratic politicians haven't figured out that supporting women's rights and better health care is literally the least they can do. A floor, if you will, as opposed to a ceiling. It would be putting it mildly to say that I'm disinterested in her candidacy. See her entire letter in DOCUMENTS section in left sidebar. Also: "Sonoma" comments on Bob Kunst's open letter to Hillary Clinton: "No one- and I mean no one- despises the Bushites GOP more than I. But if HC...
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Bloggers as Local Content Creators

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
As I noted in another post, Bill Keller, editor of the New York Times, characterized blogging by the following: "Bloggers recycle and chew on the news. That's not bad. But it's not enough." Just today, ("Reliable Sources", 01/01/06) Howard Kurtz, in the midst of a discussion about the decline in newspaper circulation, commented (with a smile) that "bloggers, as you know, have a grand old time kicking around the MSM, the mainstream media, but if newspapers went away tomorrow, where would they get their information?" In both cases, they meant that bloggers just "chew" and "talk" about big news items in big media venues. This is obsolete analysis at several levels. It is based, partly, on vanity--the "mirror effect": big time national journalists only read blog posts that are about them, and assume that all blogging is reflective of (and reflexively aimed at) them! Let me offer one example here--I elaborate on dozens more in my book BLOGWARS--of bloggers who are creating original content at the local level. (more…)...
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Is Kos the King or the Kingmaker–Oops…

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Mickey Kaus responds to a previous PolicyByBlog post on HC, the grassroots and blogging: Hillary's Secret Challenger; Now he can be revealed. By Mickey Kaus/Updated Monday, Jan. 2, 2006, at 4:57 AM ET Hillary vs. the Blogs, cont.: From David Perlmutter-- Politicians have always needed to balance the base and the middle. Blogs make this tension, if not more difficult, more public. Emphasis not added, but appropriate. Perlmutter writes seriously and smartly about Hillary Clinton's dilemma in this regard, though: a) He takes Kos rather too seriously, calling him "a political kingmaker." (Oh yeah? Name the king); b) He underemphasizes the extent to which Hillary's character--specifically her innate and exaggerated caution, calculation, and need for control--makes her a particularly bad match for the blog age, maybe as bad a match as Nixon or LBJ were for the TV age in 1960. Perlmutter notes that blogs and blog readers reward risk-taking passion and honesty. That he then actually mulls over the question of whether Clinton herself should...
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What Should Hillary Call Her Blog?–“SECURITY MOM DIARIES…”

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Blogging is supposed to be a natural effusion of thought and emotion: modern politics is all about control, staying "on message," getting out your sound and visbytes, and reducing risks of gaffes. Hence the attractions of real blogging are low for frontrunner candidates like Hillary Clinton. And, well, PolicyByblog is a non-partisan blog but I don't think I'm stepping too far out of line to agree with those that characterize Senator Clinton's personal style as not naturally intimate and emotive. Still...one can imagine she could blog in bursts--very controlled bursts! In perspective, the first-person quality of a politician's blog is enhanced when they speak to us from interesting, even exotic, situations. Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont democrat, blogs in "real time" from the floor of the Senate. "More from the Floor" updates up to several times a day. During Ronald Reagan's funeral, Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) stood inside the national cathedral and typed directly into his Blackberry for the following blog entry: "My wife and I stand...
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Will Hillary “Sister Souljah” the Leftblogs?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
UPDATED: Senator Hillary Clinton is still getting very high poll ratings--especially among minority voters which make up majorities or pluralities of the Democratic vote in many states, like, say South Carolina. In irony, she would be unbeatable if the Democratic primaries were held today in the Southern states; but, whether she would win any Southern red state in a general election is questionable. Hillary Rodham Clinton is the only Democrat who can energize the Republican base--to vote against her. If her main concern is the general election contest, that is winning the middle and swing voters, then she (and her lead live-in political strategist) may be considering a "Sister Souljah" moment, with the symbolic target this time being anti-war left bloggers. An SS moment refers to the time in 1992 when Bill Clinton criticized the black, female rap artist for sounding like "David Duke" for a comment she made about "why not have a week and kill white people?" (Which she said...
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Blogs, Flogs, Hitblogs, Identity Theft and Politicians: A New Tool for the Dirty Tricks Bag?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Anyone can start up a blog claiming to be anyone else: sometimes the "identity theft" is satirical and most readers will catch on. "Harriet Miers" blog lampooned (in the first person) the aborted Supreme Court nominee; some Virginia wags started a political blog titled "Not Larry Sabato" in reference to the massively-quoted University of Virginia political science professor. The "Roger Ailes" of the blog of the same name is not the president and CEO of Fox News and the blogger tells us so, in this manner: "Not affiliated with Fox News Channel or any other houses of ill-repute." Less identity theft than personal assault are blogs dedicated to attacking the person in the title or address. The bloggers at SantorumExposed.com focus their ire on Pennsylvania republican Senator Rick Santorum. Rockford Illinois-based "Ellis Wyatt" (itself a pseudonym) talks about many subjects at Dump Dick Durbin but the democratic senator is a special target of negative criticism. (more…)...
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Sago & Geraldo–A Victim or Bad Journalism?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
UPDATED: Perhaps this is off the mark of this blog, but...Blogs are often attacked by big media for unprofessionalism. But nothing is sadder than the professionals closing ranks to pretend that they are not at fault for massive failure. I just saw FOX's Geraldo Rivera say that (paraphrase) "the media were victims" at the Sago mine story. What? WHAT? Because you ran with a life or death story without CONFIRMING IT? The NYT's take: note all the sources of "they're alive" are folks who heard it from folks. Did the reporter face anybody official and ask the question: Is this 100%? Many editors are defending their wrong headlines.... But one tiny local WV paper held back, in part because they could not confirm story. (They were an afternoon paper, as well, so were not under as much pressure to publish fast). Pulitzer, please? Here is the editor explaining what good journalism is all about: "I feel lucky that we are an afternoon paper and we have...
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Lessons of Sago Disaster–For New Media and Old

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Editor & Publisher just put up an op-ed of mine* about the media lessons of the twin disasters at the Sago mine in West Virginia. Again, I think what I say here applies to all forms of media. MINE RESCUE LESSON: JUST SAY 'DON'T KNOW' By David D. Perlmutter/Editor&Publisher.com (January 05, 2006) In the wake of the Sago mine disaster, perhaps a new category of Pulitzer Prize should be created to honor the journalists or news managers who caution that a story is not ready for prime time or publication. We must re-evaluate how journalism produces and delivers the "first draft of history." "Journalism," claimed former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham, "is the first draft of history." But when I set my students, as an exercise, to factually verify initial media reports of major news events they are shocked. From the Tiananmen uprisings and government crackdown to the flooding of New Orleans, they find the same sad tale. The first draft is full of...
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