Interview with Polblogger Aaron Pena (D-Texas)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Shearon Roberts, an LSU Masters Student working for the Wall Street Journal conducted a series of interviews with interesting and innovative political bloggers as a project for a class I taught. In January of 2005 she talked to State Representative Aaron Pena, (D-Texas) of District 40 in South Texas. He blogs at http://acapitolblog.blogspot.com/ How involved are you in operating the blog, making posts and reading comments? 100% of it is my personal involvement. I started doing this in I think January of 2005. It’s become not only a way for me to communicate with constituents but a hobby. I’ve come to enjoy the banter between myself and other bloggers not only in Texas but from around the globe. How frequently is the blog updated? Three or four times a day. How is the blog designed, is it a true blog--a strict daily diary for the politician, or a mix of website features and posts? What is the writing style or tone of the blog? It’s personal, it’s conversational. Well...
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ConfederateYankee Get’s an “A+” For Investigative Journalism

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
I first talked about the blogger-driven battles over the Israel-Hezbullah war imagery in an essay for Editor & Publisher and then here and here in PolicyByBlog. And the controversy continues--with a constructive object lesson for us all. I don’t think blogs will replace big media, but the small blogger can, with moxie and smarts, shame the big boys and girls by doing the job that we trained the professionals to do in journalism school. Every good J-School teacher I know instructs her/his students to think, question and dig. Don’t just accept the press release about, easy answer for, herd response to or the face value of an event or issue. Scratch your head and ask: “Where can I go besides the usual sources to get the information that will better reveal the truth?” Sometimes the answer is simple, and you think “Wow, why did nobody else think of that?” The answer is sadly that industrial journalism breeds laziness and routine. There are many hard working journalists out...
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BLOGWARS (The Book) Inches Closer to Publication!

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
This website began as an extension of a book--BLOGWARS--that I am writing about political blogs. But blogs are forever unfinished, their work always to be continued, revised, and extended later. Describing political blogging in a book that takes a year (and now much more!) to research and write and another to publish is like giving NASCAR commentary via stone tablets. Snapshots of the big picture of blogs will be dated by the time you read the book. But that is the point: A blogger’s work is never done, nor, I hope, is that of a student of blogs. You post an item but you cannot then triumphantly declare your mission completed as you could with a printed book or an academic journal article. Your blog readership, if you have one, expects you to return again and again to old issues or to move on to new ones. You cannot coast or rest on your laurels; your readers will abandon you or,...
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Interview with polblogger Tony Trupiano (Democratic candidate for Congress)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Shearon Roberts, an LSU Masters Student working for the Wall Street Journal, conducted a series of interviews with interesting and innovative political bloggers as a project for a class I taught. She talked to Tony Trupiano (Democratic candidate for Congress in Michigan’s 11th district) who blogs at: http://www.tony4congress2006.com/blogs/ How involved are you in operating the blog, making posts and reading comments? The blog is one of the few things that I am 98% present in. I do my own blogging, I do read the blog. I think it’s a great communication too. I think it is an opportunity…you give people access…not so much to the candidate but to the process. I find blogging to be almost therapeutic at times. And it’s a great communications tool. How frequently is the blog updated? At least once a week. I mean if I had time, I’d love to do it everyday. And I’ve kind of kind of fought this idea that somebody else can blog for...
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Political Blogs: Netroots Groundswell or Garage Bands?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
In the middle of a dozen or so articles assessing the explosion of political blogs into mainstream culture, there was one story that begged to differ. "Netroots Hit Their Limits" (predictably) emerged from the stodgy and stalwart publication, Time Magazine. In it, Perry Bacon, Jr. describes "Netroots" and the concomitant rise of political blogs as "the Democratic Party's equivalent of a punk garage band--edgy, loud and antiauthoritarian." Bacon makes an interesting note. While most would agree that the political pendulum is beginning its swing back to the left, he states "moderate Democrats say it with remorse, conservatives with glee, but the conventional wisdom is bipartisan: progressive bloggers are pushing the Democratic Party so far to the left that it will have no chance of capturing the presidency in 2008." He generates some statistical data that deserves stricter scrutiny. Bacon claims that "a coarse estimate of the Netroots' numbers shows them to be something less than a groundswell. The readership of the largest liberal...
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Can the Clintons Harness the Blogs? (USA Today)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
I wrote this essay for USA Today in response to a meeting between leftbloggers and former President Bill Clinton at his Harlem headquarters. Along with my forthcoming book, BLOGWARS, it argues that blogging has "arrived" in politics today. Politicians and political professionals (as well as journalists and media workers) are "blogging up," and trying to figure out how to use blogs in their business. Note: One of the big differences between your own blog and writing for the mainstream press is that you get edited by the latter--something I always accept (along with a check!). So, for example, I wrote the piece just after the blog lunch, but it was not printed until now because the paper wanted to put it closer to the election, which made sense. In any case, the original is below. A few lines that were cut--mostly for reasons of length--are now restored. How will the Clintons harness the political force of the blog? By David D. Perlmutter USA Today, Monday October...
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Blogging and Religion

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Earlier this month, Kevin Denee of The Restored Church of God posted an article on the church’s website concerning the evils of blogging. While Denee focuses his attention on teens, he concludes that even adults should refrain from using blogs altogether. Given that the blog as a medium has an infinite variety of potential formats and subject matter, it is worthwhile to investigate why Denee is so vociferous in his opposition. On face, his logic seems akin to demanding that people abstain from using knives, as they could be used for nefarious purposes. Before delving into the article, it is worthwhile to note that this essay should not be viewed as a personal attack on the religious beliefs of Mr. Denee or the church. Rather, it is intended only to question some of the assumptions and accusations leveled by Mr. Denee on blogging as an immoral method of communication. It is interesting that Mr. Denee posted his personal thoughts on blogs to the...
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Live from the Front Lines–The (Blogged) Words of War

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Update: The Interview on podcast. Another example of blogging morphing with other media: The Press release from BlogTalkRadio: Tuesday October 17, 2006 - On October 19th at 7 PM est., Scott Kesterson an embedded reporter with the US Army's 41st Brigade in Afghanistan will be calling in live to BlogTalkRadio.com for a one on one interview with David Perlmutter. This is Scott's first live interview since being embedded at the beginning of March 2006. Scott will be discussing what is going on in Afghanistan behind the scenes and on the front lines. From his first hand experiences alongside our solders during battle armed with only a camera, to filming our troops training of the Afghanistan National Guard. Interviewing Scott will be David D. Perlmutter; David is a professor and associate dean for graduate studies and research in the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. He writes regularly for the Chronicle of Higher Education and has published over 130...
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The Boss Is Watching Your Blog!

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
On the heels of the HP corporate scandal is a timely article from Annalee Newitz of the NewScientist.com news service, which explores blogs in the context of employee monitoring. The concept of companies monitoring their employees to ensure productivity is not new, but the relatively quick ascendancy of the blog as a medium demonstrates that innovation has once again outpaced legislation. Mainstream media has widely reported that the line between public and private spheres is being blurred with the steady evolution of the pda. But today’s companies are taking things a few steps further, as Newitz notes, “log into work computers from home and employers can track what blogs you create, sign into or post to, or what you write on newsgroups, even outside work hours.” Suddenly the blog begins to look less like an outlet for personal expression and more like a minefield of potential missteps disallowing employment or advancement. The National Workrights Institute (NWI) in Princeton states that current laws...
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