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The biggest question facing political and news workers in the years to come will be "what do I do about blogs?" Many newspapers and political campaigns will have to experiment, since nobody has yet written a definitive rule book on integrating blogs into big media and professional politics; indeed, PolicyByBlog is about that process of exploration. And blogs may evolve faster than large corporations or campaigns can adapt to them.
Take the Washington Post. Like many newspapers, it has opened up blogs as yet another component of its online edition. One is edited by its ombudsman, Deborah Howell.
Self-evident good idea, yes? Build new interactivity with readers, cultivate (possible) customer loyalty, be up-to-date.
The Post, however, just announced that for the time being "we have shut off comments on this blog indefinitely." (more…)...
As noted here earlier, one of the expanding roles of bloggers is that of political educator to the public. To that end, I often refer students to Watchblog, whose principle of "critique the message, not the messenger" and its three-column-formatted roundup of blogging by "Democrats and Liberals," "Moderates and Independents" and "Republicans and Conservatives" provides a one-stop marketplace of ideas.
I recently interviewed David R. Remer, Watchblog's Managing Editor, who is also President of Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy.
PBB: What is the essence of Watchblog, that is what do you see its role and function in the world of blogs?
Remer: IMO, the essence of WatchBlog is its capacity to maintain civil discourse in what is ultimately a public laypersons arena where they can pretend to become politically active. When one is paid by a party to disseminate political information, that information MUST conform to supporting that party regardless of issue or event. Political truth is in the eye of the beholder and...
Interview with Suzanne Stefanac (Dispatches from Blogistan: a Travel Guide for the Modern Blogger)
Perlmutter: Tell me how you came to write a book on blogs?
Stefanac: My trajectory here mirrors a lot of what went on in the computer industry. Once the Web started to take hold, its tentacles went very deep here. I had been writing for computer magazine for years, and so when the Web first started up, and Macworld? offered me the head of MacWorld online, the magazine didn’t know what to do with it, I think. Nobody knew what to do with any of it yet. I had great hopes for it. It was 1994 and there really weren't good database and search tools for the Web yet and I thought search was so important.… I felt like there were two great advances in civilization: plumbing and search algorithms. (more…)...
In my book (BLOGWARS, forthcoming, OXFORD, 2007) I try to make the point that it is time to move on from the confrontational blogger-vs-MSM bipolarity of the earlier days of blogging. The so-callled MSM needs bloggers and is, in fact, "blogging up." Bloggers are becoming a normal part of the spectrum of media. But we still have brushfire battles, and perhaps they are the "birth pains" of a new media alignment. I wrote the article below for E&P--predictably I got some hate mail from journalists saying I was too pro-blogger, and from some bloggers saying I was a lackey of the MSM...or Hezbollah! Oh, well, if you support a marketplace of ideas you should not expect it to be tidy and nice. That said, as links below show, most bloggers who cited the piece understood I was trying to be fair to all parties...
PHOTOJOURNALISM IN CRISIS
By David D. Perlmutter, Editorandpublisher.com, August 17, 2006
(August 17, 2006) -- The Israeli-Hezbollah war has...
Before I started working on a book on blogs (BLOGWARS) almost all my research was on photojournalism and its famous icons and mediated imagery of other kinds. Obviously it is of great interest to me that blogging has driven the great controversy over visual coverage of the Israeli-Hezbollah war. That prompted me to write my "Photojournalism in Crisis" essay for Editor&Publisher which I posted on here at PBB and was picked up my many blogs.
Some updates...
E&P EDITOR DEFENDS WAR PHOTOGRAPHY
Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor&Publisher has published a major “DEFENSE OF WAR PHOTOGRAPHERS” against attacks by bloggers. (See Part I and Part II). Very much worth reading in counterpoint to my original E&P piece as well.
BLOGS AND THE MYSTERIOUS AMBULANCE INCIDENT
“Zombie” of zombietime.com has published “THE RED CROSS AMBULANCE INCIDENT: HOW THE MEDIA LEGITIMIZED AN ANTI-ISRAEL HOAX AND CHANGED THE COURSE OF A WAR.”
This is an important post—perhaps when a future history of blogs is written “The Red Cross Ambulance Incident” will...
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...
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...
I just finished my final draft of Blogwars: The New Political Battleground (Oxford University Press). As I have said, writing a book on blogs is like reporting NASCAR with stone tablets--so much happens so fast. One topic of current interest is the nature of interactivity: what are its benefits and drawbacks for politicians?
Of course, in the bloglands, you can’t pack the rooms with your supporters, shut out hecklers, and enforce message discipline. For example, candidate Barack Obama pioneered the use of MySpace as a campaign tool, but look at what happens when you open up the gates of interactivity to anyone, from kooks to your sworn enemies to supporters who embarrass you by their support. Among the July 2007 commenters on the Obama MySpace site, one “Namaste” from the hip-hop music producers at StreetLabStudio signed on to say, "Fallin' thru ta show ya some luv and say wassup!! Have an Excellent, Blessed Day!! 'lid.....never follow." Fair enough, but does the...
This week I am presenting at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas. I will moderate two panels. Created by blogger Rick Calvert, BW will be the first business expo to showcase blogging as well as the other interactive "new" media. The array of talents and sponsors is impressive.
The first panel , on Thursday, Nov. 8 will focus on "The Power of Political Blogosphere." The scheduled panelists include: Hugh Hewitt, Pam Spaulding, Dave Nalle, Taylor Marsh, and Brad Friedman.
On Friday, Nov. 9, I will moderate "Political Blogs Vs. The Political Press" featuring John Hinderaker, Brad Freidman Mary Katharine Ham, and Taylor Marsh.
Here are the current drafts of my presentations.
Originally posted November 6, 2007 at PolicyByBlog
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Update! The progam video is now available.
Dole Institute to host panel discussion on military blogs
LAWRENCE — As a follow-up to a successful program in early 2007 on political Weblogs, the Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence, KS, will host a panel discussion about another dynamic and growing community on the Internet: military blogs (also known as “milblogs”).
Blogs from the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan have allowed readers at home to connect with soldiers, contractors and civilians who are serving their countries, and they have forced the Pentagon to rush headlong into this 21st century medium.
Milblogs began to appear shortly after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. They saw a dramatic increase in usage following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. According to Joshua Patterson, a KU graduate student studying journalism, Milblogging.com had indexed more than 1,800 military blogs in more than 30 countries as of Dec. 1, 2007.
“Milblogs and soldier blogs are often gripping and graphic firsthand accounts...