I just finished reading blog! by Burstein and Kline and the chapter I read focused on the impact of blogging on politics, specifically the 2004 presidential race. It made note of some specific facts. One of them being how it was bloggers who uncovered the documents regarding President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard were indeed fakes. Also another interesting tidbit was Howard Dean's use of the Internet to get his campaign off of the ground and raise money. If you don’t remember Howard Dean here is a little reminder.
However, there was one quote that really stuck with me was one from a blogger.
“Blogs are fun observed Ezra Klein on his own blog I like them but they are
flawed and problematic medium. They encourage polarization and extremism rather
than debated and understand. They turn on snark and mockery more often than
facts and agile argument. I’ve not yet and not for lack of trying found
the blog where smart engaged partisans are respectfully speaking to each other
where the point is to inform and enrich rather than enrage and destroy.”
I would like to think that as human beings we could conduct ourselves in a proper manner, but unfortunately we cannot. At 20 years old I can respectfully agree to disagree with someone on their views. Sadly, there are people old enough to be my parents who can do that. Often I will come across very mean, hateful, racists, sexist, homophobic comments on blogs. Usually the nastiness is found in the comments section. This is especially common on political and entertainment blogs. The anonymity of the web makes it easy for people to make disgusting and hateful comments.
People either:
A) Believe and want to say these things in really life but are not bold enough to ever verbalize those thoughts in life
B) Shock value
C) Both
I would go with both. For me, overly hatful comments ruin my blog reading experience. There are definitely sites I know to avoid the comments section because World War III, VI, and V are happening. I will walk away feeling disgusted. There are other sites where I happily read the comments because posters can agree to disagree respectfully.
Political blogs generally preach to the choir therefore they usually are polarizing, vilifying their political rival. I see it as this way blogs are a reflection of the culture at large. Why do you think Britney Spears has 20-30 paparazzi chasing her daily because there is a societal hunger for celebrities. So, blogs are an expression of political culture and right now we live in a very politically charged and polarized nation. Do you or I have to like the comments? No. Sadly, it is just the nature of the beast.
5 comments:
Great post Jia! You made some really interesting as well as thought provoking points!
I completely agree with your point about the anonymity created by blogs and the Web.
Unlike mainstream media, it is difficult to hold bloggers accountable because the audience doesn't actually know the blogger. With mainstream media, the audience has the means to identify the speaker as well as the validity of his or her information.
Overall this was a great post! Great job of using your internal voice as well as a sense of humor. The part about Hammer pants was hilarious!
Jordan
I agree with you in that blogs are growing and catching on. However, I think the problem is found when people treat blogs as a news source. I understand that sometimes they are factual, but we must be careful to assume and believe every element presented.
I see the importance of blogs in that they have uncovered scandles such as the Dan Rather scandle, and I think the media is treating blogs correctly by noticing them and examining information when necessary.
Having also read the book, I enjoyed your view, and I hope to read more as we continue into the book.
Good post. We'll be talking about Howard Dean a bit later in the semester, so remember this point.
As for the Rather scandal, I hesitate to bring this up, but there were bloggers who uncovered that the original bloggers who attacked CBS were largely full of it. But no one seems to notice or remember this part (and that's why Rather filed the lawsuit).
Clearly, it takes a combination of freedom and attention to be heard, but that formula is an elusive mixture.
Good post. Keep them coming.
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