Allow me to get a little post-modern by criticizing blogs through a blog. I’m not against blogs per se, I’m just troubled by the role people expect them to play.
As we approach the 2004 elections and all the media blitzing events that pave the way to November, blogs are looking to make their jump into journalistic respectability.
Why blogs? Because the information is supposed to be raw and uncut, and usually without the perceived corporation ties that make people skeptical of more mainstream media outlets. But just as a blog’s independence is seen as a virtue, it is also a danger. The truth is in the eye of the author and only the author. Just as I wouldn’t read a diary and call it a historical biography, I tend not to view most blogs as news.
But yet, I still read them. That is, I read them when I’m not totally overwhelmed by them. Just when I would figure media saturation has hit critical mass, blogs are trying to fill some void that was never there.
I don’t expect blogs to disappear, even if no one is reading them. But blogs won’t be the difference in this election or in any election in the future. For more on the whimpering blog revolution, check out George Packer’s Mother Jones article.
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