Apr

21

What blogging does

April 21, 2007 |

Blogging has also been a boon to democratic participation as one can participate in formative policy based debate with other citizens as frequently or an infrequently as they wish. Democratically, a citizen is not simply reduced to a voter anymore. steve taylor via gen-x at 40

Steve writes well and reflectively on the question of whether of not being a blogger means you are a journalist. And he notes that the fact of blogging in itself is only the beginning of the answer to that question.

A blog is nothing more than a publishing platform and, as such, does not confer any particular status on the person publishing. On the other hand, if a person behaves like a journalist - that is reports news, looks for facts, interviews news makers - I don’t think there is any question that blogger is a journalist regardless of what the Parliamentary Press Gallery may think.

More interesting, I think, is Steve’s observation that the capacity to publish has the effect of elevating a person from mere voter. And that is what is revolutionary and rather intimidating about blogging.

A great deal of the political life of Canada (and most Western democracies for that matter) has taken as granted that the “voters” are to be consulted every few years for what amount to a confidence vote. Substantive positions are reduced to talking points in a truncated spate of political campaigning which is reported by the media as a cross between a horse race and a prize fight.

Bloggers can and will do better. The only problem is reach. A paper as awful as the Toronto Star gives platforms to assorted hacks and idiots from which they reach literally millions of readers. Blogging isn’t there yet and is not likely to get there in its present configuration.

However, what it is doing is holding MSM feet to the fire with stories like Kate’s today on how the CBC clearly photoshopped a picture illustrating a Kyoto story.

This sort of reporting is not going to change the inherent dishonesty of much of the Canadian MSM; but it does put them on notice that they no longer operate with impunity.

That’s a start.


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