The Healing Powers of the Blogsphere
March 1, 2006, 5:15 am |
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By William P. Narvey
About 10 years or so ago, the issue most pre-occupying the media’s attention was the Israel – Palestinian conflict or as might be more correctly put, ongoing low grade war. Since 9/11, Islamic radicalism was propelled to the forefront to share the media centre stage with the seemingly irreconcilable Israeli and Palestinian issues.
In this same time span, a great many thousands of internet blog sites have sprung up to provide a soapbox for opinions on all sides of the issues and to give people a forum not otherwise available to them, to speak their minds.
Some blog sites appeal to raw emotions and others to the restrained passions of the more cerebral who prefer to express their views in a more cool, objective and analytical fashion.
Whether pro-Israel and anti-radical Islam or pro-Palestinian and at least sympathetic, if not in agreement with the radical Islamic creed, all voraciously consume and digest TV reports and media or favorite blog site reports and articles. Those pieces sometimes can inflame passions even amongst the coolest of individuals to the point that teeth are clenched, fists are balled and guttural sounds or deletive expletives are uttered.
People overwhelmed with such intense raw emotions need to vent or they are in danger of losing it.
That is where the blogsphere can help. It provides a healthy non-violent outlet for such raging emotions, before those emotions consume all reason and a person could do harm to themselves or others.
Being able to express such anger and frustrations in some comment written on a favorite blog that one knows will be read, understood and sympathized with by other like minded bloggers, is a great way to let it all out, regain equilibrium and composure and to feel right with the world again.
There are a lot of good and bad things said about the blogsphere. One of the good things is that it can be a cost-free public health service in providing angry, frustrated and overwrought people with an outlet for all their unhealthy seething emotions and in the result, the blogsphere can constitute an effective form of anger management treatment.
Related: Media/Blogsphere
March 1st, 2006 at 6:42 am
There’s much more to the blogsphere than an outlet for anger management. Although there are many blogs which can be considered rants, there are also many that generally adhere to journalistic standards, i.e., doing real research, conducting interviews, and citing reputable sources. I would argue that one of the main purposes of blogs is to expose non-journalistic standards practiced by “real” journalists at, for example, the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, etc. Previous to the blogsphere’s inception, the MSM could literally get away with slander, libel, misrepresentation, selective editing, and dressing up “news” which was in fact pure editorializing.
The blogsphere is a 6th column, if you will. But you probably already know that.
March 1st, 2006 at 12:36 pm
I agree that some blog sites serve as 6th columns as you point out, however there is little evidence that they have thus far made much of an impact.
The reporters and pundits in MSM that have come under fire for their reporting and biased views still have their jobs and the MSM that has equally been criticized by the 6th column blogs for their editorial policies, still have the same policies.
All this gives the 6th column much to continue writing about.
The problem thus far is that the 6th column blogs have not reached the public en masse. Instead they attract people of like mind.
MSM continues to shape and influence public opinion because it does reach the masses.
In depth news analysis on TV - MSM usually has two well informed people with contrary views debating so that equal time is given to each point of view. Such programs do not draw the masses and frankly at the end of such shows, given the limited time and parameters for discussion, little is said by either that is enough to sway the viewer’s opinions.
Perhaps the 6th column blogs are too new a phenomenon to have much impact on MSM. If so, it will take time before it can influence MSM and make a meaningful contribution to shaping the views of the public at large.
Time is not what the West has however.
Issues that face the U.S., Canada and the West that continue to pound away at the fabric of our Western societies, demand immediate attention and reality checks now, if effective action is to be taken to protect and preserve what we in the West have and cherish.
March 1st, 2006 at 1:52 pm
I’m sorry Bill, but you just don’t know what you’re talking about. The blogsphere has millions of readers. Please present your “little evidence.”
FrontpageMag received 9,345,621 visits in January alone. Little Green Footballs gets about 3,685,770 hits a month. There are an estimated 134-144 million blogs on Earth. There are an estimated 110 million blog readers world-wide, which I believe is conservative. 30% of Americans read blogs regularly. Andrew Sullivan, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Daily Kos, etc., etc. While American newspapers shunned the Mohammed cartoons, millions saw them for themselves via independent blogs.
The blogsphere exposed Dan Rather’s libel about Pres. Bush. Little old me exposed the BBC’s mis-translation of the French word “racaille,” which thereafter edited its own stories to correct the translation. Matt Drudge broke the Monica Lewinsky story. I could go on and on and on…
MSM outlets are replete with stories belying their fear of losing audience to blogs.
Sure the MSM has great influence, but if you look at the pure ratings numbers, they’re losing fast to cable and the blogsphere.
March 1st, 2006 at 2:23 pm
You should look at http://www.technorati.com/. You’ll find people of all stripes browsing for alternative info. I can see the effect in my weblogs. Often, people who are not “like-minded” look up our articles and leave very critical commentary — opposing netwmd’s viewpoints. Technorati and other blog indexes have millions of users. And Dan Rather lost his job precisely because of the bloggers.
March 1st, 2006 at 2:28 pm
I do not doubt the numbers you refer to. I also concede your view may be more right than mine.
The little evidence I spoke of however related only to my personal observations. I made no study as such.
The news reports and articles that I read or watch in the MSM continue to be slanted, biased or are calculated to evoke certain emotions and views that are not in accord with the realities that I understand exist. Similarly, as indicated, I do not see any let up in the number and kind of blog postings that are taking the same reporters, pundits and MSM to task for their biased or slanted reporting and editorial policies.
There have been the odd Blog successes that I am aware of, such as with D. Rather as you point out, but just from my own readings and watchings in MSM and reading the same criticisms being levelled at reporters, pundits and MSM policy makers, I concluded that overall the Blogs have not yet had that much impact.
Further, while the numbers of bloggers you note are substantial, I would have to conclude that the vast majority are devoting almost all their energies to reading blog postings and writing their views rather than seeking to effect change in the MSM by openly and directly confronting those reporters, pundits and MSM policy makers that continue to be the subject of the same ongoing intense criticisms in the blog world.
Why else do such reporters and pundits still have jobs to say the same things they have said before and why does the MSM continue to have policies that blog sites like yours continue to condemn?
Perhaps you have an answer to this question.
March 1st, 2006 at 3:22 pm
“Perhaps you have an answer to this question.”
Here’s my best. Do you think such an entrenched elite such as the MSM will be removed from power so easily? Remember that the Left has dominated journalism for years. The blogsphere is really only about 5 years old (en masse; there are exceptions). The elites won’t give up their cushy jobs so easily. We’re talking about people with real power. And when threatened with removal, they can fall back on “free speech” both civilally, criminally, and in the court of public opinion.
And for more than 30 years, academicians that teach journalism students have been entrenched, many with tenure. Many of them have made it their purpose to endoctrinate students and suppress “right-wing” dissent. These guys can practically only be removed by an act of God. Harvard’s Lawrence Summers just resigned for facing up to these commies.
My point is that Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor did it collapse in a day. But the blogsphere has gotten a good start in exposing the bias of the media. But it will take time.
Economics will play a part, as more and more people are turning to blogs for fact-checking the news, and advertising dollars will be lost. As more and more readers are drawn away from the MSM, the media giants will eventually be forced to react. But they won’t go easily.
I would say bringing down Dan Rather, exposing the Lewinsky scandal, and bringing Bush’s UAE deal to light is a pretty damn good start. And the growing numbers of blog readers is nothing to be sneazed at.
March 1st, 2006 at 6:26 pm
Your answer is in line with what I surmised in my earlier post responding to your first comment on my initial posting when I said:
“Perhaps the 6th column blogs are too new a phenomenon to have much impact on MSM. If so, it will take time before it can influence MSM and make a meaningful contribution to shaping the views of the public at large.”
My surmise however was generally stated and you have fleshed it out exceedingly well. Thanks for the details.
March 1st, 2006 at 7:20 pm
It is already making a significant contribution.