Blogging and political discourse
Two weeks ago, several of us from the CPC, Stand for Children and the School Committee went before the city council at the budget hearing to make a case for the schools. Naturally, we had been blogging freely on the topic for over a week, ever since we realized that the schools were going to take a big hit under the Manager’s plan. As we listened to the Manager’s budget presentation, I realized that many of our arguments were being preempted, and it occurred to me that by blogging we had alerted others to our line of attack, giving them a chance to form counter-arguments. As I sat there, rewriting my speech in response to what I was hearing, I wondered if in these situations blogging was such a good idea. As it turned out, I felt that I was able to make my arguments stronger and that we were able to actually have a real debate, an exchange of ideas, instead of everyone just stating their own opinions without regard for those of the other side. Thus, it seems to me that blogging is starting to fill that space between polarized positions, giving people another forum to hear each other and to reformulate their own viewpoints. To quote Dick Howe,
“… I believe blogs fulfill a thirst many people have for local political information, a thirst that’s only partially satiated by the local newspaper and radio station.” (read whole story here)
I think the thirst is for more than information, it is for community, discourse, and civic engagement that matters. The open forum that blogging provides has the potential to pull us out of the echo chamber of our own opinions into a meaningful dialogue with each other. Of course, blogging can also be a place for rants and one-sidedness, but my example above gives me hope that the other side of blogging can be truly positive.