Blogs in mainstream print media
Imagine my delight as I prepare to launch my own site to discover two noteworthy mentions of other established blogs in the mainstream print media yesterday. The Boston Globe carried a story in its Sunday magazine about the blog Blue Mass Group, conducting an interview with founder David Kravitz that asked, among other things: “What are you getting that the mainstream media are missing?
That seems to be the proverbial question as blog readership grows and more people, myself included, get on the blogging bandwagon. The opportunity to participate via the internet in multiple discussions and learn a variety of perspectives on current issues has huge implications on citizen awareness and activism. Although Kravitz took the humble road, saying he questions that his blog actually impacted votes in the recent governor’s race–even if it was showing close to 10,000 hits a day around election time—clearly blogs have become an important tool in the Information Age. By enabling average citizens access to a world of others’ opinions, as well as the ability to express their own opinions in a public format, there is a real shift in the power of the established mainstream media.
The Lowell Sun gave several inches of ink to Dick Howe’s blog in its Sunday Column, even going so far as to quote extensively from his comments regarding the 5th Congressional District and implications of the early-out-of-the-gate campaign of candidate Niki Tsongas. Excited as I am about this new tool for political discourse, which clearly adds pressure for established media to provide more balanced, accurate coverage (increased competition for one thing), I also can’t help wondering how will we find the time to read it all?