HW III: responding to reading

This inside look at how blogging has helped or shall I say molded our “more participatory democracy” takes the reader though exactly how it boomed. How blogging hit the high road in to the life of those campaigning and those following campaign trails. Beginning with a slow start to fame and enduring the criticism from many mainstream media participants blogging has influenced many American politicians as well as people interested in them. Kline shows how political blogging gained fame with their ability to gain interest and knowledge more quickly and efficiently than the rest, the attraction to the blogs spread like wild fire through the web. Having the ability to release information untouched by other media forms on topics ignored by even our President. For example the pictures and information on our troops and action in Baghdad, not only did our own media not even touch on it but was bewildered with the amount of money it would take to track the story. A local Baghdad blogger posted the story in full, spreading it throughout the blogging industry for all to see, costless and full of information readers wanted and needed to know about OUR troops, but it was too costly for OUR media to cover. Blogging is free, it takes only time and information to do yet it is criticized by so many both on line and accounts stated in this excerpt from Blog. As read in “Toward a More Participatory Democracy” countless politicians have benefited both monetarily and fame wise due to blogging, it has given names to so many on the campaign trail. More then 28 million readers in 2004 visited the top ten political blogs, more so than the numbers watching or reading about it on the mainstream media. Blogs proved to influence interest and teach voters, even after the poll it kept up their interest and attention. Many people assume that blogging is set for the younger demographic however after reading this it is proven that reading and taking part in blogs is for everyone. I believe that every political party should take advantage of this source for at least a piece of their campaign; it would be foolish for them not to. Just looking at the amount of people logging on to political blogs in 2004, this should be incentive enough to make a blog for any campaign. However I do wonder how much of the information on blogs is factual on account that blogging is the new form of communication for everyone…couldn’t there be false information being posted as factual. I feel that there is a lack of security with the web and has a potential for disaster with putting political and personal information out there.