So there are many kinds of blogs out there in the wide wide world of web. You’ve got personal blogs, someone writes about what they did, how they feel. I’ve got an LJ I know, they can be a lot of fun. They can also be…well a little uninteresting. That’s fine, I personally love a glimpse into the life of someone else, especially people I know, it can be utterly fascinating. That doesn’t mean that anyone cares, or that it’s journalism. Mostly, it’s not. There are hobby blogs: knitting, hunting, skiing, crafting, fishing, cleaning, sex; all hobby blogs. Not so much journalism, but if you read 50 of them you’ll likely get a lot of the same kinds of information you’d get out of standard a hobby magazine.

The real question of course, is about political blogs. I’ve got one of those too. Because pushing is required I guess. But is that journalism? In the unbiased, report the facts, bring information to the people that they want kind of way, a little. In the give the facts as you see them and heck it’s mostly spin, fox news kind of way? YES! Absolutely. (Hey, I’d argue that sometimes I do a better job than fox because I bash everyone, I don’t generally pick just one horse, support them and then bash everyone else. I just bash them all.) There are somethings that both ‘real journalists’ and bloggers each do well. Journalists often have more sources, a wider variety and more within each field. Bloggers, however, can actually be their own sources, anonymous blogs can be great whistle blowing tools. Investigative work is often done better by someone who can littlerally devote full time to it. But send a blogger and a journalist to the same event, generally the blogger has more room, you can get good reports of what happened at a lot of events from bloggers (just as long as you can find one who went and gives a good report.) Blogs are more it and miss, journalists are more consistent, I would be too if I got paid for it though.

We have a wide range of blogs out there. Lots of them are informative. Lots of them are commenting on ‘real journalism’, plenty of them doing things like this column, rants about whatever the author feels like. These can be fascinating, but often feel like repeats. However, sometimes we underestimate the power of a great amount of repetition. Saying something again and again can be good for lots of reasons, saying it makes it more likely to be heard, saying it makes ‘mainstream’ journalism more likely to take notice (lots of examples of this are out there, saying it can be cathartic, saying it lets people know they aren’t alone. All of these are important and not to be discounted functions. People need all of these things.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter if I say the same thing as 500 other people that’s ok. What is important is that someone hears it and is relieved that they aren’t they only one, that someone hears it and because they agree (or disagree) with me on other positions they rethink something, that someone gets mad (either at me or whatever I’m mad at) and writes a letter to their congressperson or newspaper, or many other things. Action is key. Do something, take action. Agree, disagree, whatever just get up and do something. Blogging is good, writing a simple letter to the editor or your congressperson is good, and running for office because you just can’t take it anymore well that’s good too.

Last 5 posts by Sara Reller

• Death by war? - May 2nd, 2006
• Big Veiny Ultra-realistic Problems - March 27th, 2006
• Constitution - March 21st, 2006
• Caucuses - March 7th, 2006
• Participation: Do, do not not do, but do. - February 28th, 2006