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Bruce Kratofil, of BJK Research, is the NABE webmaster.

Windows on the Web: March 2002

Blogs

Any time there is a round of media mergers, people worry that consolidation will limit the number of viewpoints you can find discussing issues. If you've got a web browser, you don't need to worry, thanks to a phenomenon know as "blogs".

Blog is short for "web log". They serve as a cross between online diaries, one-person newspapers, and an annotated tour of the web. (Another name for them is "me-zine" which sort of points to their individual nature.) And while big media sites still struggle to make money, blogs are exploding in popularity, especially in response to 9/11.

Technology Helps

As soon as people figured out how to do web sites, the capabilities for blogging existed. As long as you knew HTML, and knew how to upload files, you could run your own blogging site. In fact, many people point to Matt Drudge's Drudge Report as the prototype, only in his case he maintained what was essentially a one-person news service.

Some new innovative technology from a web site known as BlogSpot made it easier (and free) for people to post on the web. Rather than having to know the technical details on how to maintain a web site, you could maintain your blog with nothing more than your browser, quickly posting your new writings to the web.

What's There To Read?

The best thing to do is just dive in and visit some of the blogs. Start with these sites, for they do a good job of linking to other good writing and reporting on the web. Some of the best-known sites are run by journalists, such as Virginia Postrel, the former editor of Reason Magazine; Andrew Sullivan, the former editor of The New Republic; and Mickey Kaus, now of Slate Magazine.

There is some very interesting writing by some not-so-famous journalists, too. You may want to check out Matt Welch and Ken Layne, both working out of Los Angeles, and Tim Blair of Australia. The More Than Zero Sum blog often talks economics. Maybe the most-famous blog site is one called Insta-Pundit, written by a formerly obscure law professor from the University of Tennessee named Glenn Reynolds. His blogging has led to columns at Tech Central Station and Fox News. In fact, many of these bloggers also use their sites as showcases for their other writings.

There are some other specialized sites out there. Ira Stoll runs a site called Smarter Times which is devoted to pointing out errors and bias in the New York Times. There is Overlawyered.com, which takes on lawyers, and Sgt. Stryker, who gives the point of view from inside the military. The Libertarian Samizdata pulls in people writing from around the world. There are also some institutionalized entries in the field; the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal web site has a daily "Best of the Web" and the National Review's editors participate in something called The Corner.

Again, you can use these as starting points, because bloggers do lots of linking to other sites (and to each other). The sites are all free, all though some are either ad-supported or look for donations through some web-based payment schemes.

Why Read Them?

There are a couple of reasons to read some of these blogs. You get a chance to see a number of different viewpoints from a lot of very interesting writers. Many of them also serve as sort of a Truth Squad for Big Media. If they read or see what they think is a biased piece somewhere else, they will go off fact-checking, pointing and linking the other side of the story. The whole phenomenon is helping to democratize the news and promoting many more points of view.