The recent New York Times story (from which the above illustration has been taken) raises the following question about blogging:

“Might the invention of blogging, which gives everyone at least theoretical access to the whole wired world, threaten the very existence of an exclusive chattering class?
One person who thinks, and hopes, the answer is yes is Markos Moulitsas, the creator of the Daily Kos, the popular liberal political weblog .
“Absolutely everything and everyone in politics is driven by media today,” Mr. Moulitsas said in a phone interview. “But it’s no longer just a couple of blowhards in a studio in Washington or New York. Anyone around the country can have a voice in the political process.”

A student in one of my classes has just submitted a project on military bloggers from Iraq (they’re called MilBlogs) and his feeling is that we have a genuine alternative to what is being reported in the media. Here’s a review of the new book An Army of Davids by Glenn Reynolds. The book, as will be clear from the following excerpt from the review, makes a similar point:

Journalism is like making beer. Or so Glenn Reynolds says in his engaging new book. Without formal training and using cheap equipment, almost anyone can do it. The quality may be variable, but the best home-brews are tastier than the stuff you see advertised during the Super Bowl. This is because big brewers, particularly in America, have long aimed to reach the largest market by pushing bland brands that offend no one. The rise of home-brewing, however, has forced them to create “micro-brews” that actually taste of something. In the same way, argues Mr Reynolds, bloggers—individuals who publish their thoughts on the internet—have shaken up the mainstream media (or MSM, in blogger parlance).

But I am skeptical of such broad claims, even though I can’t deny the usefulness and excitement of this new medium. It is true that bloggers produce more idiosyncratic versions of the daily news simply by putting up a series of links that is of interest to them; they’re also giving rise to a new kind of journal; but what is most emphatically true is that it is only in a very small number of cases that such writers on the Web do any original reporting. The other day I had posted a blogreport about blogging from a flooded New Orleans; I can also think of other examples like my friend Dilip D’Souza who produced excellent reports during the tsunami disaster a little over a year ago.

Reynolds himself has a popular blogsite called instapundit.com, and the only reporting I have read by him has been from a conference on blogging. Nevertheless, I like the fact that he has in the past posted blogs from people who write to him from different parts of the world. His readers become his correspondents. Reynolds is also a part of a media initiative to support journalists from other places with technology and hook-ups. These are small beginnings but it is in such dissemination of information–in other words, in building a vital public sphere–rather than in mere traffic of opinions that the most exciting future lies.

I don’t want my students to rave about blogs. These students, who are in my media studies class as well as my travel-writing class, should instead go off to different places and report on my blogsite! I’d want to do the same. We’d be having, at least, a party of Davids.

chattering-classes-blogging-glenn-reynolds