THE POWER OF BLOGGING
It isn’t up yet online but in the paper edition of Foreign Policy on newstands now, Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell discuss in their article ” Web of Influence “ how blogging is changing the formation of policy. The erstwhile professor-bloggers christen the blogosphere
” The Fifth Estate” – in itself a revealing statement on the human tendency to force fit new things into old forms of understanding- and explain how the elite blogs act as important information filters moving new views from little known bloggers upward toward elite blogreaders – mainstream journalists, pundits and government officials. As expected many of the big names of the blogosphere get their due but so do foreign bloggers, particularly in Iran and China as well as Salman Pax, Iraq the Model and Baghdad Burning.
It’s a well-done and thoughtful article though avid bloggers will probably roll their eyes and exclaim ” DUH” at observations like ” North Korea is perhaps the most blog-unfriendly nation” it’s doubtful that most of Foreign Policy readers as a group are deep into blogging. So basic explanations were a useful component of a very good ” bridge” article between old media and new. Worth reading. Or if you are cheap and lazy, worth waiting for Foreign Policy to post the online version in a few weeks.
October 29th, 2004 at 5:47 am
Funny you should mention North Korea and blogging. An interesting approach to news and commentary blogging about a single country is NKZone. Among the bloggers is Rebecca McKinnon, formerly Tokyo bureau chief for CNN. She’s a Research Fellow at the Berkman Center right now.
All are welcome to drop by chez Nadezhda
October 29th, 2004 at 5:04 pm
Thanks ! Drezner/Farrell do mention and praise the NKZone – can’t recall if they mentioned Rebecca but I will check both sites out. I’m looking for some additional high quality foreign news oriented blogs for my blogroll to complement The Argus and The Asia Pages.