Posted on 03/15/2005 2:09:05 PM PST by GulliverSwift
At a recent Harvard conference on bloggers and the media, the most pungent statement came from cyberspace. Rebecca MacKinnon, writing about the conference as it happened, got a response on the "comments" space of her blog from someone concerned that if the voices of bloggers overwhelm those of traditional media, "we will throw out some of the best ... journalism of the 21st century." The comment was from Keith Jenkins, an African-American blogger who is also an editor at The Washington Post Magazine [a sister publication of NEWSWEEK]. "It has taken 'mainstream media' a very long time to get to [the] point of inclusion," Jenkins wrote. "My fear is that the overwhelmingly white and male American blogosphere ... will return us to a day where the dialogue about issues was a predominantly white-only one."...
Does the blogosphere have a diversity problem?
Viewed one way, the issue seems a bit absurd. These self-generated personal Web sites are supposed to be the ultimate grass-roots phenomenon...
So why, when millions of blogs are written by all sorts of people, does the top rung look so homogeneous? It appears that some clubbiness is involved. Suitt puts it more bluntly: "It's white people linking to other white people!" Suitt attributes her own high status in the blogging world to her conscious decision to "promote myself among those on the A list."
The top-down mainstream media have to some degree found the will and the means to administer such care. But is there a way to promote diversity online, given the built-in decentralization of the blog world? Jenkins, whose comment started the discussion, says that any approach is fine—except inaction. "You can't wait for it to just happen," he says. Appropriately enough, the best ideas rely on individual choices.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Fortunately the Washington Post doesn't have absolute control over what bloggers do, although they'd like to. This all just makes the MSM liberals uncomfortable. They are now trying to attack their rival for information.
But is there a way to promote diversity online, given the built-in decentralization of the blog world? Jenkins, whose comment started the discussion, says that any approach is fine—except inaction. "You can't wait for it to just happen,"
So what are you going to do, force them to do it? Lets have the MSM order bloggers around and tell them how they should implement affirmative action.
nd at the Harvard conference, Suitt challenged people to each find 10 bloggers who weren't male, white or English-speaking—and link to them.
Never mind if what they have to say is crap or don't agree with it. Mindless affirmative action dogma has no place in the blogosphere....yet.
Shame on Newsweak.
So, no one is forcing people to blog. I am sure there are different demographics for online trading, downloading music, etc.
Remember Al Gore's phone tax to get more computers to poor kids. Now we'll have a grant to encourage minorities and women to wrtie columns on the www. What's another nickel on the ol phone bill.
Everytime the so called progressive get bested they go to race and sex baiting. How utterly predictable. Let'm try some new ideas for a change of pace.
With no diversity, blogs are doomed! Doomed I tell you!
:) Hehe!
Actually, we're all dogs sitting behind keyboards.
I have no idea what the age, sex, race, etc. of certain bloggers are unless they tell me. Does Jenkins think only white males have internet access? Are blacks being prevented from blogging?
Typical, old school race-baiting liberalism.
Just damn ping.
Gimme a break.
It's stupid and silly. On a blog , you're known by the quality of your ideas, not the color of your skin.
This is a level playing field if ever there was one.
What, you don't remember the digital divide and the Gore tax we still pay?
Unless bloggers identify themselves by race, how can you tell? How could you exclude or include individuals by race? I don't care what color people are, I'm looking for someone who has something interesting to say, unlike the Washington Post magazine that only rarely has anything I want to read beyond Gene Weingarden and Dilbert. The MSM are just beside themselves because they no longer control information, and therefore, political discourse. Tough noogies. And Newsweek, with all its posturing, pathetic attempts at sophistication, nasty-gossipy fluff and "with-it-ness" is a huge bore. What we are hearing is the cry of the dinosaurs as they become extinct.
This is exactly why its such a threat.
Racial discrimination is bad. Everyone should be equal.
www.blogger.com or other free sites give out a blog to anyone who subscribes. White. Black. Chinese grandmother. Turkish stripper. Transgendred Inuit.
There is NO way of telling who is writing that blog.
So, how are the evil forces of discrimination going to bias against other-than-white, non-to-semi-male bloggers? HOW?
It's a level playing field. The best writer wins.
What, exactly, do the enlightened on the left dislike about so egalitarian a concept?
Just another lonely, black racist, calling in the night....
No one can force anyone to visit a web site. Unlike when you have a ONE newspaper town.
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