Alternative Media: A New Free Press?

My Thoughts on Blogworld and its Gravity by Matt Welch

The article starts with what is seemingly another mundane piece of writing. Welch describes his experience of attending his first Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference. The article starts getting more interesting when he points out the fact that, "All the newspapers looked the same--same format, same fonts, same columns complaining about the local daily," and so on and so forth.

At this point in the readin, my interest level started to rise.

If there is one thing that disinterests me the most, it would have to be writing ABOUT writing. However, Welch's statement was something that I have not heard before. I read on.

Further along in the reading, Welch introduces the start of blogging and analyzes it as legitimate media.

He makes a point that, "with personality and an online audience, meanwhile...[there] comes a kind of reader interaction far more intense and personal than anything ocmparable in print."

I would definitely have to agree that weblogs seem to cross the barrier of formal media into a new zone that is unidentifiable to readers of print media. This, though, at the same time raises many questions as to whether or not blogs should be considered a real type of writing.

Although blogs can become an open forum, through real time response that can occur within minutes, how legitimate is the blog itself?

Anyone can actually start a blog these days, and who is to decide the level of integrity of each of the writers who own these blogs?

These are just a couple of the questions that arise when trying to analyze whether or not blogging is a step forward in the world of media or perhaps it may become the downfall of it.

I could probably spend days just thinking of hundreds of different reasons for each side, while branching out into the more vague areas of the internet. But, Welch really sums up what I would have spent so much time thinking about by the end of his article.

"damn, he sure looks like he's having fun"

These words were written by Welch to simply illustrate the point that in the 1960s, traditional journalists were thinking the same thing when trying to comprehend the thoughts of, "their long-haired brethren."


My Thoughts on The Web Rewires by Andrew Boyd

As far as I'm concerened, the internet was the next big step in advancing society.

Just by reading what Boyd had to say should be proof enough.

Whether people support or detest the MoveOn organization's start, it is still undeniable that the internet is very useful.

The internet definitely serves as a relatively inexpensive way to have access to the entire world and is much quicker than the methods that preceeded it. Pre-Internet would have called for millions of dollars being spent on advertisements for the MoveOn campagin (billboards, telephone calls, newspaper ads, magazine ads, television, etc.) but with some webspace and forums it was able to get a great start.

It's lack of centralized leadership is constantly criticized, but this is actually its defining attribute. In this way it cannot be affiliated with being an activist movement, but it is simply the thoughts of many citizens that are being relayed.

The internet makes it possible for people from all over the US to converse on forums, send e-mails, and even take advantage of, "the meeting tool."

Once again, the internet is the only thing that allowed so many people to come together and protest. Without internet, it isn't likely that there would have been such a large turnout for protesting against the war.

Boyd picked a great topic to write about in terms of proving the internet's usefulness.