\n ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/schauer.jpg\")
In the considered
\n opinion of the Dowbrigade, we have passed a crucial tipping point in
\n the development of the Blogosphere in which the sheer
\n quantity and geographic ubiquity of Blogs virtually insures that
\n the blogging coverage of any significant event anywhere on the planet
\n will rival, augment and enrich that of the conventional media.<\/p>\n
At this stage of development the blogosphere has a distinct
\n advantage on stories that develop off the beaten track of mainstream
\n journalism. In addition to offering the much ballyhooed personal
\n and intimate first-person narratives of real people affected by the news
\n (as opposed to the talking heads pretending to be impartial and above
\n the story), bloggers are often the first to the scene and have the contacts
\n and knowledge of the local landscape to get beneath the surface of the
\n story. The still-evolving Tsunami coverage is an important case in point.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Times today has a related story on the Baghdad Most of the bloggers use pseudonyms, making skeptics wonder who they Pretty standard Sunday supplement stuff, but it gets "I get the sense that one reason the Iraqis blog MacKinnon invited two Iraqi bloggers to join other Finally, what we have now confirmed was an editing The Fadhil brothers say they receive no U.S. government Obviously, Blogger.com is not run by a Baghdad dentist, In the considered opinion of the Dowbrigade, we have passed a crucial tipping point in the development of the Blogosphere in which the sheer quantity and geographic ubiquity of Blogs virtually insures that the blogging coverage of any significant event … Continue reading
\n blogging community in Iraq, entitled "Time
\n of Blogs and Bombs<\/a>," which
\n contains some sage commentary from home team favorite Rebecca
\n MacKinnon<\/a> as well as one unfortunate error which we can only
\n attribute to over-editing. First, the lead:<\/p>\n\n
\n Girl <\/a>identifies herself as 13-year-old Raghda
\n Zaid, one of a growing number of Web diarists who are creating Internet
\n sites to post intimate accounts of life in wartime Iraq. Experts say
\n these bloggers put a personal voice on the conflict that reaches beyond
\n newspaper headlines or television footage. <\/p>\n
\n are, what their motives might be, and whether they’re even blogging
\n from Iraq. But a handful
\n have emerged publicly, and one – Salam
\n Pax<\/a>, the pseudonym of an architect and
\n translator known as the "Baghdad Blogger"- has become a cult figure.
\n His blog has been published as a book, "Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary
\n of an Ordinary Iraqi," and he has a film deal. But he has still not revealed
\n his identity beyond a small circle of journalists and friends.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n more interesting when Rebecca<\/a> kicks in:<\/p>\n\n
\n is that they don’t feel that their lives and reactions to what is going
\n on are understood in the outside world," says Rebecca MacKinnon,
\n a research fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. "They
\n know the world’s listening."<\/p>\n
\n Web diarists from around the world at a Harvard conference Dec. 11.
\n The bloggers, Omar Fadhil, 24, and his brother Muhammad, 35, both dentists,
\n are two of three diarists for "Iraq the Model," which has
\n won plaudits for covering U.S. policy developments overlooked or misreported
\n in the U.S. press.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n error:<\/p>\n\n
\n support. They explain that they were shown how to set up the blog on
\n a free Internet site, http:\/\/www.blogger.com, run by another Baghdad
\n dentist who is the author of another Web log, "Healing Iraq."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n unless outsourcing has merged with Iraqi reconstruction. Our surmise
\n that an over-zealous copy editor had mis-parsed the sentence and added
\n the word "run" was confirmed when we went to the electronic edition of
\n the
\n article
\n and
\n found
\n that the
\n word had been deleted. So the "unedited voice" of the blogosphere looks
\n pretty good when, as many a reporter will attest, editors can mess up their
\n prose as easily as polish it<\/tr>\n<\/td>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"