David Perlmutter, a professor at Louisiana State University, is writing a book for the Oxford University Press on blogs and politics. Somehow he ran across this site and sent me a questionnaire. Since I am right now in the midst of distractions that limit my blogging time (probably lasting till the middle of August), I thought that I’d create an easy post by reprinting my responses (very lightly edited) to his queries.
1. When did you start blogging, why, and why do you blog now?
Amazon.com is responsible for my entry into blogging. I used to post book reviews there. One day I sent in a negative review of Kathryn Lindskoog’s “Sleuthing C. S. Lewis” that Amazon refused to run on the ground that it was “profane or spurious”. The ensuing dialogue with Amazon’s editors was so annoying that I decided to set up my own Web site where I could write whatever reviews I pleased. Serendipitously, I happened upon a Web site building program, Trellix 2.7, that was simple enough for HTML-deficient users. With it, I established Stromata, which mimicked standard Web sites, in September 2001. It included some blog-like sections, each with its own name and subject matter (e. g., “Ephemerides” for politics, “In hac lacrimarum valle” for religion, “Querulous Notes” for literature), to which I posted as the spirit moved me.
The quasi-blogs on Stromata were unfortunately clumsy to work with, as Trellix and its upgrades were not designed for blogging. For example, there was no easy way to create permalinks or archive posts. Setting up a blog was basically a strategy for simplifying this aspect of my life. Stromata Blog is, in concept, an appendage to Stromata, though it is now by far the more active of the two sites (based on my activity; they draw about the same quantity of traffic).
My principal motive for blogging is to organize my own thoughts concerning matters that I care about. I believe that I’m reasonably free from the illusion that my writing will influence even a narrow circle of public opinion, and I wouldn’t enjoy being in the position of a Glenn Reynolds, who feels that he has to apologize for every interruption to his output.
2. Describe the logistics of how you run (or participate in) your blog – say, a brief rundown of your blog workday? Hours/activities. What about costs/budget?
Stromata Blog is hosted by Typepad and uses its software. The cost is trivial; in fact, I can’t remember what I pay.
The time spent on the blog varies considerably. During some periods I post two or three times a day. Then real life interferes (as it is doing right now), and I slack off. I write most posts after getting home from work. When traveling I often write on the airplane, then post when I reach an Internet connection. Posting tends to decline on weekends, perhaps, paradoxically, because more hours are available.
I usually spend an hour or two on all but the shortest posts, devoting much of the time to thinking, rethinking and polishing.
3. I know it’s fuzzy – but profile your “average” poster (person who posts comments on your site or responds to your posts)? How many “regulars” doyou have?
My site doesn’t attract many comments, probably because the great majority of its traffic derives from Internet searches. (I just checked the last hundred referrals on SiteMeter; 66 were from search engines.) Someone who is looking for a particular bit of information has little propensity to comment. I have about half a dozen moderately frequent commenters or correspondents, all of whom are personal friends.
4. How has your blog affected your involvement in politics? Example?
There has been no appreciable effect, though I like to think that I’ve become better informed and that my opinions are more closely reasoned than before. The blog did bring me briefly into touch with the larger political arena during the last Presidential campaign, when I wrote a few recollections of John Kerry at Yale and was as a consequence interviewed (very briefly) by BBC.
5. What do you think was the most important effect of blogs on the 2004 election?
In the short run, blogs may have affected the election’s outcome by quickly countering the Rathergate forgeries and the al-QaaQaa roarback and by heightening alertness to electoral fraud, but the biggest long-term impact was, I think, the impetus that left-wing blogs gave to the radicalization of the Democratic Party and its descent into the politics of hysteria. A new article by Dean Barnett expresses my sentiments exactly.
6. What would be your advice to political candidates about how to tap intothe power of blogs?
That’s like asking how to tap into the power of newspapers or television. Impress a lot of bloggers as a wonderful fellow, and you’ll get lots of favorable buzz in the blogosphere.
7. What makes you different from or similar to a “traditional” journalist,editor or columnist? Follow up: Besides the obvious ones, Rathergate, etc., what would be an example of a blogger finding/uncovering some error in mainstream media?
So far as I my own blog goes, the closest journalistic counterpart is the old-time small town newspaper run by an opinionated, overeducated crank.
The blogger who deserves the most credit for uncovering a story that didn’t interest the mainstream media is Stefan Sharkansky, for his reporting of last year’s fraud-ridden gubernatorial election in Washington State.
8. What do you think blogs (and/or msmedia) will look like in 5 years, ten years?
I have no idea. Blogger triumphalists should remember how CB radio was going to revolutionize communications.
9. I want to cite examples in my book of “blogs that made a difference” or “posts that had impact.” I would love to learn about some story of your blog affecting some legislation, outing an error in msm, etc.
Well, I’ve sort of tried. I’ve exposed evidence of a Supreme Court Justice’s detachment from reality, the use of tax money to promote somebody-else-wrote-Shakespeare nonsense and the dangers of daylight saving time, among other efforts. The world seems quite content to pay no attention. C’est la vie.
10. A number of “codes of ethics” for bloggers are being talked about: what is your opinion of their utility or viability? Follow ups: a. What are some things bloggers should NOT do? (Examples?) b. Could you describe some ethical quandary you faced and how you dealt with it?
A Blogger’s Code of Ethics strikes me as a silly idea, but there are of course practices that ought to be condemned by all men of good sense,
The only blog-induced ethical dilemma that I can recall facing was whether I should make an effort to publicize an unsavory fact that I knew about John Kerry’s past. Being truthful is no ethical violation, but I was concerned both that the fact’s significance would be exaggerated by excitable people on the Right and that I would have to endure tiresome denunciations from the Left. In the end I mentioned it in passing as part of a longer piece on Senator Kerry’s career in the Yale Political Union. I later learned, very indirectly, that the Bush campaign had the same information and chose to avoid making any use of it.
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