If blogging ever meant anything, it was a chance for individual voices to reach a wide audience without instiutional mediation. Somewhere along the line they became marketing tools, and now big companies and big government are using them as a friendlier form of press release. I can't tell if this is fraudulent or represents a real opening up. It sounds promising:
With Dipnote we are going to take you behind the scenes at the State Department and bring you closer to the personalities of the Department. We are going to try and break through some of the jargon and talk about how we operate around the world.
I wonder how many people have to approve a posting to one of these blogs before its allowed to go public. I also am not sure who is going to read the State Department blog other than people already involved in government dealings in some way.
3 comments:
Who says blogging has to "mean" anything? It's just a tool that can be used by any person or group of people.
Blogging refers to two things: a style of putting text up on a web page in reverse chronological order, which can obviously be used by anyone for anything, and the social movement towards citizen journalism and away from mainstream media. These are often confused, but then, the medium is well-known to be the message.
The post title was ironic, if that wasn't clear.
I find "social movements" of that sort funny. Like the video that's gone around of Apple fans who talk about how it's not just a product but an important part of who they are, who are probably also the types who got all pissed off when they lowered the price of the iPhone.
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