by Ann Ali
The State Journal
June 13, 2008
In modern media and conversation, the new soapbox is Blogger, the new pulpit is Wordpress, and the Internet provides access to everything and everyone else.
"It's not a question of whether it's right or wrong, that'st he reality today - do you want to be part of that conversation or not?" Justin Seibert of Direct Online Marketing said about blogs, short for Web logs, Web sites maintained with regular entries of commentary or other information listed chronologically.
"You have the same opportunities as everbody else."
So an Inez Internet user can read a Seattle shopper's review of a new toaster and the rest of the world can look up what West Virginians write about outgoing West Virginia University President Mike Garrison.
One site, known as the Fifth Column, at http://hippikiller.wordpress.com, chronicled Garrison's ascension to President along with his fall and all the various West Virginia governmental foibles in between. The site often would receive as many as 500 comments from regulars who joined the cast to further their cause.
"We end up seeing our numbers jump significantly every time we write about Garrison - you could see a significant spike each time," said Sen. Vic Sprouse, R.-Kanawha, who aslo maintains a blog at www.changewv.com.
"I think it's changed the dynamic of talk. I think you've always had the sphere out there of talk radio - that outlet to turn to in a situation like this to vent frustration, and I think what's happening now, to some extent, you're seeing the blogging world take on that talk medium."
Garrison announced June 6 at a Board of Governors meeting in Charleston that he would resign, effective Sept. 1, to end mounting public discussion about an eMBA degree Garrison's childhood friend, former boss, Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter and Mylan Inc. executive, Heather Bresch, didn't earn. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the story Dec. 21, 2007, and the quick-paced, often-anonymous blog world ran with the story after that.
The grassroots, underground network of characters under aliases converged in a few regular spots to swap anger, answers, information, and questions, creating a tidal wave that couldn't be ignored.
"Blogs really allow people to vent, and you don't have to write a letter to the editor and wait two or three days for it to show up," said Marshall University's W. Page Pitt School of Journalism Dean Corley Dennison. "Blogs really perfrom an important function for the modern jounralist, if you will. ... They are a piece of journalism, and hte blogs encourage discussion of issues."
Dennison said it's hard to verify identities and information in blogs, but he pointed out that newspapers used to harbor plenty of pen names.
"If you really want to get the full story, you need to check a number of sites, see what's goin gon with those Web sites, see what's going on on the radio talk shows, read the papers and anybody who's covering it," Dennison said. "Sometimes blogs can really bring up information journalists are unaware of, but you always have to take that information with a grain of salt.
"You don't know the agenda, you don't know if they're operating on rumor or fact, and it's the job of the journalist to take that informatino and vet it."
Sprouse said he thought newspapers started the discussion of WVU's degree scandal, but talk radio and blogs kept the discussion going.
"I've seen some that were very angry or mean, and I don't think that sells as much as something similar to the talk radio realm," Sprouse said. "My thought is if the the blogs hadn't kept this thing going, it might have died off; I think the blogs have kept the momentum going.
"Whenever you would see the normal medium kind of stave off for a couple days, you'd see blogging stepping in there and filling that void."
Dennison said he thought blogs had contributed to Garrison's resignation, but weren't the sole cause.
Seibert said blogs have shaped everything in a brand-new way, because new media nd old media re interacting and borrowing from each other.
"It's today's world," he said. "You are seeing occassionaly the main-stream press is picking up stories from this other realm...so I think the people are reading it, but maybe not necessarily crediting that."
Seibert said Garrison himself kept a blog on WVU's Web site, and he could have used it or participated in blogging at any time.
"I think (Garrison's blog) was a really positive thing - a way to join the conversation," Seibert. "Some of the negative press could have been avoided. I think this is such a fascinating case study in public relations in today's world."
The above article originally appeared in its entirety in the print version of The State Journal. |
