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| Home > Reviews > Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Our World by Hugh Hewitt |
| Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Our World by Hugh Hewitt | | Date Created: Feb 05, 2005, 02:09 PM |
I'd like to bring Hugh Hewitt's book, Blog - Understand the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World to your attention. There are several other books on blogs and blogging, but this one is the latest and has received the most hype, at least partly because of Hewitt's outlet as a radio talk show personality. Larry Elder's books have done well for at least partly for the same reason (not to mention The King, Rush Limbaugh).
If you're reading this you probably know what a blog is, but just in case you don't, it's short for weblog and is a type of journal published as a website on the internet. They're usually the internet equivalent of a personal journal, but as Hewitt goes to excesses to point out, they're much more powerful and fundamentally different because of the power of the internet. Blogs got started in the late 90's and have been gathering steam with little signs of slowing down although there are plenty that have been started and abandoned. Some blogs include multiple persons posting, some have a decided purpose or point of view, and some are hard to distinguish from a general website. You can start one with next to nothing if you have a computer and an internet connection. You don't have to report to anyone. There are even ways to make money with them.
Hewitt views blogs as a form of media outlet and there is some truth to that. His thesis is that blogging is a revolution on the scale of importance of the Reformation where Martin Luther posted his objections to the authority of the Church in Rome, found a way to get around the authority of Church dogma and control of religious interpretation, put religious expression in the hands of individuals, and started a new religion. Hewitt also has a decided religious point of view which he tones down in this book but which puts a different spin on his interests if nothing else.
I think this is a bit overblown. There have been instances of the power of bloggers for good and not so good in episodes like the Dan Rather/CBS scandal, the exposure of John Kerry's lies about his Vietnam experience, the toppling of Trent Lott, the exposure of fraud at the New York Times in the Jason Blair affair, and the "exit polls" and early results of the election. Hewitt calls these "blog swarms" and compares them to media circuses like the OJ Simpson trial. I think they would have happened without bloggers. The key is getting around the mainstream media and its news cycle.
The power of what's going on is in the internet and a way to get around the control of the mainstream media and corporate news (as it gets around the power and control of the record industry). It's not in the bloggers per se. Blogging is just one element of the changes the internet has wrought as we've seen with internet radios, file sharing, and a new free market zone of enterprise.
Still, Hewitt has a point and you should read this book if you're interested in the subject, considering starting a blog, or speculating on the further effects of what really is a sea change in the management, use, and dissemination of information. If you haven't been googling or following links in email and on the web, you have no idea. You can find anything out there. And you can get lost in it very easily. As Hewitt puts it, "They all want information they can trust, and trust must be earned and is easily lost." The other is the power of what is and is not a "story". Or more broadly, what is the news and who gets to decide. Because, like it or not, we still can't experience it all ourselves and we have to trust someone to tell us (and their point of view) what's going on. The mainstream media either doesn't understand this or just wants to defend their power and control. It's no longer possible.
Like good movie reviewers, you don't even need to agree with someone to understand how they interpret events and how you might react to them yourself. When Siskel and Ebert were both active, I knew that if Siskel liked a movie, I wouldn't. And if Ebert liked it, I would, even though Ebert is an old Hollywood lefty and his politics are only marginally more rational than Michael Moore. Bloggers can do the same thing -- point out things you didn't know, point you towards other information or opinion, give you a point of view to react against or with. I much prefer blogging and reading opinion on the internet than to radio talk shows. Your mileage may vary.
So get into the blog thing. Read Hewitt's book, try out his suggestions for blogs to check out. Or you can start the way I did. Read Overlawyered.com Or you can try my latest find as of today (2/5/05), Vodkapundit.
It's only going to grow. The times they are a-changing. Of course you could take the more recent Bob Dylan approach, "I used to care but things have changed"
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