April 22, 2005

The Age of Blogging

Adam Groves says he's "sure Bill Hobbs is feeling his age and trying to keep up with all the grassroots political reporting that blogs are accomplishing now statewide for different demographics with different biases."

Nope. Never felt younger.

The truth is I don't see the rise of a robust Tennessee blogosphere as unwanted competition or a threat to my blog's success. On the contrary, a healthy Tennessee blogosphere is a good thing and only enhances what I do here.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, there would be a slew of Tennessee bloggers reporting and commentating on every single niche of state government, local government, and the news media. Every town - your town - would have a local blogger who intensively covers local government.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, every single political reporter in Tennessee would be watch-dogged by at least two dedicated, prolific bloggers for errors, bias and key omissions.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, every elected official in Tennessee above the rank of constable would blog, and every last one of them would be watch-dogged by at least two bloggers.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, every public document at every level of government would be posted online in easily-searchable databases, accessible for free, so that the public (including bloggers) could see for themselves.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, there would be dozens if not hundreds of blogs by experts in such things as education, healthcare, business, culture, medicine, law, taxes, law enforcement, religion, constitutional rights, and many other topics.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, every significant newspaper in Tennessee would publish all of its stories online in blog format, filled with links to the documents and other resources they quote from or reference and links to the websites of the people and organizations they talk about - and with a functioning comments feature so that readers who don't have blogs could still respond.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, those same newspapers would never put their content in a paid-access-only archive, and it would never disappear from their archives.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, every newspaper would post bios of every reporter and editor online, so that bloggers could link to the bios of reporters whose work they are scrutinizing - so readers could have a better understanding of the expertise, the background and the possible biases of the reporters.

If my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, journalists would view the publication or broadcast of their stories as closer to the beginning of the journalistic process than the end, and they would monitor the blogosphere and respond - in print, broadcast or at least online - to critiques of their stories, and to new relevant information surfaced by the blogosphere.

And if my dream for the Tennessee blogosphere was were realized, readers who read a blog regularly would occasionally drop $10 or $20 in the blogger's tip jar.

No, I'm not feeling my age. I'm only 40, and I've only been blogging for three years and five months – and I've never been more alive and energized by the possibilities this new-and-improved form of journalism called blogging.