My Web site, Spot-on, has eschewed the “b-word” since we began. We call what we do “commentary.” We call ourselves writers. We place the emphasis on what we say and how we say it, not on the software and other tools we use to communicate. For me, blogging was one step—the first one—in demonstrating the power of Internet-based commentary and reporting; it offered proof that not everything said in and by newspapers or other large, established outlets was the final, or even complete, word. But it also demonstrated a need for professionally produced editorials. The first wave of bloggers offered an initial but very rough demonstration of how the online world can offer more—and more varied—opportunities for all sorts of new voices. But the ways in which those voices speak out aren’t for everyone—as evidenced by the recent contretemps within Senator John Edwards’s 2008 presidential campaign. Edwards’s campaign hired two self-described feminists to help run its online efforts. The two women quickly came under fire from the Catholic League for comments—smart-aleck cracks, really—about the church and its position on abortion and birth control that the two women had made on their individual blogs.
Now, my approach—using the opportunities created by the Web to create a platform for new and different voices—is unusual. But I think it’s the next step in the medium’s evolution. Because it’s clear we’re not turning back. And in this move forward, as a look at how far we’ve come and how quickly we’ve gotten here demonstrates, there is ample opportunity for women to make their voices heard.
In the 2004 campaign, traditional news reporters and editors got a rude awakening as they discovered that independent sites, called “Web logs” or “blogs” (after the computer software that was used to create and publish them) had loyal, often passionate readers. For a variety of reasons, these readers found the political coverage in established TV and newspaper outlets to be insufficient, and they turned to the online world. They found that bloggers often echoed their thoughts, added insight to their daily news diet, and provided entertainment and enlightenment—in short, proved to be everything their local newspaper was not.
Watching the shocked response of salaried reporters and editors to this new and vibrant competition was fairly amusing, in a sardonic way. First, bloggers were dismissed as unreliable; they couldn’t possibly know what the reporters knew (they often did—the information stream on the Internet is as deep as the one in many newsrooms). Then the salaried folks acknowledged—grudgingly—that the most popular blogs might be onto something-—nothing serious, of course, but the occasional insight that might round out a story. So bloggers got asked to give quotes or write op-ed pieces to add “color” or nuance to traditionally produced stories. Some of those bloggers deemed “reliable”—which usually meant popular, as measured by the traffic to their Web sites—were invited to appear on the television shows. That, of course, reinforced their popularity and, for the most part, sealed the already popular sites in the news-consuming public’s mind. Now, of course, large media outlets are flatly imitating blogger’s behavior as the much-hyped launch earlier this year of ThePolitico.com, a politics-only site with the backing of Albritton Communications, demonstrates.
Way back in 2004 when political blogs were first noticed, the sites that received the most attention were those started by folks who knew and understood the workings of computer technology. Instapundit Glenn Reynolds, Markos Moulitsas, founder of TheDailyKos, Joshua Micah Marshall’s TalkingPointMemo, and Kevin Drum, whose Political Animal site was eventually taken over by the Washington Monthly, were among the first voices heard on the Web. In short order, the boys of the salaried journalism press corps reached out and—lo and behold—discovered guys just like them. They were delighted: Nothing really had to change. Bloggers were happy because they got attention for what had been, for many, a hobby. Big Media was satisfied—see, it had embraced the online world and found it not all that different. And the perception that blogging was a boys’ sport—just like traditional political commentary—remained unchallenged.
Unless, of course, you were a woman writing on the Web. We seethed.
