Blogs-difficult to choose, difficult to assess.

The great variety of blogs on every subject and area of interest and the fact that many people make money working as bloggers makes the assessment of the “blogosphere” a complicated process. The first criterion that could arguably set a blog as a trustworthy source of information is the type of the contributors and their familiarity with the subject they are writing about. The first example that I would like to bring up is the example of a journalist and writer, Mickey Kaus who does political analysis in the blog kausfiles.com for the magazine Slate. Mickey Kaus has studied politics and law and has contributed articles to well respected papers such as Newsweek. This information gives him credibility. However, his blog can not be considered a source of new information because he mainly provides commentary and his opinion on topics of concern for Americans. In addition, the people who respond to his comments also provide their views on the news and they do not offer anything new. This blog is a part of the online version of the magazine Slate and the blogs seems to add various perspectives on the news that the magazine itself provides.

Another interesting blog is a blog that is located in the site Big Think that includes experts’ opinions on various topics. These experts seem to have passed an evaluation process by the Editors of the Big Think and that adds credibility to what they say. One example of a blog is the Novel Copy that is a blog about the media revolution and how it’s shaking up the content of what we read, hear, and see. One of the bloggers is Francis Reynolds who has editorial experience and writes on the evolving ways that we receive our news.
The examples that have been given above are few among hundreds of blogs that exist in the web. In order to choose these blogs I used sources that I use for research purposes for a well-respected organization. The conclusions that I have reached are that in the case of the first blog, the reader might be able to see a point of view on the topic of his interest that he would not have seen by otherwise. I do not see this journalist’s blog being effective or ineffective. The effectiveness of a blog and a blogger depends on his political views and his background that will inspire people and make them trust him. As far as the Big Think blogger is concerned. I think that his blog is more accessible because he provides a comparative analysis on a topic such as the “Unpaid internships” that were discussed in the mainstream media. Francis Reynolds uses information from various sources in order to support the points that he makes.


In the blogs, the background, the name and the prestige of the blogger determines whether people would be willing to site this blogger’s opinion as a source of any type of information. However, blogs are unavoidably forms of marketing for organizations, experts and any other individuals because in this way bloggers advertise their accomplishments and make their voices heard.

It is hard to try to decide which blog or blogger deserves someone’s respect and time. In some cases, well-established blogs require subscription in order to be able to access them. That automatically eliminates the number and the type of the people who contribute to this blog depending on the subject. I think that what can differentiate a blog from a vehicle fro opinion or marketing is when the bloggers have a cause and they succeed in promoting their cause. None of the examples I provided fall under this category but I think that the blog Global Voices is a different type of blog that started as a university project but has been evolved to a media agent that collaborates with mainstream media.