Blogs of Today

By Eleanor Albert


The Internet has transformed the dissemination of information and communication. As a result, social media technologies—notably the blogosphere—have exploded. Blogs now carry a role of crucial importance and influence in the world due to the reach of blogs worldwide, the easy accessibility of blog tools, the continuity of content that can be adjusted via editing and comments, the immediately timeliness that trumps the time lag of traditional media, and the usability of blog production technology.

With the plethora of voices interacting online, bloggers come in all forms (music, art, celebrity gossip, domestic issues, and of course the international community) and from a large variety of platforms (experts, institutions, newspapers, as well as the ambitious young adult that decides to share their wisdom with the “connected community”). Numerous experts of the world have seized the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the global public in creating blogs of their own: for example, The Atlantic’s James Fallows and “The Road to Hell is Paved…” by David Rieff at the World Affairs Journal. While the two experts have joined the blogging bandwagon, it would be impossible to say that they share the same approach to how they blog.

James Fallows is National Correspondent for The Atlantic. During his 25 years with the magazine he has been based in Washington DC, Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and recently Beijing. Previously, Fallows was the editor of US News & World Report as well as the chief White House speechwriter for Jimmy Carter. His credentials are without a doubt impressive, but his personable writing style, energy, and wit make all the difference in the world when reading his straightforward and uncensored opinion posts on a wide collection of subjects.

Fallows enlightens readers with key insight into international issues—notably with tensions between U.S. and China due to his experience living and reporting from China, but his posts most certainly stray elsewhere, too. For example, promoting his wife’s book on understanding modern China through learning Mandarin and at the same time he coyly recognizes his bias, giving way to his charm with words. Fallows finds a balance in his content, educated commentary on international issues with China, domestic issues including our overly-tension filled healthcare reform with a mix of cultural and personal commentary on new individual aviation devices, great tasting new beers, and the latest developments in smart phone technology. Readers are never left bored after the thirty seconds or ten minutes spent sifting through the site due to the flavor of Fallows’ prose.

David Rieff, like Fallows, is a journalist and author of eight books with expertise primarily on foreign policy, particularly in relation to Europe and the Balkans, as well as humanitarian aid issues. (Fun fact-other than being a well respected liberal journalist making it onto The Daily Beast’s list of the left’s top 25 journalists, he is also the son of American author and activist Susan Sontag) In the 1990s, Rieff covered conflicts in Rwanda, Congo, the Balkans, and Central Asia. Currently, he is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and even more recently a voice among many bloggers at the World Affairs Journal.

World Affairs is a bimonthly journal on international affairs that features the big ideas behind U.S. foreign policy published by the nonpartisan World Affairs Institute. Due to the mission and platform of the journal, David Rieff writes to a more focused audience, contrary to Fallows’ appeal to the masses. Rieff’s blog comments on “American exceptionalism,” references the great philosophic work of Marx and Edmund Burke, and draws metaphors with themes from world history; these elements ooze tremendous meaning to anyone with a slight political science background, yet not of the average citizen making Rieff’s “The Road Paved to Hell…” a niche blog, rather than an all-inclusive-all-accessible blog for all audiences.

Many preach that commentary is a critical component for the development and expansion of a blog. Yet here are two expert blogs with either no direct comments (Fallows’ at The Atlantic) or well-developed comments from fellow bloggers and experts (Rieff’s at World Affairs Journal). Of course, dialogue between the expert and readers is encourages, you can email Fallows and further comment on Rieff’s blog—however, many of the blogs or forums throughout the internet are plagued with unwarranted and misguided commentary. The presence of comments of that nature is destructive and is a discrediting agent for the quality of a blog.

In the world of social media, content is no longer the sole element that determines the effectiveness of a message. The aesthetic layout and formatting is crucial for the growth of a blog. The Atlantic as a whole is a platform for marketing via advertising, a source of that will generate more traffic. Contrarily, the World Affairs Journal targets a smaller demographic and consequently is more focused on the content voices by its bloggers. Despite their differences, the blogs of David Rieff and James Fallows share well executed designs that are clear, uncluttered, attractive, and interactive at the same time. Web aesthetics are often disregarded in analyzing social media, but that is a crucial mistake. People voluntarily make time during their day to read the opinions of others—if the site is physically unappealing to the eye, you can kiss goodbye to all readers.

Both blogs are effective—although effectiveness tends to be subjective…