Blogging was NEVER a part of any election night coverage in the past- the importance of blog voices is being acknowledged in such a big way now. It gives individuals a voice- a forum. In the past, our only voice was our vote.

Blogging has really enhanced how I teach. I use blogs to build community amongst students, they can discuss issues or answer post prompts and must be accountable for what they say (we use ground rules like no personal attacks, racist or sexist comments), connect with students beyond classroom, point them to resources (like news items, weblinks, etc) really easily, is a great place to archive their “stuff” (so I give one copy only and they go to the blog if they need to print again). My students also use blogs to “meet” as a group. They post prompts, links to articles or news items and find it really effective in brainstorming ideas.

I also can’t imagine my life without blogs – reading news, watching vlog posts, seeing what others are thinking, talking and connecting about, and finding things that I would have otherwise missed.

Connect with me @:
My blog – Rae’s Spot or view my current course blog – Feminist Media Studies & Former course blog – Third-wave Feminism/Activism

Blogging has made me a feminist. I barely knew what the word meant and thought it was a concept well out of my reach. It’s also made me realise I’m not stupid, and on that note I’m now hoping to go to college.

Alright! Congratulations! That’s what I live to hear! Damn, reading that just made my night. I live to hear that. Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop. Woo!

Tell me blogs don’t have power, tell me community doesn’t have power, tell me people can’t come together and make change. Yeah and the others who said they’ve been changed by the interchange and the exchange. I’m like all bleary eyed.

Citizen journalists.

Community.

Every time I think of Alton, I think of pot. The whole town smelled like pot.” “No ma, Alton didn’t smell like pot. You and Dad smelled like pot.” “Oh. (giggle) Maybe that wazzit.”

Was that in the late seventies? Because that’s when I was in junior high school in Alton and all I did was smoke pot, lots of it. Too much of it.

St. Louis is (IBEW) Local 1. When you work there, the local hands say you’ve “come home to Mother”—the Mother Local.

Its too late for me to come home to mother, much too late. But I am going down to Alton for T.G> day this year for the first time in years, to show off all my beautiful grown chilluns.

Why not just read the news?

I think one of the really major developments of the past ten or so years has been a new awareness of the politics of how the news is reported. It’s not enough just to read the news: we now realize that we have to think about the assumptions and biases built into the way that the news is presented to us. And I think that blogs have been a big part of that process. (So has the satirical media, like the Onion and the Daily Show/ Colbert axis.) The best blogs don’t just link to a story and say “lookit! A story!” The best blogs link to a story and say “you know, a better way to think about this would be….” or “why is it that we’re being told this is a story about this, when really it’s a story about that?” I have become much better at recognizing certain problematic media patterns, such as faux “balance” or the tendency to frame every issue relating to women as a catfight, thanks to reading blogs. I’ve always been a media junkie, but I’ve become a much more critical consumer of the mainstream media.

Another way of saying this is to say that blogs are really good at challenging the media’s conventional wisdom. It’s true that there’s a danger of them developing their own conventional wisdom, but I think they’re still valuable, because they add additional voices to the discussion.

Having said that, I have an extremely bad feeling about this election, and I’m starting to think that it’s not such a good thing that the smartest and most politically-active young American progressives are blogging rather than getting into mainstream politics. Republicans have a huge advantage when it comes to turnout, in part because they have such effective local, face-to-face networks. Are we blogging at the expense of local organizing? Does anonymity, of readers more than bloggers, get in the way of using blogging as an organizing tool? (I’m pretty sure that there are people reading this who live in my neighborhood, but I don’t know who they are, so I won’t be able to knock on their doors at six tomorrow and remind them to go to the polls. And it’s a whole hell of a lot less annoying when someone you know does that then when they bus in some self-righteous college student to harass you about whether you’ve voted yet. That’s why churches are so effective: they create personal relationships that political organizations can use.) What can we do to use blogging to enhance, rather than replace, the face-to-face stuff?

Maybe I’ll feel differently if the Democrats manage to win anything tomorrow, but right now I feel like our key challenge is organization rather than message. That’s partly because we’ve been doing a much better job getting out our message, but if you don’t have the other thing, you’re still screwed. So I think we need to think about what we can do on the organizing side of things.

(And no, I don’t know why I’m suddenly so Democrat-identified. I’m actually voting Green in at least one close race, but it’s nothing with any national implications. Nationally, I’m voting for whichever non-Republican has the best chance of winning. Which is not a great rallying cry, I know.)

It makes me roll my eyes some when older feminists complain that younger feminists aren’t doing enough – blogging when they should be out there. They’re doing, they’re doing. I’m proof.

Yes indeed.

kate, around a decade ago I worked a job at the powerhouse in Portage, and I stayed in Alton. I called my mom to let her know what was goin on, where I was if she couldn’t reach me (this was before cell phones were affordable!), and she said, “Alton? You’re staying in Alton?! Does is still smell like pot? Every time I think of Alton, I think of pot. The whole town smelled like pot.” “No ma, Alton didn’t smell like pot. You and Dad smelled like pot.” “Oh. (giggle) Maybe that wazzit.”

St. Louis is (IBEW) Local 1. When you work there, the local hands say you’ve “come home to Mother”—the Mother Local.

While I am devoted to seeking out the news stories as much as I can, there are days when I just shut it off, walk to the dam with my coffee, and reflect. Too easy to have your head explode sometimes. Blogs help me fill in the gaps and put the talking head stories into proper perspective.

Although, apparently, I still can’t spell.

As far as I’m concerned, you can spell words however you like if you blog at girl-wonder.org. Thank you for reminding me to subscribe to Girls Read Comics And They’re Pissed. Done! (And here’s the link for anyone else who’s been meaning-but-forgetting to do that.)

I will cease squeeing now.