Saturday, May 29, 2004
On Bloggers and Blogging
G.A. Cerny has a worthwhile post on bloggers, blogging, and authenticity. (Scroll down to "Poets, Bloggers, and Emailers")
Jason
Update: An officer serving in Iraq writes in:
How should we assess first hand accounts of the situation in Iraq?
Sullivan prints, quite uncritically, even without any attempt at authentication, e-mails from the front. Other bloggers do the same.
Quite a few on the pro-war side, notably Roger Simon, promote a few Iraqi bloggers as proof that things are better than the media is telling you.
Most striking is the unanimity of opinion these bloggers reproduce. For all the support our troops have, at least according to these sources, it's a wonder that any uniformed American ever gets shot at.
Partly, this is because of the sources they choose. Anyone writing to a pro-war blogger is likely to be pro-war. The English-language Iraq bloggers are, whatever else they may be, capable of writing in English. Moreover, dissenting voices, or even different ones, don't get linked to as often, as least not from these bloggers. Riverbend comes to mind, as does this gripping account of an American soldier Alex Zucker linked. (To be fair to the right, Juan Cole doesn't link to Iraq the Model.)
Time and time again, bloggers and soldiers are given primacy over journalists. Which is not to say, of course, that newspaper accounts shouldn't be taken with some salt, but rather to question the practice of wolfing down some information without any seasoning at all.
Let me focus on the anonymous e-mails from soldiers. They run to a type, as Neal Pollock pointed out. Without in any way challenging the authenticity of the experiences of these soldiers, the honesty of the letter-writers, or the value of first-hand experience, there is much reason to be skeptical of an account by any particular soldier.
I don't challenge the validity of the blogs and emails from Iraq. But I question whether they are exhaustive.
Jason
Update: An officer serving in Iraq writes in:
The difference between soldier-bloggers and journalists is that they rarely claim their reports are reflective of all events in the country. They almost universally use the term "from my foxhole" or one like it. They don't pretend they understand the totality of the situation from their own limited experience. The same cannot be said for most of the 'journalists' who file reports from the Al Rasheed Hotel that are based on press releases, not even their own experiences. Many or most of them claim an understanding of the environment that a mere soldier doesn't have the intellect to grasp.
Comments:
The Iraqi blogs are not exhaustive, and admit it. But note that Zayed at Healing Iraq has been critical of the US, the CPA, and the IGC as well as Saddam, Sadr, and the various religious "militia" groups. I also read Riverbend's infrequent posts, even they are mostly polemics about how much better she had it under Saddam. Likewise Family in Baghdad. They do contain information, like the electricity problems in Baghdad, we should know the extent of.
Now, the journos in Baghdad complain they can't do much because it is dangerous to move around. And it is, certainly on the periphery of "the Green zone" and Sadr city, not to mention downtown Fallujah. But I cannot believe that even the Green Zone does not have sattelite-dish sales, internet cafés, and other things not previously available and Iraqis willing to admit that they are better off and give another year or so for more improvements - and several years for a real infrastructure. Or that water and sewage pipes are not being repaired or newly-built. Or teachers who are dismayed to realize that half of their old textbooks were just praise of daddy Saddam, and looking forward to translations of other texts - or even the writing of new texts by Iraqis. Somehow, these people only get mention when someone in the media notices a blogger, like the early Raed or now Zeyad and others while we daily hear how Iraqis complain because the electricity is still intermittent (and little or no mention that Baghdad used to have decent supply because Saddam was there and non-Baghdad transmission lines were disconnected from the grid when there wasn't enough to go around, and noone was breaking fuel pipelines to ensure problems or stealing transmission wires for the value of the copper...).
Sure, only seeing the bright side is as bad as seeing only the bad side. Which is why I don't like the "journalists" who conform to the latter. It doesn't take a great knowledge of huamnity to know that those with complaints will seek a podium (journalist) while those doing relatively well must be sought out because they are too busy acting to go looking for a journalist's waterhole. Not to go looking, as well as listening to those you don't have to look for, is an abdication of any pretense of objectivity, if not of honesty.
Now, the journos in Baghdad complain they can't do much because it is dangerous to move around. And it is, certainly on the periphery of "the Green zone" and Sadr city, not to mention downtown Fallujah. But I cannot believe that even the Green Zone does not have sattelite-dish sales, internet cafés, and other things not previously available and Iraqis willing to admit that they are better off and give another year or so for more improvements - and several years for a real infrastructure. Or that water and sewage pipes are not being repaired or newly-built. Or teachers who are dismayed to realize that half of their old textbooks were just praise of daddy Saddam, and looking forward to translations of other texts - or even the writing of new texts by Iraqis. Somehow, these people only get mention when someone in the media notices a blogger, like the early Raed or now Zeyad and others while we daily hear how Iraqis complain because the electricity is still intermittent (and little or no mention that Baghdad used to have decent supply because Saddam was there and non-Baghdad transmission lines were disconnected from the grid when there wasn't enough to go around, and noone was breaking fuel pipelines to ensure problems or stealing transmission wires for the value of the copper...).
Sure, only seeing the bright side is as bad as seeing only the bad side. Which is why I don't like the "journalists" who conform to the latter. It doesn't take a great knowledge of huamnity to know that those with complaints will seek a podium (journalist) while those doing relatively well must be sought out because they are too busy acting to go looking for a journalist's waterhole. Not to go looking, as well as listening to those you don't have to look for, is an abdication of any pretense of objectivity, if not of honesty.
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