Adventures in the Blogosphere: as Internet journals come into their own, African American voices are rising above the noise.In the same year that the National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Independent agency of the U.S. government that supports the creation, dissemination, and performance of the arts. It was created by the U.S. issued a report detailing a reading crisis--a national decline in literary reading (novels, short stories, poetry and plays)--the same study has found that the number of people engaging in creative writing has increased over the past 20 years to nearly 15 million people. This phenomenon has shown up online in blogs (short for Web logs), the Internet-based journals of writings, ruminations and ramblings created by writers both well known and, well, obscure. In the broadest sense, blogs can range from someone's navel-gazing musings about intimate personal details personal details npl (on form etc) → coordonnées fpl personal details person npl → Personalien pl personal details to literary, political and social commentary on a variety of events and subjects. You may remember back in the days of the Clinton Administration Noun 1. Clinton administration - the executive under President Clinton executive - persons who administer the law that blogger Matt Drudge Matthew Nathan Drudge (born October 27, 1966) is an American Internet journalist and a talk radio host.[1] He is best known as the proprietor of the Drudge Report website, which attracted national attention when it was the first to break the news of the put his Drudge Report The Drudge Report is a U.S.-based opinion website run by Matt Drudge. The site consists primarily of links to stories from the US and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as links to many popular columnists. on the media map with his online revelations about the Monica Lewinsky Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman with whom the former United States President Bill Clinton admitted (after initially denying) to having had an "inappropriate relationship"[1] while Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996. scandal. In 2004, bloggers were welcomed among traditional journalists covering the Democratic National and Republican National Conventions, and emboldened em·bold·en tr.v. em·bold·ened, em·bold·en·ing, em·bold·ens To foster boldness or courage in; encourage. See Synonyms at encourage. Adj. 1. bloggers brayed about a forged document that purported to reveal George Bush's avoidance of National Guard service and that nearly brought down Dan Rather and CBS News. But bloggers were also blamed for passing along the inaccurate early exit poll data that misled many to believe Kerry was leading in key swing states on November 2. With ever-improving software to lift your words into cyberspace (a.k.a. the blogosphere The total universe of blogs. See blog. ; check out www.MovableType.org, www.Typepad.com, www.Livejournal.com), anyone can write and post their comments or create a Web ring (a link to someone else's blog comments) at any time and on any day for all the world--or none of it--to see. The only limitations are your imagination and time constraints--the most successful blogs must be regularly updated to keep readers coming back. Professional authors and journalists sometimes fret that the often raw, unedited works of these digital writers would be so compelling that newspapers would crumble and books sales would tumble. That remains to be seen. Best Black Blogs However, the best blogs by African Americans have become must-reads, such as the well-edited literary site Seeingblack.com, created by Esther Iverem, formerly a reporter for The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times, as well as a culture writer for Newsday (see BIBR BIBR Bay Islands Beach Resort (Roatan, Honduras) BIBR Backward Indicator Bit Received , SPOTliGHT, July-August 2003). Or check out Richard Prince's media notes column on Maynard Institute's Web site, (www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince) or cultural and political commentator Farai Chideya's Popandpolitics.com (see BIBR, THE WRITING LIFE, September-October 2003). Some writers and authors like Veronica Chambers (Mama's Girl and Having It All) have used their own personal blogs (www.veronicachambers.com) to feed their fan base. Some authors even use their blogs to promote their latest books by posting parts of chapters and eventful moments during their book-writing phase to keep readers coming back and to help give a big boost to their book promotion tours. But long-term blogging is difficult to maintain for most. And writing coherently and without an editor's net can be exhilarating, but it also can be dangerous. And a few more: Haitianvoices.com, a community site for people of Haitian descent. Visioncircle.org, a blog by Michael Bowen and Dr. Lester Spence Jelanicobb.com, by writer and commentator William Jelani Cobb Negrophile.com, edited by Contra Costa Times The Contra Costa Times is a daily newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California. The paper serves Contra Costa and eastern Alameda counties, in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. editor George Kelly in between posts to his Web log, AllAboutGeorge.com. afronetizen.blogs.com/, articles and commentary by a variety of black writers and reporters Retrosoul.com/blackblogz, Web ring for black bloggers Coloredgirls.com, a site for women of color who are passionate about books and writing. professorkim.blogspot.com, "Reporting and commentary on race, class, religion, gender and sexuality in the news" by College of New Jersey Professor Kim Pearson Ingrid Sturgis is the editor-in-chief of Essence.com. |
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