Blogging for action.

In an effort to help in the re-Christianization of the world, and having noticed that my opinion is not always represented in the mainstream media (MSM) here in Canada, I have taken to writing letters to the editor as my hobby. Trying to sway public opinion and bring Canada back to its roots is my passion. St. Catherine of Sienna, whose name I chose at my Confirmation, has always been my inspiration. But, while writing letters worked in her day to sway the Pope and public opinion, in this new millenium we have many new avenues to explore.

So in 2006, I took up blogging to try and improve my chances of having my opinion heard and to experiment with reaching a greater audience. I discovered that there is a whole new world out there and was amazed when I recently took part in my first blogburst.

Blogs are online diaries where people post whatever they want to let the world know how they feel about a topic or event in the news. Blogs are causing quite a stir, helping some get their opinions heard while at the same time causing trouble for others. Just ask Dan Rather. It was bloggers who exposed his use of forged documents dealing with President Bush's National Guard service. In Montreal, Dawson College shooter Kimveer Gill had a blog on vampirefreaks.com, as did the teenage girl whose blogging resulted in a mistrial in the Johnathan murder case in Toronto. My own quiet world has been agitated, as I have plunged into this new adventure and received attention inconceivable before my blogging debut.

Coming up with that new story that readers will buy is a big job each day for journalists. But with the advent of blogs, pundits have another place to search for new and fresh ideas. Now they can check the blog search engines throughout the day, looking to see what bloggers are talking about, to come up with that great story.

Blogburst

A blogburst is when a group of bloggers decide to blog on the same topic, on the same day, in order to publicize a belief or a cause. There was a blogburst to increase donations to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund when donations were low. Also, for example the global mass-posting of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons was a blogburst. Blogbursts, if handled carefully, are picked up by blog search engines and are moved to the top of the listings. The hope for bloggers is that the mainstream media take notice and write a story.

So what blogburst did I join? When REALWomen of Canada, one of Canada's most pro-life organizations, launched a letter-writing campaign in the spring of 2006, calling for Status of Women Canada (SWC) to be defunded and dissolved because they did not speak for all women in Canada, the mainstream media ignored it. No one would touch that story.

But the Christian internet community did not ignore REALWomen's call. When word got out to social conservative bloggers that SWC was considering launching a massive counter-campaign in the media using public bloggers, they responded with a blogburst. About a dozen bloggers all blogged on the same day that Status of Women Canada's radical, feminist agenda did not speak for them. Things heated up at my blog as I innocently called Status of Women Canada "SOW" without realizing that was most certainly not its chosen acronym. Every person in Canada who was against REALWomen, I think, left comments on my blog, some not printable, to let me know what they thought about my joking around. I had a rude awakening to what being a feminist meant. The word "feminine" has nothing to do with it.

Our blogburst did attract a lot of media attention, more than we expected. Suzanne Fortin, of the notable pro-life blog "Big Blue Wave," said, "Like typical radical feminists, they have decided that they speak for all women and they only consult those groups and women that agree with their agenda. So it's a bunch of radical feminist bureaucrats consulting radical feminists to hear what they want to hear to promote more radical feminism on my time."

For a few days, the mainstream media requests for interviews came pouring in. I was very surprised that in less than a month, the government made cutbacks and Status of Women's budget was reduced by $5 million, along with elimination of the troublesome Court Challenges Program and the Law Reform Commission, all topics we blogged about that week. Not a bad start for my first blogburst, I thought. But I will try not to let this success go to my head as I will mark this first blogburst down as beginners' luck. Who knows, maybe the same thing would have happened anyway, whether we blogged about it or not.

My next blogburst, though, was just as successful in attracting media attention. We decided to blog on the topic of income-splitting for couples as a tax-saving measure. For a stay-at-home mother, trying to raise a large family on a single income can be a problem here in Canada because our tax system seems to be out to punish families. With this blogburst, even a national TV station came to my home to talk to me about my views on this topic. I was shocked by this new-found power, even though this time we did not sway the government into action, although politicians talked about it.

Blogs, like talk radio, are succeeding because they offer interested readers an alternative to the mainstream media. So, for now, I will continue to blog in my effort to return Canada to its former glory and to help re-Christianize the world. I will still send the occasional letter to the editor, but when no one seems to be interested in what I have to say, I am going to have to resort to my new-found megaphone. Watch for my next target.

Dianne Wood, blogs from Newmarket, ON, at www.familymatters-with-dianne.blogspot.com. A married mother of seven, she puts her degree in mathematics and computer science to use exploring the apostolic opportunities on the internet.