LOCAL BLOGS GENERATE DEBATE, NAME-CALLING.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- A dense fog of information and ironic rants, the blogosphere has settled over Santa Clarita.

This month, Time magazine chose ``You'' as its person of the year, in a nod to the power of the Internet to give everyday people the ability to express themselves to a broad audience.

True to the nationwide trend, Internet blogs written from and about the Santa Clarita Valley also flourished this year. It's a new kind of journalism in which bias is fine, name- calling acceptable and grammar a nonissue.

``I think what they really do is they foster debate,'' said Bob Haueter, an aide to county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich who next month moves on to being deputy chief for Republican U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon's Santa Clarita office.

``They encourage debate by stepping out and saying things that create sometimes controversy. Other times they end up sparking the debate by putting something out there and inviting people to comment.''

Blog content isn't always opinion. Sometimes it's just whimsical.

Local blogger Jeff Wilson, whose site is scvtalk.com, had an August posting about a stargazer party at Vasquez Rocks, complete with a picture of the setting moon in a contrast of purplish sky and jet-black rock. Wilson also won a lot of Web readers by going on a ridealong with sheriff's deputies. He wrote two articles about the experience that were viewed about 2,000 times combined.

Dave Bossert sees his blog, westranchbeacon.com, as a way to keep his neighbors in Stevenson Ranch and surrounding areas informed. Bossert's blog ``graduated'' this year, when he grew tired of the cookie-cutter limitations of his Google-powered blog and hired a webmaster to run the site independently.

Wilson, who works in information technology, and Bossert, a creative director at Disney Animation, are just a couple of the bloggers who have earned notice in the valley.

Bossert makes a point of posting Town Council agendas and minutes on his blog, alongside press releases from his sources.

``I am so amazed at how many people are going to this, and a lot of movers and shakers in the Santa Clarita Valley,'' said Bossert, who moved to Stevenson Ranch 15 years ago and is married with two children.

Wilson, 30, said he strives to bring true journalism to his site. So even though he already has a degree in history, Wilson went back to school this year, taking a journalism class at College of the Canyons.

``Everybody doesn't always want to read someone's opinion,'' Wilson said. ``So create something original and see if someone responds.''

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