Page 72 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

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Like the other citizen journalism sites, the energy behind both of these comes
from passionate amateurs, people who care about their communities and the
issues facing them. They see themselves as distinct from professional journalists
simply because they can indulge themselves, researching and writing on what-
ever they want, rather than on what is assigned through a news-media hier-
archy. For the most part, they hold themselves to the same high standards as
professional journalists.

ConCLusion
Though they have been in existence barely a decade, the blogs reflect a de-
sire for individual expression that is even older than the American republic.
In the tradition of Benjamin Franklin, who had to use a pseudonym to first
get his work in print, the bloggers push against media barriers, attempting to
wrest control from the powers that they see as constricting personal rights to
say what one will. Because of their libertarian bent, the blogs range from vitriol
to vanity, enmity to elegance. This bothers many in the older commercial news
media, who want to see more regularity in both presentation and response to
the news. This also means that no one can predict what the blogs will be in a
few years. Not even the bloggers know that.

see also Alternative Media in the United States; Bias and Objectivity; Digital
Divide; Global Community Media; Google Book Search; Internet and Its Radical
Potential; Media and Citizenship; Media and Electoral Campaigns; Net Neu-
trality; Online Publishing; Political Documentary; Public Sphere; User-Created
Content and Audience Participation.
Further reading: Burden, Matthew. The Blog of War: Front-line Dispatches from Soldiers in
Iraq and Afghanistan. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006; Davis, Richard. Politics On-
line: Blogs, Chatrooms, and Discussion Groups in American Democracy. New York: Rout-
ledge, 2005; Hall, R. Scott. The Blog Ahead: How Citizen-Generated Media Is Radically
Tilting the Communications Balance. Garden City, NY: Morgan James Publishing, 2006;
Kline, David, and Dan Burstein. Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution Is Changing
Politics, Business, and Culture. New York: CDS Books, 2005; Kuhns, Peter, and Adrienne
Crew. Blogosphere: Best of Blogs. Indianapolis, IN: Que, 2006; Mapes, Mary. Truth and
Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power. New York: St. Martin’s, 2005;
Meyer, Philip. The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age.
Columbia: The University of Missouri Press, 2004; Moulitsas, Markos, and Jerome
Armstrong. Crashing the Gates: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered
Politics. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2007; Starr, Paul. The Creation of the
Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
Aaron Barlow

Body iMage

Ideas of beauty vary, but since the turn of the twentieth century, the “thin
ideal” has dominated conceptions of female beauty in America. Beginning in