I'm currently a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
I'm enrolled in a class called Digital Democracy. Proclaimed to be one of the first undergraduate introductory courses of its type by our professor, it has been a real treat, especially for someone like me whose been a habitual lurker and infrequent writer here at daily kos. A college class about blogging and the internet as to how it pertains to politics? Sweet. I know.
However, today was a real treat, as we dove head long into the ethics of blogging.
And of course, there is no way this in-class conversation couldn't not end up encompassing and discussing our very own community.
Jump if you're interested.
Given that this is the first of many lectures around the topic of blogging, the happenings of today were barely a modicum of what I hope we discuss.
However, even in the introduction lecture around the issue of blogging, we couldn't help but talk about daily kos.
We were watching the Frontline special in which yearlykos was featured and Markos was interviewed (about a quarter of the way through the video).
Once the chapter of the special was over, the lights went up, and we, as a class, started talking about the ethics of the blogosphere and the interesting idea of unregulated news making and telling.
It was really interesting to be talking about a site I visit daily for fun and intrigue in such a serious context and manner.
We had big questions raised and very little time to talk about them, but what was had, was fun.
One of my peers had the opinion that such unregulated grassroots blogging such as the diaries one sees here on daily kos, should be looked at as problematic, for what decent original research and information could bubble to the top of the perceived cacophony of direct democratic input?
It was fun, because I am of the mind that the internet, and blogs such as daily kos, present to us the new hope for overcoming the deadlocked MSM, where decent reporting is often overlooked through their own brand of cacophony, one that blares 24 hours a day.
I argued that daily kos, while it sometimes can be a little light on research or a little quick to the gun, does its readers a humongous service by allowing sometimes more ignored stories to surface and get noticed.
The peer review system of diaries is the example I used to support the idea that while there is a lot of information on this site at any one time (which some might find problematic and in need of regulation), you can generally be guaranteed of interesting information, if not mind blowing research, or at least a decent read when you look at the front page and rec list. The community here at daily kos is interested in finding out the truth, and while an initial post could be light on research, one can come back two days later, and see the same diary on the rec list, with hundreds of comments and a fist full of updates.
I look at the blogosphere in general, and daily kos specifically, as an interesting light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I believe that without the absolute freedom the internet affords by way of content, to those of us who are fortunate enough to have the money and time and education to use it, the MSM would slowly be suffocating us. The internet is a tool of honesty; a gigantic pool of information, which, when fished with the right pole, can and will provide you incredible volumes of knowledge. Daily kos is my fishing pole in this grad thing called the internet, and everyday, I have the potential to snag a couple big ones.
It is encouraging to me that blogs like daily kos could be lecture hall names. I know the University of California's not exactly the best example of the digital divide, but every little bit helps.
The internet really and truly permits a new level of political participation. There is of course the fact that still, more often then not, the internet falls into the hands of the educated and wealthier individuals of this world, but I'm hopeful that the internet makes it at least more economically feasible for more people to be included. Or at least easier for more of the have's who have not wanted to get involved, to get involved. We're constantly working toward total inclusion, and I believe that the internet could eventually help many more people be involved in politics and activist causes.
Information is power. And there is a lot of information here.
Anyway, just thought you'd be interested to know that we're worthy of an undergraduate introductory lecture.