Democracy Defended: Polibloggers and the Political Press in America
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Since their creation less than a decade ago, blogs have metamorphosed from a relatively unknown activity into a recognized phenomenon. Political blogs have shown the potential to influence the functioning of American democracy. As the importance of blogs has grown, there has been heated discussion about whether or not to consider political blogs as a form of political journalism, an important aspect of American democracy. To resolve the debate, the author examines the two principal democratic responsibilities of the media: gatekeeper and government watchdog. The author selected two widely-read political blogs, Instapundit and Eschaton, and one influential newspaper, the New York Times, and compared their coverage of the three 2004 presidential debates. Analysis revealed that the two political blogs assumed the democratic roles of political journalism. In addition, Instapundit and Eschaton fulfilled the supplementary responsibility of analyzing the media. By demonstrating that these two political blogs were forms of political journalism during the 2004 presidential debates, the author underlines the magnitude of the blogging phenomenon, not just in the United States but in any democratic country.
Repository Citation
Johnson, Erica. "Democracy Defended: Polibloggers and the Political Press in America." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 6, no. 4, 2006, pp. 1. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol6/iss4/5