Crashing the Blog Party

The rants are pulsing through the blog-o-sphere again, which, on most days, would mean that the online community is in its usual state of trippy high drama. Except that, this time, the topic is a radical expansion of the blog-o-sphere itself, one that would include a contingent of--quick, bottoms up on the Red Bull--traditional journalists (the ones who write, as the lexicon has it, dead-tree pieces).

In the quirky world known as the blog-o-sphere, hundreds of thousands of ordinary individuals run Web logs, or "blogs," interactive newsletters of sorts with bite-sized chunks of copy updated daily, or, in some extremes, several times an hour. On the personal Web sites, bloggers post tidbits of commentary and host unfiltered public forums in which rumors fly, news is weighed and the blog-o-sphere's stars (known simply as Dave, Meg or Evan) are pondered. The most popular bloggers build a sense of community by linking to each other and writing in a voice that cartwheels off the page, as a distinct alternative to what they see as the distant, establishment voice of newspaper journalists and others. Hence, the latest angst-filled question: Whither the blog-o-sphere, not to mention the future of the news media as we know it?

Recently, there have been unmistakable signs that blogs are seeping into the popular consciousness. In July, for instance, New York Times language watcher William Safire wrote a column on the use of the word "blog, " noting that the term came into vogue three years ago. "Blog" also is under consideration as a new entry in no less an authority than the Oxford English Dictionary.

And consider: This fall, UC Berkeley is offering a class on Web logs for the first time--through its highly regarded Graduate School of Journalism. Since spring 2000, journalism students at USC's Annenberg School for Communication have produced a Web log. This semester, at Cal State Stanislaus, an assistant communications professor is teaching an undergraduate class on the history of journalism that will cover "blogs as a new journalistic form."

The blog-o-sphere already includes members of the traditional media, such as MSNBC and the San Jose Mercury News, which have staff journalists who write Web logs for their organizations' sites.