Blogs are best known for their ability to bend political discourse and unravel shoddy journalism. But some experts think the blogs' collage of life in Los Angeles -- and other cities -- could eventually recalibrate our sense of place, redefining not only how others see us but also how we see ourselves.
The local blogosphere is not quite there yet, but "it's probably close to a critical mass of people who could make a difference," says John Horrigan, research director for the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which has found through surveys that one in four adult Internet surfers reads blogs. "That is a sizable portion, even when it's still a minority." (Still, blogging has yet to break out of its relatively small corner of the Internet. Horrigan said Pew surveys found that only about 5% of all adults contribute to blogs.)
Finding a blog on a specific topic or place can be patience-draining. Google.com has a new blog-search engine, and blog-hosting sites like www.BlogSpot.com have their own search programs. And many blogs have links to other sites the blogger finds interesting, an Internet variation of word-of-mouth marketing. But gleaning a personal list of "must-read" sites takes persistence, like scanning the shelves at a used-book store to find something you like. The topics that impel people to blog, or that draw Web surfers to their sites, remain diffuse, creating countless virtual neighborhoods of people with like interests.
It's unclear how much of an Internet juggernaut it will take to affect national perceptions of a place like Los Angeles. "It's going to be really a smattering of that subset of blog readers who are going to be looking at local or place-oriented blogs," Horrigan says. "How that affects the image of a city at large, that sort of thing has to be played out over a period of time."
With Web cams, the image is shifted even further from the stereotypes as Web surfers peer at ever-changing snapshots of the city, from the mountain heights -- UCLA's department of physics and astronomy maintains a Web cam atop Mt. Wilson at www.astro.ucla.edu/obs/towercam.htm -- to the street level, such as the www.hollywoodboulevardwebcam.com site looking down at people as they walk over the embedded bronze stars. LAAvenue.com offers the most organic view of the streets of L.A. through a Web cam perched on the dashboard of a service technician's van, updating every 10 seconds during his workday.
