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Checking Blogs Can be Useful for Traditional Reporters
by Bill Dawson
Blogs and bloggers everywhere!
At least that's the way it seemed in recent months, with much celebratory and worried attention directed toward the opinion-heavy Internet sites known as web logs (aka weblogs and, increasingly, just plain blogs) and their practitioners.
These Internet journals and journal-posters, scattered about the Internet for years, suddenly appeared (at least in some eyes) to threaten mainstream journalism and journalists, particularly after conservative bloggers successfully took aim at CBS and Dan Rather over their flawed report on President Bush's National Guard service.
Bloggers plowing the fields of politics and public policy (as distinct from the many others who attend to thousands of different concerns, including the minutiae of their own lives) were lionized as noble "citizen journalists" and condemned as opinionated, pajama-clad cranks.
In recent weeks, two prominent commentators on opposite sides of the political spectrum, writing in leading newspapers, advised taking a deep breath and realizing that traditional mainstream reporting is not about to disappear.
Conservative William Safire, shortly before retiring from writing his regular column for The New York Times, predicted:
Liberal Todd Gitlin, meanwhile, sounded a similar note in the Los Angeles Times:
Still, there are reasons why environmental journalists should pay attention to blogs -- at least some blogs. One is to monitor public opinion on an issue, acknowledging that bloggers' writings, and the reader responses they post, may serve as an Internet "echo chamber," repeating and magnifying a limited range of viewpoints.
Many environmentally related blogs reviewed for this article (in line with blogs' general reputation) tend toward a commentary-oriented, point-of-view approach, with little or no emphasis on original, traditional journalistic reporting. Some of these can still prove to be good sources of background information and story ideas, often pointing to articles and documents, published elsewhere that a busy reporter might not come upon otherwise.
Some of the blogs that can be useful in this respect are written, often anonymously, by people who have day jobs and claim professional expertise in the subjects their blogs cover.
Here's a small sampling of environmentally oriented blogs and blogs that sometimes deal with environmental topics or focus on related subjects. The list is not presented as a representative selection, but rather to convey a sense of what's out there. (Many bloggers offer links to other blogs on related topics, often produced by politically like-minded writers.)
Alternative Energy Blog "News, views and strong opinions" are promised here. Fairly lengthy posts often refer to and discuss articles in mainstream media, though others appear to be based on original reporting. Many posts report developments in other countries, such as one on January 16, 2005, about windmill-generated electric power in Estonia.
Confined Space
This blog offers often pointed "news and commentary on workplace health and safety, labor and politics" by Jordan Barab, a former union official, who believes that "much of the most grievous harm is done in the most invisible ways" and that "everything in this country is political." In one recent article, Barab critiqued the Washington Post's coverage of Environmental Protection Agency action regarding an ingredient of Teflon.
Effect Measure
Self-described as "a forum for progressive public health discussion and argument as well as a source of public health information from around the web that interests the editor(s)," this blog is written by individuals who say they are "senior public health scientists and practitioners" with names that would be "immediately recognizable to many in the public health community." A number of recent posts focused on bird flu in Asia, but this one dealt with a satellite study of air pollution in northern India.
Impact Analysis
This blog's subtitle gives a clearer idea of its content: "Adventures in Environmental Health." The writer, who signs his or her posts as "Jlowe," said upon launching the website that "I have made a living in the field throughout my adult working career, and I'm looking forward to writing about environmental health in a manner different from what I'm paid to do -- hopefully less dry, boring and technical." Articles like a recent one on the U.S. Green Building Council's draft report polyvinyl chloride typically contain links to other relevant documents and articles.
NEPA Blog
Densely packed with seemingly comment-free information on applications of the National Environmental Policy Act, this blog promises "law, news and perspective." The information is posted by someone working as "NEPA Guy." Typically, link-laden posts are either lists of Federal Register notices about environmental impact statements or summaries of NEPA-related news stories about land-use issues.
Real Climate
This technical blog "is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists." Organizers say they want "to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary" without digression into "any political or economic implications of the science.” A recent article about uncommonly warm weather in Europe, along with numerous embedded links and reader comments, gives an idea of how informative the site can be for reporters who delve deeply into the science of climate change.
Other places to find environmental-related blogs:
February 2005
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