1. BLOGWARS: An Overview By: Jon Rittenberg and Jasmyne Spencer

2. Mass Communication How did we communicate pre- technology? How do we communicate now?

3. Pre-Tech Ancient Egyptians posted hieroglyphics Letters/Messengers Word of Mouth Speeches Pamphlets Now

4. Blogs Are Unique! How are they different? Hyperlinking structure creates the nonlinear, endless jumping about and instant feedback that previous technologies from cave paintings to television simply could not. Broadcasters & Receivers vs. Broadcasters alone Although blogs are unique, they are not a complete game-changer

5. More on Unique! The short-to-medium length essay, the post. Comments are very important Not meant to be one stop journeys Blogs are extremely personal

6. The Political Blog Main Elements as we know them today A personal commentary on nonpersonal events, issues and ideas A site for interaction, a spawning ground for for activism A vessel for wrath Inspire change in the media including politics, campaigns and elections and have turned the traditional dynamics of the media- producer-media consumer relationship on its head

7. Different Political Blogs Daily Kos - Progressive Blog Daily Kos Red State – Conservative Blog Red State

8. The Political Blog Allow interaction between individuals that could inturn accrete common knowledge, activism, recruit others, and march, virtually, toward a goal Form SMART MOBS like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Sierra Club Blogs allow us to recode data instead of just decoding it. There is a hierarchy of bloggers i.e. DailyKos and RedState

9. Composition of U.S. Bloggers Annual household income of $75,000 or more Post-Grads Readers are more often males with the exception of Poland and Japan “Tech Optimists” Influentials within their community

10. Criticism to Politcal Blogging Blogging as a “people’s medium” Recycle and chew on the news Not taken seriously

11. Political Blogs: Dividers or Unifiers? DIVIDERS Balkanization effect of political blogging “cyberapartheid” Split the nation, not unite it Right wing blogs only link to other right wing blogs, same with left wing blogs Lada Adamic and Natalie Glance political blog links

12. Political Blogs: Dividers or Unifiers? Argument aganist When facing off against enemies people become comrades of the trenches and may use online resources to interact with each other America has never been an objective place yet democracy still exists A Pew study relates that people who seek political information online are more likely to be exposed to contrarian political data. No blood has been spilled over blogs

13. Chapter 3: The Ascent of Blogs December 1997- Blogs are born 1999- The act of blogging emerges 2003-2004- Blogs make the news 2005-2006 - Blogs begin to diversify

14. Things to think About Are blogs causing a media revolution or are they a passing fad? Have there been any new developments in the blogosphere since Perlmutter’s article was published in 2007? Do you think political blogs are dividing or uniting our nation?