![[Valid RSS]](/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
« If You Didn't Already Think Fran Dzik Had Gone Republican.. | Home | 2006 Is (Past) Time to Clean House (and Senate) »
May 26, 2005
Chattabloggers on Talk102.3
Don't forget to tune in. 2:00-4:00. Wish I could be there.
Since I can't, here's my angle on the local blogging scene. (John, Bill, Josiah, Aaron: if you wish, you may read the following on the air.)
Weblogs provide a way of producing and consuming information that is personal, interactive, and "on your own time." A blog can be a powerful means to disseminate news and perspectives that are not adequately covered by traditional media sources; or it can be a place to type daily rants that attempt to prove "black helicopter" theories (or, for that matter, to disprove them). The blogger makes the call, and the reader decides to keep reading, or to never return. The feel is very "entrepreneurial" or "free-market" but also has the flavors of "community" and "town hall."
My blog, the Chattanooga-Hamilton Civic Forum (civicforum.chattablogs.com), was launched to provide a service that I feel is missing in the area, namely, a regularly updated source of candidate-related data, news, insight, and even gossip, for those eligible to vote; a secondary goal was simply to increase the local population's awareness of, and participation in, local and state government. As a matter of natural course, this blog has expanded to include more than those narrow topics (due in part to the vacuum that exists between the 2005 municipal elections and the 2006 cycle, and in part to the fact that I am not able to cover many interim civic-related events first-hand). I anticipate that as we draw closer to the 2006 elections, the content will veer sharply back toward local and state electoral matters; but again, being the blogger means that I make that decision (and thus I recognize the irony in having the word "Forum" in its title).
[end of statement]
I hope everyone who isn't completely distracted by the current legal drama at the State Legislature enjoys the Max Hackett show today (coming right up..).
Miscellaneous | By joe lance | 1:55 PM
