To what extend can it be argued that blogs encourage active citizens Essay

To what extend can it be argued that blogs encourage active citizens - Essay Example ontain reflections about daily life and produced by individuals with the primary audience being other bloggers that the individual links with on a regular basis. However, the blogs do not have any restriction on access and can therefore available to anyone. Even as a majority of blogs contain personal reflections, blogs that have had profound influence on society due to their wide readership are those that focus on matters of public interest. This essay focuses on the role played by blogs targeting public interests in order to assess the role such platforms play in encouraging active citizens (Herring, Scheidt, Wright and Bonus, 2005). The ability of blogs to attract public interest and therefore influence the way people interact and can be seen from the popularity gained by Instapundit.com written by Glenn Reynolds. The blogger a law lecturer at the University of Tennessee, had by March 2005 reached the hundred-millionth page hit plus a further 200,000 more hits on a daily basis. Given that Reynolds’ blog is dedicated to the commentary of current public affairs, it indicates the attraction of citizens to such blogs as a platform for them to contribute in what is going on around them. This further indicates the ability of blogs to generate popularity by attracting readership in most cases through their sharp, partisan commentary on current public affairs (Griffiths 2004). Further, a single blog has the ability to introduce readers into new debates and topic discussions through hyperlinks that lead readers to other topics that they might find interesting. Although there are those with the view that specific blogs attract people with similar views to engage in discussion and that those with opposing sentiments are silenced (Cohen 2006), the hyperlink to others provides a means through which diverse views on matters of current affairs can be debated. Bloggers in most cases comment on what others are saying by linking their views with those who hold different