Blog Reveal Prompt

Blogging & the First Amendment: Questions to Ponder

Blogging, or keeping a Web log, is a recent and Internet-specific phenomenon that began in 1999, with the introduction of the first "Web log" programs. Originally designed as computer-based personal diaries, they were intended to facilitate communication among family and friends. However, users quickly realized they could use the format – short entries arranged in reverse-chronological order – to disseminate news and opinion to a much wider audience. In other words, blogs became an essential platform for journalistic activity: delivering news and information to a public audience.

Although the terms “blog” and “blogging” have somewhat fallen out of favor — because people use Facebook pages as blogs — many, if not most, of the Web sites you frequent are blogs in terms of their structure and conventions. TMZ.com, for example, is by definition a blog.

Your Personal Experience?

Throughout the semester, you were asked to start a blog and update it with at least one new post per week (12 total). A few of you have taken to the idea of blogging like a fish to water – finding interesting items on the Web to highlight, using the blog to express opinions about current events, adding visual interest with photos and links and even video. Many have struggled, though, to find a purpose for the format and a voice within that format.

Those observations lead to some questions to ponder:

• How did the World Wide Web in general change the world of mass communication?
• How did the personal blogging platform change the world of mass communication?
• In what ways does blogging challenge the hegemony of the so-called Mainstream Media? (First of all, what is hegemony?)
• In what ways did the Internet in general and blogging in particular act as so-called “disruptive technologies?” Disrupt what?
• In what ways did the Internet in general and blogging in particular act as tools for empowerment?
• In what ways does the Internet in general and blogging in particular advance certain First Amendment imperatives and what we have dubbed Values of Free Expression? Which imperatives? Which values? And how?
• What do you think Martin Luther King would have done if the Internet in general and blogging in particular were invented in his day?
• How do the Internet in general and blogging in particular hold potential to advance social movements and political mobilizations like the Civil Rights Movement?
• What role, if any, do the Internet and blogging play in advancing the idea of Popular Constitutionalism?
• Do you think the Internet and blogging can help influence the evolution of constitutional law?
• On a more personal level, what were the things you found hardest about keeping up a blog this semester?
• What were the things you found enjoyable about keeping up a blog this semester?
• What are some things you would recommend to future students about keeping up a blog throughout the semester?