The Daily Blog

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
As a longtime viewer of both shows, it is both surprising and easy to understand why The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have garnered such a large and loyal following. They utilize a methodology that is familiar to bloggers: filtering through a number of “news stories” and providing a provocative caption for the action. The back-to-back shows have become “must see TV” for many viewers that are dissatisfied with mainstream sources of information, again a common reason that people flock to blogs for insight. The current issue of The Rolling Stone features Stewart and Colbert on the cover, bearing the title “America’s Anchors.” The interview itself demonstrates the utter ease with which the duo uncovers the humor of any situation, from the moment that Maureen Dowd set the recorder down: “’I had one like that in 1973,’ Colbert notes. ‘I thought it was a chaise,’ Stewart says. ‘I was going to lie down on it. I suppose there are two...
Read More

Should Book Authors Blog?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
I begin my new Oxford University Press book BLOGWARS by claiming, only half facetiously, that there are good reasons not to write a book on political blogs and the rise of interactive social media's role in campaigns, elections, and public affairs and policy-making. My analogy is that d escribing political blogging in a book that took three years to research and write and another year to publish is like reporting a NASCAR race with stone tablets. I think I captured the origins of politicking via social media like blogs (and now YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) through October 2007, and so far my predictions of the 2008 race have been pretty good. New stuff is happening so fast, though, that it's hard to keep up. But that is the point: A blogger's work is never done, nor, I hope, is that of a student of blogs. Bloggers cannot coast or rest on their laurels; their readers will abandon them or, worse, ask...
Read More

Medical & Health Blogs (Medblogs)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Taking off from my work on political blogs I am now looking at health and medical blogs. I had noticed them over the years, especially ones by students and friends (see below). On March 26, 2008 I spoke to the "Grand Rounds" Public Health seminar at the KU Medical School and simulcast to online participants at other Kansas Public Health Departments. My presentation was titled "PAGING DR. BLOG! Nontraditional Sources of Health Information." It was a study of how blogs and other social-interactive media are changing the dissemination and reception of health information for both the public and health practitioners. Medical blogs (medblogs) fall into certain categories: (1) Personal Illness MedBlogs: blogs written or edited by people suffering from a specific disease, condition, or injury. These can be: (a) First-Person Focus is on self, really for personal processing of illness. Started by one or very few people who are ill. Emphasis is on personal "I" in writing style and topics. Often contains self-encouragement. Often contains a chronology or updates...
Read More

Hippocratic Oath for Medical & Health Webloggers (medbloggers)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
As noted in my previous post I am now looking at the world of medical & health weblogs (Medblogs). One very important issue for medblogs resonates with a controversy in political blogging world: codes of ethics. Mary Schoen, one my students and I did a study of ethics codes in among political bloggers. In brief, we found very few had formal codes or even thought that they needed to have them. For health care professional who blog, the ethical issues are much acute. So I am working on an adaptation of the Hippocratic Oath to apply to the medblogger. Question: Should professionas who are MedBloggers take a Special Hippocratic Oath? (more…)...
Read More

Citizen Journalism Workshop: BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
If you are a blogger, hope to see you in Vegas! I am helping organize the workshop below. Citizen Journalism Workshop An Exclusive Event at BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008 Date : Sept. 19, 2008 – 10:00AM – 4:45PM Location : Las Vegas Convention Ctr. PROGRAM OVERVIEW : As blogs take their place as legitimate and respected sources for news, information and analysis, BLOGWORLD & NEW MEDIA EXPO 2008 introduces a new Citizen Journalism Workshop. There are about 112 millions weblogs worldwide, and while many are blogging for casual reasons or for just a short time, others, especially news and information bloggers, are serious about their blogs' success in the greater marketplace of ideas. How can someone "break in" as a news, politics or current events blogger and build a readership, get attention from major bloggers and mass media, and more important perhaps, affect or influence the traditional press agenda, politics, and public opinion? Traditional news media outlets and bloggers have not always had the best...
Read More

Perlmutter Interviewed on KUCR Public Radio

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
bB editor David Perlmutter was a panelist on the "Up to Date" show on KCUR Public Radio in Kansas City. Host Steve Kraske led a roundtable discussion of journalism and politics. The other guests were the Kansas City Star readers' representative Derek Donovan and Bottom Line Communications head John Landsberg. Originally posted September 13, 2008 at PolicyByBlog...
Read More

Perlmutter Speech at the Society for Scholarly Publishing

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
David Perlmutter gave the Keynote Speech at the Society for Scholarly Publishing Top Management Roundtable Conference, Philadelphia, PA, September 4. The topic: " How Blogging Is Changing Our World: The Lessons from Politics. Some links: http://beyondthebookcast.com/btb-61-from-ssp-a-look-at-authors-ascendant-episode-1/ http://ssptmr.wordpress.com/ Originally posted September 16, 2008 at PolicyByBlog ...
Read More

Paleolithic Blogs

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Dave (askdavetaylor) Taylor gave the Keynote address of the Executive & Entrepreneur track at the Blogworld & New Media Expo 2008 in Las Vegas. (I am here as track director for the Citizen Journalism Workshop). Mr. Taylor made the comment that from the very beginning media--such as early cave paintings--has been biased in that it reflected what the creators wanted to show and not what they did not want to show. Interestingly I discussed this point in my book Visions of War (St. Martin's, 1999) which looked at the history of pictures of war. I noted that cave paintings, like those at Lascaux, France were the first physical "medium" of communications outside of the human body. They date back to the appearance of us--anatomically modern humans--and flourished during the Upper Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) era about 35,000 to 12,000 years. Interestingly, when researchers have counted the scenes, flora, and fauna represented in the images on caves you see a huge "bias."...
Read More

Perlmutter Speaks on American Political Blogging to Europeans (Dept. of State)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
I just finished up a U.S. Department of State speaking tour of the Netherlands and Germany. Interest in American politics, new media and this election was VERY high. For more on the events in Munich--sponsored by the U.S. Consulate--go here. My different events and speeches: David D. Perlmutter. Panelist: Discussion on the Presidential Debates, Munich Conference on "U.S. Elections 2008: The Digital Campaign" at the German-American Institute, Munich, Germany, October 8, 2008. David D. Perlmutter. Keynote speaker on "Blogwars: The New Political Battleground," Munich Conference on "U.S. Elections 2008: The Digital Campaign" at the German-American Institute, Munich, Germany, October 8, 2008. David D. Perlmutter. Keynote speaker on "Overview of the New Media Landscape," Munich Conference on "U.S. Elections 2008: The Digital Campaign," on German Public Radio, Munich, Germany, October 7, 2008. David D. Perlmutter. Presentation on "U.S. Elections and New Media" at the German-American Institute, Nürnberg, Germany, October 6, 2008. David D. Perlmutter. Presentation on "U.S. Elections and New Media" at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, October 3,...
Read More

A Slow (or Bright) Blog Manifesto

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
It ought also to be said that he was immensely painstaking. [When he made] Broad and powerful statements...they were no mere assertions, but the product of countless hours of research into the minutiae of the subject. Even by the usual scrupulous standards of comparative philology, Tolkien was extraordinary in this respect. His concern for accuracy cannot be overemphasized, and it was doubly valuable because it was coupled with a flair for detecting patterns and relations. 'Detecting' is a good word, for it is not too great a flight of fancy to picture him as a linguistic Sherlock Holmes, presenting himself with an apparently disconnected series of facts and deducing from them the truth about some major matter. He also demonstrated his ability to 'detect' on a simpler level, for when discussing a word or phrase with a pupil he would cite a wide range of comparable forms and expressions in other languages.* I have been thinking lately about these words written...
Read More
123