The debate over whether or not bloggers should be considered journalists is irrelevant.
Blogging is about freedom of voice, and the blogosphere is perhaps the most important reflection of our First Amendment.
We are our own publishers, free to open, uninhibited discourse. There are no gatekeepers -- biased managing editors, heavy-handed copy editors or revenue-driven publishers who will kill a story if it threatens advertising dollars.
Bloggers create their own deadlines and publishing schedules. It's a free-spirited medium, each master of the keyboard pressured by no one except ourselves.
Nearly three dozen bloggers were given credentials to this week's Democratic National Convention in Boston. Organizers of the Republican National Convention have said they plan to issue credentials to 10 to 20 bloggers. It's not a media army by any means, but bloggers have broken through the barrier.
For the last few years, blogs have offered an alternative, complementary view to the information streaming from mainstream media (TV, radio, online news sites, newspapers, magazines). But with bloggers wearing official press credentials at the Fleet Center this week, an underground, indie concept is officially on equal footing.
Will bloggers cover the DNC like traditional media, finding the key story and telling the who, what, where, when and why? Hardly. But their voices will be more resonate, writing spirited words from within rather than from afar. Bloggers' opinions -- good and bad -- will have more relevance because they are closer to source. Let's only hope that this access doesn't inhibit.
Stephen Yellin, a 16-year-old high school student from Berkeley Heights, N.J., is credentialed to attend the convention for his blog, Daily Kos. Since when does a teen-ager get this kind of opportunity? Usually, he'd be told to write for his school paper, then get an internship, and, if he's lucky, get a job on the local newspaper writing obituaries until he catches the break to compile the police log. Covering an event like the DNC is reserved for those reporters who have paid their dues and have managed to stay on the good side of their editors.
Pretty neat.
Legendary communications guru Marshall McLuhan once wrote that technology removes space and time. Now we can add age to the equation. And Boston will be buzzing this week with a brand new set of voices, funding their ventures with their own expense accounts.
Listen carefully.
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