mediajunk

No sooner had I found another "war blog", this time by a CNN journalist, but it was shut down. The television news channel has "ordered" Kevin Sites, who is currently in northern Iraq, to "stop filing reports from the front on his personal website."

In my last post (four days ago), I mentioned that Salam Pax's blog feels authentic, but we should be aware -- especially in times of war -- that blogs could be used for propoganda, by any "side". (Not that Salam's blog makes claims that would influence one's political opinion, which reinforces its aura of authenticity.)

Since then, he has posted an entry asking people to stop emailing him asking if he is "real". (Oops.) And another blogger, this time an American (I think) called Diane, has vouched for Salam on her blog. (Eh... but how do we know that Diane is for real? Her website, after all, is *highly* political. Maybe someone will vouch for her too. Etc. ... ad infinitum.)

*****

Further to the blog identity/authenticity debate, Gerald Adams and I touched on this in our proposal for the upcoming Blogtalk conference.

And for readers who aren't familiar with how blogs -- or even websites -- are created, be aware that you back-date entries (i.e. just because an entry says "March 12, 2000" doesn't mean it was created on that date).

Taking this concept a little further, I'm about to launch a photolog which I intend to update over time, as with a normal blog -- but I also intend to backwards-update i.e. I'll gradually scan in and add old photos. So I'll be updating the blog from the middle outwards, temporally speaking.

Confused? You will be...