Pinkie’s Realm

 I enjoyed reading David Kline’s essay “Towards a More Participatory Democracy” in the book Blog! more so than Burtstein’s introduction, because I found it was much more stylistic, and less repetitive. He brought up numerous points from opposing sides and many examples as well. Like Burstein, he discussed the mainstream media, referred to as the “Big Media”, and how blogging may not primarily report the news but rather helps expose the lies of the media. It is too often that our government officials and news reporters tell us things that do not add up–yet the inconsistencies, however, do add up. Although he does not say so directly, Kline apparently believes that the media is extremely misleading and often times, false. I agree with him strongly on this matter. I did however find it interesting to discover just how much of an effect blogs have had on political situations and scandals. I knew it had helped to sway voters’ opinions in the past, but I wasn’t aware of so may specific examples in which thousands of people were led to write letters in protest against politicians who were proven to be hypocrites or liars. Hopefully someday with the help of the general population, I’ll have enough faith and trust in our government to actually vote.

*Bold text  = templates taken from “They Say/I say” By Graff and Birkenstein