Instantly Global- blogs in the news

I am currently sitting in Java City in Clemson, South Carolina, reading a blog about trapped miners in Chile. The blog is an Australian blog, and it is talking about how the miners are receiving PSPs (PlayStation Portable(s)- a video game device manufactured in Japan) to help pass the time. It was at that precise moment that I realized how truly globalized our world is.

The internet is a beautiful and scary thing—they used cameras to record the miners sending messages to their families (who they will not see for at least 4 months, according to officials, says multiple blogs). That being the beauty, what can be so scary? Well, this weekend I was unfortunate enough to have my computer’s motherboard fry, and as I wait impatiently for my new computer to arrive in the mail (on Tuesday—or Wednesday—I need to check my email to watch the online tracking) I am forced to spend an increasingly large amount of time in campus computer labs—showing me how dependent on the internet and computers I really am (which is, coincidentally, a lot).

But, back to blogs.

Searching for blogs on specific news articles—especially with the minute-by-minute news style that has come to popularity today—was difficult until I realized that Google had a “blog only” filter in its search settings. Once I clicked that, I was able to look at several different types of blogs, including a blog geared towards video games (mentioned above) in Australia, a blog geared towards Latin America in general (mentioned above, again, with the tag line: The English-language forum for all things Latin American, covering business, politics, and culture), and a psychology blog talking about the human breaking point when imprisoned. It is interesting how one news media issue can create discussion amongst so many different walks of life, and across the globe.

The final point that I noticed was that every major news network (BBC, CNN, Fox, The Telegraph, New York Times, etc.) now has a “news blog” section on their site. They are still written in the form of a newspaper article, but include questioning and some allow comments. It is interesting to note that they are adapting to this new form of reporting and the idea of a global forum for discussion.