Intelligent Conversation Changes Minds

Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice has a good post about how blogs change people's minds. The problem with most talk-radio that I've listened to is that the host tends to be more focused on either himself *coughRushLimbaughcough* or advancing his own viewpoint to the exclusion of other viewpoints. They tend not to be debates, but more like lectures. (The one exception that I've found is Hugh Hewitt, who invites both liberal and conservative guests and talks to them, and to members of the audience.)

Most media suffer from this sort of syndrome. Look at the editorial page of your local paper, watch the TV news, and you'll find one side of the story, and no more. I think that the two huge advantages that blogs have in this area are comments and trackbacks. Not only can you get one person's viewpoint (the host of the page), but you can also get the viewpoints of others, and then you get to see the argument that ensues.

In short, it gets you to think about things from more than one angle. For example, take the Judge Roy Moore and his ten commandments idol monument. On the one hand, you have the position of my pastor, who seemed to look at Moore as a heroic defender of the faith. On the other hand, Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit.com asks "If judges don't obey court orders, who will?" Chances are that if I hadn't been reading blogs, I wouldn't have come to share Reynold's conclusion.

(Via Dean's World)

Posted by Blog Jones at June 14, 2004 02:24 PM | Category: Other News