Monday, April 28, 2008

The Real Power of Blogs


If you haven't been following it, there has been a fire raging in the foothills above Sierra Madre for the past couple of days. I've been really impressed with the coverage of the fire on The Foothill Cities Blog.

It must be remembered that bloggers are not being paid to do this. However, the contributors of the FCB have done an very admirable job in giving the community (and the wider community as well) a very good picture of what's going on. This coverage is so much better than any of the local media has given because it is being reported by those who are directly affected.

I salute the contributors at the Foothill Cities Blog. They show that blogging is more than just a bunch of complainers venting at their local governments. They ARE concerned citizens, who like most concerned citizens, rally together in times of trouble.

6 comments:

Ontario Emperor said...

And it's not just blogs. There are a number of stories that detail how Nate Ritter used microblogging (specifically, Twitter) to provide information during the San Diego fires last fall. There are a number of tools besides blogs that can be used to get the word out regarding special events, planned (Super Bowl, Coachella) or unplanned (fires, earthquakes).

Anonymous said...

They show that blogging is more than just a bunch of complainers venting at their local governments. You make that sound like a bad thing.

meg said...

Buzz writes:
"You make that sound like a bad thing."

Heh.

It does get up my nose when the blog-ignorant -- usually the mainstream media -- sees only two kinds of blogs, political punditry and so-called mommy blogs (both of which earn a heaping of scorn).

John Clifford said...

Claremont Buzz,

It's not a BAD thing, it's just that blogging is so much more as Meg so eloquently stated.

Centinel said...

I'm just impressed by the community. I'm in Pasadena, not really that close to the fire. It's been everyone in the comments or sending emails that have been actually adding real value to our coverage. So kudos to the people of Sierra Madre for sharing information.

K said...

Wow, just wow. That's some amazing coverage, given that the LA Times is just running one story with a few pictures.