City Bloggers Keep Conversations Going
Posted on June 29, 2005
Bloggers in cities around the United States are organizing to share resources, ideas and stories. The bloggers tend to keep issues and stories going long after they appear on the local TV news or in the local newspapers. In Houston, Texas bloggers recently got together at an event organized by Kevin Whited, who runs blogHouston.net, a group weblog covering Houston politics, media, and life. ABC13.com, a local news station in Houston, ran a news story about the growing blog activity in the city:
"We focus on media and politics, and opinion," Whited told abc13.com. "Whereas big media tends to put out highly polished stories as finished products, our goal is to keep the conversation going, with lively opinions. It's a little like talk radio, but more informative, and more subject to fact checking."Similar blogs and blogger networks are cropping up in other cities in the U.S. SearchEngineWatch.com recently had an article about finding local bloggers in your area. Poynter Online also had a recent post on the subject. Some companies like Gothamist and Metroblogging are building networks of blogs for major U.S. cities. And don't forget the numerous citizen journalism services and websites that have been launching lately.Anne Linehan is another contributor of blogHouston. The current stay-at-home mom says her favorite topic to cover so far has been Metro. It's a topic that has given her a lot of posts, especially with the heavy media coverage.
"We can do some reporting, but will never be able to match the resources the mainstream media has, and that's fine," Linehan told abc13.com. "Blogs can dig into a topic, expound on a subject, really flesh out a controversy or just provide more in-depth expertise that a mainstream media story can't do."