As blogging becomes more widespread, insurgents will shape local politics and media in new ways, writes David St. Lawrence in his blog, "Ripples."

Once there are hundreds of thousands of bloggers putting down real-time observations about life on this planet, we have a different kind of history being written. I feel it will be much harder to bury news and rewrite history, as blog records are almost permanent and can be instantly recalled for many years.

Get the idea of a vehicle hit-and-run incident posted on a blog, or a corrupt sheriff exposed on a blog......The possibilities boggle the mind.

Of course, people actually have to be paying attention. Remembering what makes blogs different from web sites will help: frequent updatings, new and varied links, and viewable comments. Localized, well-promoted blog portal sites might help, too.

St. Lawrence provides an interesting example of a blogger challenging the status quo: Dave Louthan. He's the guy who killed the first U.S. Mad Cow, and he's got a lot to get off his chest.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 16, 2004 09:07 AM

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