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Blog, September 2005
Hardcover

BLOG
By: Dan Burstein

Books on technology trends often have a short shelf life, but Blog! focuses on the larger issues that make this such an exciting cultural moment while steering clear of details that will date quickly. Well worthwhile. - Booklist

CDS Books
September 2005
320 pages
ISBN: 1593151411
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction

The sensational emergence of blogging as a popular means of individual expression and public discourse has captured the world’s attention. And it’s not hard to see why. Political bloggers have used their online journals—or web logs (blogs)—to bring down high and mighty politicians like Trent Lott and force the resignation of such media bigwigs as CBS anchor Dan Rather. Consumer bloggers, meanwhile, have turned struggling enterprises with deserving products into overnight successes—and at the same time, ruined firms that ignored their justified complaints about defective products. Who are these amateur "pundits" and how have they used this new communications medium called blogging to transform not only their own lives but the larger society as well? What’s going on inside this revolution of the voiceless against the heedless?

blog! how the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture takes you inside the minds and hearts of the world’s most influential bloggers. People like former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, who pioneered the use of political blogs as grassroots organizing tools and fund-raising vehicles—and in the process changed political campaigning forever. Or Robert Scoble, a Microsoft employee who, through his candid, fair- minded blog postings, accomplished what hundreds of millions of dollars in Microsoft image advertising could not—the humanizing of a company once reviled as a monopolistic bully. Or former child star Wil Wheaton (Stand by Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation), who captivated millions with his blog postings about the humiliations of a struggling actor and eventually launched a new career for himself as a respected author with two books to his credit. From celebrity-activist Arianna Huffington to the Web philosopher Clay Shirky, this book brings you many of the world’s A-list bloggers in their own fresh and uncensored voices.

Any powerful new technology inevitably brings with it a hurricane of hype and hyperbole. Some of the medium’s more extreme evangelists claim that blogs will replace traditional media, nullify the influence of the rich and powerful over electoral politics, and—by putting the power of the printing press in the hands of ordinary citizens— enable a million new Shakespeares to emerge from the heartland.

Don’t bet on it, say authors David Kline and Dan Burstein. They point out that while blogging will certainly transform many areas of politics, business, and culture, it cannot free us from the limits of human nature or the constraints of social and economic reality. The authors thus give us the first book that pierces the bubble of hype and confusion surrounding this new medium with a real-world analysis of the ways that blogging will and won’t change our society and the rapidly expanding universe of the now and future blogging phenomenon.

Media Buzz

Diane Rehm Show - NPR - December 6, 2005