As we face another year, both Tim Challies and Adrian Warnock have taken stock of their newly-completed blogging years, forcing all of us to consider the role of blogging. Though blogs have been around for several years now, it seems that 2004/05 were years that saw incredible explosions blog growth. According to Blogcount.com, Microsoft alone is able to say that their “Users are updating about 170,000 blogs on MSN Spaces every day and uploading about 1.9 million photos a day.

But not everyone is pleased about the astronomical growth of the “blogosphere” as its come to be known. Carl Trueman at Reformation 21 argues that “the whole blog phenomenon is inherently ridiculous; that the more serious it tries to be, the more absurd and pompous it becomes” (apparently the irony of making these statements in a blog has escaped Trueman.

Trueman argues that “The problem is this: the free access to public exposure which the web provides has facilitated what appears to be a dangerous confusion of categories, that of the right to speak with the right to be heard.” Apparently, the heart of Trueman’s angst lies in the fact that “Now anybody can spout on anything and find an audience, no matter how hateful or inept or ignorant they are.” Aside from Trueman’s intellectual arrogance (see his comments regarding “scholars”), his main problem seems to be that in a place “where everyone has a right to speak, everyone ends up thinking they have a right to be heard; and when everyone in general thinks they have a right to be heard, then you end up with a situation where nobody in particular is listened to.”

The irony is that I’m supposed to listen to Trueman because he truly has earned the right to be heard because he’s done a Ph.D. While I agree with his hierarchical view of knowledge and the importance of declarative knowledge in the Church (”Thus saith the Lord…” vs. more “conversational” approaches), I can’t help but question his approach.

Trueman’s piece came at nearly the same time as did a piece by syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker entitled Lord of the Blogs. Parker argues that she is “wary of power untempered by restraint and accountability” and that while “Some bloggers” do “offer superb commentary, most babble, buzz and blurt like caffeinated adolescents competing for the Ritalin generation’s inevitable senior superlative: Most Obsessive-Compulsive.”

Parker compares the “blogosphere” to William Golding’s chilling Lord of the Flies: “Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.” Whereas Trueman expects you to have a Ph.D. to be heard, Parker argues for the “adult supervision” of the mainstream media.

Both Trueman and Parker give specific examples of less-than-exemplary blogging. Yes, many bloggers have knowledge but lack wisdom (not that I’m claiming wisdom for myself) and certainly lack sensitivity and an edifying spirit, no one will deny this (We all ought to read Adrian Warnocks Principles For God Bloggers). But Parker and Trueman also lament the fact that much blogging seems to go “unpoliced” and unchecked. Both seem to argue that there is no accountability for claims and statements made.

But it seems that both Trueman and Parker have missed a fundamental aspect which makes blogging so special. As Neil Postman argues in Amusing Ourselves To Death, our “forms of public discourse regulate and even dictate what kind of content can issue from such form.” In other words, it is impossible to separate the medium from the message.

Blogging is the collision of an older print-based culture with our newer electronic culture. It is the attempt to bridge the gap between reading and television. We cannot blame bloggers for having an opinion because that is the essence of blogging. It is the attempt to process the information overload that bombards us everyday. It is an attempt to once again personalize the information age by subjecting the cold (purported) objectivity of the media to human opinion. Yes, much of that opinion is going to be wrong, but that’s exactly the beauty of it. While it is certainly hyperbole, adapting a quote given by Postman, we might argue:

‘Tis truth (with deference to the college)
Blogs are the spring of Knowledge.
The general source throughout the nation,
Of every modern conversation.

The more I’ve thought about Trueman and Parker’s arguments, the less convincing I find them. Yes, the blogosphere is filled with false claims and hurtful language, but the fact that we’re having the conversation in the first place demonstrates that the blogosphere is in fact “self-policing.” Nearly every blogger (if read at all) is held accountable for what they write. That’s why blogs have comment sections, that’s why blogs link to one another. That’s why blogs write about other blogs, the medium is interaction itself and everyone must answer for what they say.

While there is certainly a place for Trueman’s world of academia (I myself hope to pursue a Ph.D.) and Parker’s mainstream media (I partake of it every day), these institutions may no longer go unchallenged. Both are one-sided, information is told to us in books by Ph.D.s and talking heads in boxes. Blogs now provide the outlet for that information to be processed, digested and discussed. While there is much room for improvement, we cannot criticize the medium for what it is: men and women exchanging ideas.

Read Lord of the Blogs by Kathleen Parker.
Read Lord Of The Flies by William Golding.
Read Theatre of the Absurd by Carl Trueman.
Read Peace To All … Principles For God Bloggers by Adrian Warnock.
Read the Wikipedia entry on blogs.
Read Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman.