Blogs in the News(papers)

When it comes to the media, countless people complain, complain, and complain about how biased each source is. While studies have been done that show a great majority of news programs are left leaning (at least strictly speaking about reporting and not opinion pieces or editorials), certain perceptions remain about each source no matter what. For instance, a report on media bias in the Journal of Quarterly Economics has found even the Wall Street Journal to be lean toward the left in its reporting, despite the fact that it will forever be known as one of the most conservative, right-winged news sources around.This figure from the report rates news programs in relation to politicians with a score of 50 being "Moderate" with anything above 50 being increasingly liberal and anything below 50 being increasingly conservative.

Because of the stigma associated with specific newspapers, I always try to be a well rounded reader of the news looking at as many newspapers as I can to get my information. Still, it can be difficult to judge whether a piece of news is truly being objective or not, and I find blogs to be a very helpful source to get information based on people’s personal experience and clear biases. In a way blogs are more informative and more straightforward in relaying information about the news because the reader knows when there may be a clear bias and can get a better, more personal understanding of a situation.

My favorite blog source to use in attaining news information whether it is for issues concerning urban planning, local policy issues, or even the latest entertainment fad happens to be the online Los Angeles Times website where many, many blogs are published daily on a wide variety of topics. I first discovered the blogs when I was doing some research in trying to make an educated vote in the 2008 elections. The LA Times is one of the nation's most credible and most read newspapers, and while I have always been hesitant about reading blogs of any kind, the ones published here have been very informative and opened my eyes to the world around me.

Of course Proposition 8 was one of the most controversial ballot issues of all time, and I wanted to be sure I was making the best decision before casting my vote. I wanted to know all sides of every part of the story, and I came across an opinion blog piece called No-on-8's White Bias written by a Black Lesbian in Southern California who thought marriage rights was a "secondary issue...at a time when blacks are still more likely than whites to be pulled over for no reason, more likely to be unemployed than whites, [and] more likely to live at or below the poverty line." Working with trafficking victim cases in LA, I could definitely identify with this personal argument more than the news articles trying to persuade me with uncertain facts and data to vote their way. Plus, knowing her bias, I knew not to take everything she said word for word. This piece opened up the world of blogs as an innovative news source; after all, blogs are the future. The internet has made this world so fast-paced and so full of information. It is only right that blogs should play a major part in the changing dynamics of news sources all around the world.

Building Blogs

There are many, many disciplines that intertwine with the planning field so closely: civil engineering, public administration, public policy, environmental studies, anthropology, geography, architecture. All these fields work closely together to develop and define the urban fabric of each city, neighborhood, and place. BLDG BLOG is a great site to follow which keeps up with these connections and relationships in places and cities all over the world as it focuses on "architectural conjecture, urban speculation, and landscape futures."

Launched in July 2004, BLDG BLOG is a website written by Geoff Manaugh, a journalist, author, and editor for several magazines. Manaugh earned his BA in Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in 1997 and his MA in Art & Architectural History from the University of Chicago in 2001 giving him the proper background to explore people and places in a critical manner, offering his ideas to the world through his award winning blog. BLDG BLOG has been prasied and acclaimed by many prominent sources including The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The Architectural Review as a great learning tool for all people which is "in the non-rude sense of the word...promiscuous." Manaugh is awaiting the publication of his book based on his blog coming out this summer.