> And if you think about how many people you know and how often you email
> or talk to them, the ability to reach 2% of Americans wouldn't seem
> shabby. That 2%, I'm sure, are connected, by email or face-to- face
> interaction, with the other 98%. Almost anyone (excepting congenital
> recluses) probably has at least 100 friends, family members,
> co-workers, and acquaintances she talks to regularly.
Well said, Nathan and Yoshie. I've been of the opinion that bloggers--especially those on the conservative extremists side--overestimate their power, reach, and influence. But I also agree with Nathan and Yoshie that blogging has turned into a powerful phenomenon that allows individuals (and the few collaborative blogs) to reach millions of people. Blogs and websites run by our friends have played a significant role in reversing the fortunes of our so-called alternative media.
Blogs and websites allow us to reach far more people than if we were publishing radical political magazines. Zmag, for example, reaches far more people than it would have simply as a newstand magazine. Z Magazine enjoys a fortunate position on newsstands, while the Internet has allowed new alternative media websites such as Dissident Voice and Truthout to start up quickly and reach large audiences.
If you spend some time looking into the popularity of lefty blogs and alternative websites, you'll find that our media reaches many people. If you want to fight the mainstream media from the left, the Internet has allowed us to build alternatives which are becoming very mainstream (Common Dreams and Counterpunch for example).
I'm sure that Yoshie's new project with Monthly Review will do very well and will quickly reach more people than the print publication reaches. I think I've mentioned before how many people Infoshop reaches, at least when our server is running properly. ;-)
I've run a blog for several years which is more like a personal zine than it is a blog about politics. The blog has primarily existed for me to keep friends up-to-date about my life and to help me develop my writing skills. But the number of people who visit the blog who I don't know continues to surprise me. I guess there is a large audience out ther for alternative media, even if blogs aren't read by the vast majority of Americans.
Chuck Infoshop News Another Blog is Possible http://chuck.mahost.org