Posted on 11/18/2002 9:36:34 AM PST by Fractal Trader
With the economy in shambles and the possibility of war with Iraq looming ever larger, there is certainly no shortage of material out there for Americans who enjoy debating the major political issues of the day.
But don't limit yourself to a rousing debate with your political antithesis across the holiday table. The Web is making it easier than ever to have an argument on virtually any topic, often in real time. Savvy Web users can read news and analysis by partisans on both sides of an issue, enter into debates on freewheeling newsgroups hosted by some of the nation's most popular Web sites, and deluge lawmakers and policy makers with e-mails advocating their position.
"The Web lets people bypass gatekeepers and intermediaries and make up their own minds," says Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who writes one of the most popular Web logs, or blogs, of musings and commentary on the news of the day. "Stories that don't get big-media attention can still explode throughout the Web, and do."
All told, the Web has the potential to reshape political discourse in this country in ways the Founding Fathers could scarcely have imagined. The following are some rules to keep in mind as you join the fray.
Get Educated
As any debate-club veteran can attest, the first step in preparing for a political argument is to marshal your facts. It's here that the Web is best living up to the world-changing hype that greeted it several years ago.
As with any topic, a good place to look for information to bolster your opinion on an issue or to help shape it in the first place is a search engine like Yahoo, Google and AltaVista. There is an array of sites devoted to issues like the environment, the economy, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and the possible war in Iraq.
Another way to get educated is to find out what analysts from across the political spectrum are saying about a given issue. One of the best steps is to explore a few of the blogs that have multiplied in recent years.
The blogs are personal Web sites that can be easily and instantly updated, allowing commentators to post their opinions about the news minutes after an event occurs and to carry on Internet dialogues with their readers in real time. Many bloggers will offer a link to the mainstream news article or reader response in question
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I think he means that publicity might bring a lot of DU types, as well as conservatives. I hate reading disruptor posts here. I live in liberal Connecticut, so I already hear enough of the other side for my tastes. FR is a kind of sanctuary from the looniness.
Why not just say what you mean?
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