Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - April Magazine - Blogger Nation - Index

The mobilization
strength of
African-American
bloggers has been
the force behind
this movement.
These individuals
share their views
and social commentaries
on blog
A lot of the NAACP chapters are a little bit
behind the times. When it comes to activism and
advocacy today, it moves at lightning speed.”
– Shawn Williams, creator of the blog Dallas South
The case of
Genarlow Wilson,
a Georgia teen
sentenced to
prison for consensual
sex with a
white classmate,
sparked outrage
among bloggers.
sites that allow readers to comment, email
or link stories to other sites. While
most blogs are created for leisure and
better reflect an online diary, a group of
bloggers known as the Afrosphere is
dedicating its efforts to the progress of
African Americans. This pool of
activists successfully motivates its readers
to political participation, says
Antoinette Pole, a political science professor
at Southern Connecticut State
University.
In her study “Black Bloggers and the
Blogosphere,” which was the first academic
examination of this group, Pole
found that Black bloggers had a greater
20 TRIBUNE MAGAZINE APRIL 2008
desire and ability to encourage readers
towards social awareness issues moreso
than their white counterparts. Most
Black bloggers used their sites to engage
political activism by suggesting readers:
vote or register to vote in elections, sign
petitions supporting a cause, attend a
rally or protest and donate to charitable
causes. Since Pole’s November 2005
study, which is included in her upcoming
book exploring political participation
among bloggers, Black bloggers
have grown from a sparse group and
have situated themselves at the forefront
of civil rights activism.
The number of Black-operated blogs
is growing daily with 900 tracked in
March by Electric Villager’s Black Blog
Rankings (BBR). A giant leap from the
75 blogs accounted for in September
2007. The sites in the Top Ten Black
Blog rankings attract an average of 500
visitors daily.
This network has used its heft to rally
around social causes and draw the
nation’s attention to overlooked injustices,
such as in the town of the once little-known
Jena.
Though many have vied for credit, the
organization of the mammoth descent in
Jena was the property of Black bloggers,
wrote Raquel Christie of the American
Journalism Review in the first assessment
of the media’s response to the
story. For months after the fight involving
the Jena High School students now
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