Bloggers Could Change Face of Health Care Debate
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Washington, D.C. - Bloggers could play a major role in the future of the debate over health care reform, according to leading government officials and media watchers. That's the conclusion of a recent forum at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C.
A common question is: "How does one define a blog?" Tom Rosentiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, describes blogs as being "like muffins, they are defined more by shape than by content."
Blogs tend to be shorter and more editorial than traditional newsprint, but there are no strict rules for format or content.
Recent data from John McDonough, senior advisor on National Health Reform for Senator Ted Kennedy, says in the last year 15 percent of people surveyed said they check at least one blog every day and 28 percent check a blog at least once a month.
Blogs no longer only for angst-ridden teens
Blogs began as a niche form of communication, mostly used as a public online diary. However, a growing number come from accredited news reporters and even the heads of government agencies.
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt has a blog that he posts on the agency's Web site. He uses it as a platform to communicate to foreign officials and U.S. citizens alike, focusing on everything from his day-to-day activities to policy decisions.
While his site does not have the same high traffic levels as other blogs - Secretary Leavitt readily admits, "My son's Myspace page probably has more readers," - it is an example of the growing legitimization of blogging as a medium for conveying information.
Newspapers also have jumped on the blog train. Jacob Goldstein is a full-time blogger on health issues for the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. He has a full-time editor and writes on issues that may not appear in the print edition of the journal.
Bloggers have the unique ability to revive debate that most other news sources may determine to be dead in the news cycle. Blogs often specialize in particular issue areas and therefore focus on issues for longer than conventional news sources.
Due to their growing popularity as a source of information, blogs have the potential to generate a higher level of interest and scrutiny in the debate over health care reform than has ever been experienced. They also often are credited with breaking a story before most mainstream news outlets.
Most blogs have a comment feature so readers can respond to what a blogger has written. This allows for an article posted on a blog to become a longer discussion and it also allows for much quicker fact checking.
Bloggers also are utilizing social networking Web sites to spread their message. Wall Street Journal blogs have a link for readers to post the blog on their Facebook page. In this way, one person who reads the blog can connect all of their friends to the article without counting on those people being readers of the The Wall Street Journal.
Issues of credibility still exist
According to Rosentiel, there are some groups that actually keep bloggers on retainer to comment on issues the second information becomes available. No companies have come out saying they use this practice, and Rosentiel did not name any in particular, but the idea is an interesting one.
Companies or organizations can use blogs to inform people of the facts, but they also may generate a greater amount of misinformation. There are many groups with a vested interest in the health care debate and readers should be aware of who is writing the blogs they read and what their affiliation is.
The Media Bloggers Association is a non-partisan organization working to protect the rights of bloggers as a news medium and help them get credentialed as members of the media. This is an important step to legitimizing blogging as a reliable form of media and preventing blogs from being used to intentionally misinform the public.
Groups involved in the health care reform debate can further a responsible dialogue by linking their own online articles to blogs that they find credible.
It will be vital to find out which blogs are reliable and who reads them. Ezra Klein, associate editor for The American Prospect, said it best: "Feedback is the currency of bloggers." Essentially, if no one talks about what you bring up, then it is entirely possible that no one is reading it.
Erin Mann is based in CFM's Washington D.C office. Learn more about CFM's Federal Affairs practice.
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