George W Bush can thank the destructive power of blogs for his re-election in 2004.
Or so it is said.
Common wisdom holds that Bush's electoral fortunes dramatically reversed thanks to the "Rathergate' storm. The mainstream media's credibility blown away by biased right-wing bloggers, who exposed CBS anchor Dan Rather's reliance on dodgy memos to question Bush's service in the National Guard.
So, if blogging is so powerful it can win a US Presidential election, then there must be far-reaching implications for Christian evangelism.
But before we get carried away, Dr Michael Cornfield paints a far more serene picture. His comprehensive study of political blogs during the 2004 US Presidential campaign, "Buzz, Blogs and Beyond', concludes that the two key contributions made by bloggers to the "Rathergate' scandal was providing a transparent place for people to read the documents for themselves and an alternative venue to discuss the implications. Bloggers reacted to the mainstream news agenda. They did not create it.
So is the growing power of blogging overrated? Or is blogging the 21st century version of the printing press " a paradigm shift in communication that Christian ministry eschews at its peril?
The media hype around blogging is not completely without foundation.
In Australia, it is estimated that nearly half a million people have contributed to web-logs. And blogs are getting hotter.
There has been a huge surge in blogs in the past two years in what blogging experts call the "Anglosphere' " the world's English-speaking Internet users, largely North Americans, Britons and Australians.
Dr Cornfield's Pew Internet and American Life Survey found that readership of blogs jumped by nearly 60 per cent between 2004 and 2005, with at least 32 million regular American blog readers. More than five per cent of Americans operate their own web log. Hundreds more begin every day.
Challenging the journalists
Dr Cornfield's conclusion that blogs are a powerful source of transparent information free from framing, editing, anchormen and slick repackaging, points to a particularly helpful characteristic of this tool for Christians.
For Christian readers, blogs potentially provide an antidote to secular journalism's poisoning of theological discussion in order to foreground conflict.
As Sydney Morning Herald blogger Andrew West has pointed out recently, some of the best reasoned and healthiest debate on the Federal Government's workplace relations bill was found on the Sydneyanglicans.net forums.
Likewise, Forbes technology columnist Virgina Postrel argues fiercely that most bloggers are what journalists usually call "sources', who are writing knowledgably about their field of expertise.
"They have more authority than mere journalists," she writes. "Some are economists, technologists, scientists or academic experts." The subjectivity of blogs means they can also provide powerful firsthand accounts from eyewitnesses. They provide the public with access to well-thought out voices that subvert, rather than feed off, our stereotypes.
Baghdad blogger, Salaman Pax, rose to international fame by providing an Iraqi perspective of the US invasion to counter the spin from the Pentagon. South East Asians were able to give first hand accounts of the slow pace of tsunami relief.
Likewise, Sydneyanglicans.net's own Motor Mission blog has given Christians access to brothers and sisters in the Middle East that even traditional Christian media find difficult to reach. Most recent is their extraordinary, on-the-ground account of Christians in Iran.
Jensen's blogspot
When Moore College lecturer, Michael Jensen and his young family flew out from Sydney late last year to spend three years at Oxford University, he hoped new technology would mean they would only be a keystroke away from friends and family.
"We have rich communication possibilities these days," he told me at the time.
"It is not a substitute for real presence, but you can certainly build and maintain community really effectively over long distances because the internet never sleeps."
Michael, who is studying for a doctorate in theology, felt the blog would keep him accountable to his financial supporters in Sydney.
"I strongly believe that learning is collaborative, and I am conscious that I am being sent by the Sydney Anglican community, so I want people to share in the experience and the ideas. I am hopeful that people will see things that I can't see," he says.
Has that hope materialised? Michael says it's too early to tell.
"Interestingly it is more often than not people I have never met who actually read it and comment," Michael says.
"My friends are more likely to read it and say nothing! At the moment I think most people are on the whole unused to the idea of actually commenting. But more people read them than you think!
"However, by putting more academic stuff on there, people have actually stumbled on to the blog and emailed me or told me about it later."
Michael says from an academic perspective, the immediacy of the feedback probably doesn't lend itself to rigorous debate.
"I think persistence is the key. Then you build up a resource of useful stuff. I have found it useful to have a place to just write without the pressure of a blank white MS Word page. I use it to "noodle' my ideas into some shape, or to access the well-buried creative part of my brain," he says.
Michael believes the real strength of Christian blogs lies as a pastoral tool.
"I think ministers could use them very usefully to pastor their congregations and others. It allows a transparency that is unparalleled. I think if I was a pastor I would have a blog for sure."
Blog Pastor
One pioneer in this regard is Neil Atwood, lay assistant minister at Toongabbie Anglican Church.
"It's very early days for church sites using blogs," Neil says. "We started a blog on our old church site more than two years ago. It thrived for a while, but didn't have a broad enough user base to appeal widely."
Lack of broad-based computer literacy, especially amongst older lay leaders, appears to be a major barrier to using the tool effectively in a congregational setting. There is a massive generation gap in the pick-up of internet technology, admits Neil. "Because blogging is still done by only a relative handful of people compared to the number of people who use, say, email, it's going to take a while to move ahead," he says. "Sunday night church is pretty connected and a significant number use the website and at least read the blog entries. Morning church people are much more traditional in their thinking. Also, even for the older folk who do use the internet, the concept of engaging with content via comments is a strange idea. It will take time."
Blogging culture is irrepressibly about individual expression. Naturally then, there are a number of active personal blogs run by young people from Neil's church. So the major difficulty for a congregation-based site is younger people's anti-institutional thinking. But Neil thinks it is worth the pastoral team persisting with ways to connect with these personal blogs. The fruit can be unexpected.
"In the case of members' personal blogs, it has extended the church "family' by drawing in Christians from all over to discussions. It has also drawn non-Christians into some discussions too."
Neil's aim is to find ways to harness the energy of their personal sites for the benefit of the whole church community.
"If we can transfer some of the excellent interaction on a number of church members' personal blogs to the church site, we will be doing well," he says.
With this in mind he is redesigning the church site.
"I've started posting "teasers' for the Sunday Night Church Bible talk the Wednesday before," Neil says. "I try to pose a couple of questions to get people thinking through the passage ahead of time."
"It's slow going, but some people are commenting and a small amount of discussion is occurring. A couple of people have also posted after the [Sunday Bible] talk, responding to it."
So Neil, why should other pastors bother setting up a blog?
"Because blogging will come into its own " in time."
