MAYBE I've been reading "Wired" too much lately, but it seems that everybody and their grandmother has a Web log, or "blog," these days. From political junkies divulging Beltway gossip to knitting enthusiasts sharing, well, whatever knitters share, people are putting up sites devoted to their lives, their interests and the state of the world.
While blogs are not a strong phenomenon at the University, it does not mean they could not or should not become one. If more students start blogs, University students could express and publish their unique viewpoints that either don't have a current venue or that they couldn't publish on a mass scale, find students of similar experiences or mindsets and ultimately have a positive impact on the notion of student self-governance.
The University lags woefully in its student-to-blogs quotient. A quick search on one of the more popular free blog hosting services, LiveJournal.com, for the phrase "University of Virginia" yielded 11 blog communities and 119 individual blogs. Using the phrase "UVA," the search found 13 communities and 254 individual blogs. This means that somewhere between 119 and 254 people related to the University are acting as their own writers, editors and publishers on topics such as their lives, University concerns or the world at large.
However, other peer institutions far outpace us. Search for "Harvard" (who, at approximately 19,000 total students, is roughly equivalent in size to the University), and LiveJournal presents you with 465 blogs. Try "Cornell," and you get 308 matches. Even searching for "Chihuahuas" yields more results than searching for the University. If we are to continue to be regarded as a first-class university, we must keep pace with trends of student expression at other such institutions, or at least with the Chihuahua community.
These results are also striking in that they beg the question: Do we here at the University really not have as much to say as the chowder-eating Cambridgians to the north, or lovers of Mexican dog breeds?
Sure, we're not exactly located in a tech-oriented urban center like Boston, areas which tend to produce greater numbers of bloggers. And when it comes to political issues, the University is not known as a hotbed of controversy, outspokenness and protest.
But it's wrong to think that University students don't have the ability or the will to express themselves on the Web. In fact, it's in their best interests to do so. The benefits of a stronger blogging community at the University are clear. The most personal benefit an increase in blogging would give its participants would be the presence of a new medium for self-expression. Students would be able to not only broadcast their thoughts and ideas to anyone and everyone on the Web, but would also be honing their ability to write clearly with wit, intelligence and candor.
Since anyone can find blogs by interests (at least on the free services), an increase in blogging would lead to greater potential for community building at the University. Students who would never have the chance to meet another blogger in any physical way now have a way to find each other, exchange thoughts and build ties, thus complementing a strong University community with a similarly strong virtual one.
This free exchange and community building would have positive effects for our self-governance. As our founder Mr. Jefferson said, "The only security of all is in a free press." Jefferson's language may sound lofty when considering blogs and the political state of the University. But make no mistake; the more students are able to pursue cost-free mediums of expression and find others of like mind with whom to build ties, the more strengthened the principle of student self-governance becomes. Think of a University community with only The Cavalier Daily as a conduit for expression of ideas. It would be a boring and poorly-constructed community indeed.
A diversity of views will always yield better ideas, smarter people and stronger community. If a critical mass of students takes to the Web to talk about the University, then maybe the measure of a University politico will not be the pinkness of his shirt but rather the size of his blog.
Jim Prosser's column appears Tuesdays in the Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at jprosser@cavalierdaily.com.
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