Blogging for democracy

In our discussions of the democratic potential of new media, we have returned several times to the (maybe obvious) point that whether they are democratic depends on how they are used. Now the international group Reporters sans Frontières is tyrying to promote democratic blogging with their new Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents (dowloadable in PDF format). The handbook discusses blog sociology, blog techniques and blog strategy, and includes advice on avoiding censorship and maintaining anonymity. The material seems especially directed to bloggers and potential bloggers in authoritarian states, where control of the media can often mean that sources based on computer networks can be the only credible sources available.