Weblogs: The Power to Shape Public Opinion

In the race to transform the military, breaking with traditional wisdom in terms of streamlining various organizational paradigms and learning from past strategies has unfortunately created its own momentum and inherent bias. Despite attempts aimed at encouraging innovation and seeking non-conventional answers to age-old questions, the military institution rarely recognizes and embraces real change when it stares straight into its face. The purpose of this research paper is to show how weblogs have the power to shape public opinion and why the military needs to utilize this resource. The descriptive survey and historical methodologies were used in gathering data for this project. Additionally, the author created a personal weblog to gain, track and report actual experience with weblogs. This paper defines what weblogs are and introduces certain weblog fundamentals. It establishes why people publish and read weblogs and offers an outline of the ongoing paradigm shift in mainstream media. A common theme throughout the paper is why weblogs are relevant to public affairs operations. The paper also highlights some of the common criticisms of weblogs and introduces a concept called the ＂power of the tail.＂ The paper concludes with recommendations of how public affairs professionals and the military can effectively utilize this information tool.

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