The most blogged war

Firstly, we may as well admit it - war has hit us again and it's escalating. The Middle East is no longer quietly simmering away, and India is in chaos. I'm not afraid to call it outright war and refuse to blanket the conflict in comfortable terms as the US so loves to do at times like these.

Colin recently blogged about the government restrictions placed on bloggers in India following the tragic bombings that took place this month. It is a very interesting case study of the impact that the blogosphere has on citizen opinion and clearly demonstrates that government powers are frightened of the effect that online blogging communities might have on their fragile hold on the nation. Read more here.

Following on from this the Western and Middle Eastern blogospheres have never been more active and interesting to follow. One example I have been following with interest is the furore surrounding photos of Israeli children writing on artillery shells bound for targets in Lebanon, which has caused outrage among many bloggers, not least those from the Arab world. Take a look at this blog post and discussion following, and have a look at the links included in the posting itself.

I think that we are entering into a new era of public involvement in war. I stand by and watch with interest to see if these bloggers have enough influence to make a stand against this outbreak and pursuade the Western superpowers to actually care about this needless waste of human life. Of course we have to write off the USA...

posted by Cat Murray @ 16:41