“Blogging’s become a powerful communications tool. You can look at Dan Rather’s forced retirement at CBS to the withdrawal of Harriet Miers as a nominee to the [U.S.] Supreme Court as examples of the impact that blogs are having,” says Dr. Nat Irvin, a professor of future studies at Wake Forest University.
Irvin contends that blogs are serving as whistleblowers with regard to corporate, media and government conduct in the United States. He says blogs such as Blackprof.com are providing an inexpensive new way to discuss topics that typically receive scant national media coverage.
Butler and Overton note that while there are a number of blogs run by Blacks, very few are managed by working Black scholars. They believe their blog should attract readers who are eager to interact with African-American intellectuals, especially given that African-Americans over generations have long clamored for Black scholars to get engaged with the Black community. The blog attracts an average of 500 readers a day, according to Overton, who explains that he and the other principals hope to draw thousands daily like the most popular blogs run by well-known law professors.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” to reach a daily audience in the tens of thousands, Overton says.
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