The Columbia Journalism Review published a lengthy article in its last issue profiling Bill Roggio, a U.S.-based military blogger who’s set up his own media operation aimed at reporting on terrorism and “small wars” beyond what the mainstream media can do. Before the piece gets to Roggio, the intro takes a look at the gap military blogs aim to fill:
Army veteran Roggio first started blogging about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to put the events in perspective for his family. But, as CJR notes, a transformation took place that’s changed the way Roggio operates—and underscores the significance these blogs can have:
While Roggio continues to build up his Long War Journal, a contributing writer to An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog said he was recently fired from his job working for a USCG contractor after writing posts critical of the branch. Mike McGrath, who comes from a Coast Guard family, wrote of his firing:
There’s a brand new beginning for British military bloggers detailed by the Guardian. Corporal Lachlan MacNeil will be one of the first British soldiers allowed to blog about his experiences during an upcoming Afghanistan deployment. He’ll be blogging directly for the Guardian, but as the paper points out this is quite rare:
Wired’s Danger Room blog wrote of a 2006 U.S. Army report that considered secretly hiring military bloggers to “promote a specific message.” The military’s comment on the story is that this report was simply an educational exercise intended to be thought-provoking. Here’s an excerpt from the Joint Special Operations University report titled “Blogs and Military Information Strategy”:
Finally, PBS show Frontline has this “making of” video taking a look at a new documentary following Army soldiers in Iraq. One of the featured soldiers is the founder of milblogging.com. As the website explains:
