God blogs.
A new report by the Social Science Research Council (posted at the Immanent Frame and written by Nathan Schneider) names dotCommonweal as one of the hundred (or so) most influential religion blogs. So, what’s the survey all about?
It places this religion blogosphere in the context of the blogosphere as a whole, maps out its contours, and presents the voices of some of the bloggers themselves. For those new to the world of blogs, there is an overview of what blogging is and represents (section 1). The already-initiated can proceed directly to the in-depth analyses of academic blogging (section 2), where religion blogs stand now, and where they may go in the future (sections 3 and 4).
The whole report is well worth your time. I started with–what else?–the section on religion blogs. The survey offers a helpful map of the religion blogosphere, including a “rough” (but still quite good) typology and a few rankings (by readership, Web-wide influence, influence among religion blogs and their readers, etc.).
We can’t match the powerhouse Religion Dispatches–at least not when it comes to raw traffic. But, among sites that receive links from the religion blogosphere, dotCommonweal ranks fourth. In other words, we took the platinum.
Particularly of note is the section “What’s Missing?” Among the answers offered by the nineteen bloggers surveyed for the report: Good academic writing (second that emotion, and not just in the blogosphere), good writing on Islam, funding for investigative reporting on religion, more women writing on theology, strong progressive religious voices, metro religion blogging (this is a good one), and a forum for reviewing religion books. Good ideas, all. But, as the report concludes:
Even the nearly 100 blogs discussed in this report are more than most people can afford to keep track of on a daily or weekly basis. The bloggers’ suggestions—more diversity, more investigative journalism, more metro coverage, and so on—all amount to more blogs, more data to consume. The question then becomes: what to do with it all?
Interesting article. My favorite part:
“. . . high-level meetings at the Vatican have discussed how blogging is shaping the conversation about Catholicism and have even suggested the idea of issuing guidelines for Catholic bloggers.”
Good luck with those guidelines! If Commonweal can’t do it….
I’d be happy if Catholic bloggers (and others) followed basic journalistic ethics on attribution and citation and fair use and the like. Not a problem at dotCommonweal, but a widespread one elsewhere that does not reflect well on many bloggers.
Don’t look now, guys: HuffPost Religion is the new kid on the block.
As the report suggests it is hard to draw conclusions as to effectiveness. Yet it is invaluable in that it will avail many the opportunity to find blogs which they might find meaningful, entertaining, educational, etc.
Huff’s looks GREAT!
Cardinal George is reviving Monsignor? Would it be better to use the vernacular and just call the special priests My Lord?
Will Protonotary Apostolic be next?
“Before 1969, all protonotaries were entitled to limited use of pontificals (the insignia or ‘regalia’ proper to bishops — mitre, finger ring, episcopal gloves, pectoral cross and buskins footwear). This privilege has since been abolished.” (Wiki.)
A shame about the buskins.
Cardinal George is reviving Monsignor? My bishop has him beat by at least six years.
He raised 12 priests to that status in our diocese. As a joke, one of the younger
Monsignors, sports fuschia colored shoe-laces—wears them everyday.
Cardinal O’Connor made 70 monsignors in one fell swoop–they became known as “the Septuagint”. A year or two later he had another 30 made. Priests who were not made monsignors began to call themselves “Priests for Life.”
When I was a child our pastor was made a Protonotary Apostolic, and there followed some extraordinary ceremonies in which he wore those gloves and walked about with some sort of parasol over his head, while a set of altarboys seemed to be carrying large fans of some sort. It was a scene out of Cecil B. De Mille. However the grown-ups went around tut-tutting: they called it his new honor a “kiss of death” that meant he would never be made a bishop.(They were right, he never was.)
I could never hear of a “Protonotary Apostolic” (Or P.A., as he was also known) without thinking of the Prothonotary Warbler, and, if Wikipedia is to be believed, there is an association: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prothonotary_warbler
Susan, were those fans FLABELLA? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flabellum
(I’m jealous. When OUR pastor was made a Protonotary Apostolic, 60 years ago, there were NO flabella. And probably no buskins in our down-to-earth German parish.)
Joseph, LOL at The Septuagint, Priests for Life, and the P. Warbler.