Following a Political Blog

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and editor-in-Chief of the anonymous Huffington Post,an online news and blog site and she also posts daily blogs of her own at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/. The purpose of Ms. Huffington’s blog seems to be to share her views on politics and current events stories with her readers. While she does occasionally take on the Democrats, it would seem that most of her vitriol is aimed squarely at the Bush administration.

Ms. Huffington’s blog pages have a lot more going on than simply her daily posts. The site offers links to other blogs on The Huffington Post as well as posts of other bloggers that relate to the topic at hand. There are also links to related news stories, and blogs that maybe related to other items mentioned in the blog. Because of the size and popularity of Ms. Huffington’s blog, her blog also has advertisements. Ms. Huffington’s blogs are also categorized by topics and there is an easy to use navigation bar. Because of all of the added features, the blocky-ness that can sometimes be common place in blogs is not present. But, even with the added features, the blog is visually appealing and does not seem overcrowded. As for the posts themselves, Ms. Huffington writes in a familiar tone, and even though some of her topics may only appeal to those who follow politics, her writing would not turn off the lay person.

Ms. Huffington’s posts seem very popular with readers of The Huffington Post, and she receives many comments. The format remains largely the same from day to day, which undoubtedly encourages repeat users to come back. While Ms. Huffington does not seem to reply often to her comments, the readers respond to each other, making the blog a de facto cyber-town hall meeting. Ms. Huffington seems well regarded in some circles, and her sources are valid, so the information she shares is reliable, however it does skew politically toward the left, so perhaps she spends most of her time preaching to the choir, as it were.

Blogs are the 21st Century version of the soapbox, and Ms. Huffington is using her’s very well. While many people just blog as a stream of conscious, almost diary like endeavor, Ms. Huffington is more focused. She uses her left leaning political views as a spring board to share her opinions about current events in politics and pop culture. And her readers are taking the opportunity to also be heard in the form of their comments. And this seems to be what the "blogosphere" does best; allow the free exchange of ideas between like minded (and sometimes not so like minded) people