Bloglanta

The blog that I looked at is called Bloglanta which reports news concerning local Atlanta area neighborhoods ITP (inside the perimeter) about politics, new government or city policies, and stories that might have slipped by big-time news coverage but are important to Atlanta residents.

Through his postings, the blogger, Robert, introduces an article or news topic that affects the Atlanta area neighborhood residents, such as pan handling, vagrancy, transportation problems, and water shortage, and then offers his opinion and observations and sometimes adds a solution or asks the readers for their input. In fact, Robert seems to regularly get the readers to become active by linking to surveys targeted for Atlanta residents in his blog so that they can shape their community and have a voice in city policies including transportation planning, for example. Robert has an assertive, yet informative, tone that he uses to put out his ideas and opinions about the stories he reports on that reflect the needs of the residents of the Atlanta area rather than government authorities who just want a quick fix to a problem without thinking about a long term solution, shown in his posting about the vagrancy and pan handling problems.

While most of his posts are just text, Robert does include an occasional picture but mostly relies on hyperlinks to the news articles he writes about, wikipedia for definitions of terms, websites ranging from about politicians to neighborhoods, and surveys that the reader can explore more in depth on his/her own time or participate in if he/she chooses to do so.

The main reason I think that Robert and other bloggers like him focus their blogs and postings on their community is because they can make news stories that matter to the community readily available and can provide a place for the readers to communicate and share their opinions on the stories where they would not be able to otherwise. By having this open line of communication and exchange of ideas, the purpose of these blogs, what the authors want to achieve from them, is to bring the readers and residents of the community together so they can participate in happenings within their communities and can help build a stronger community by making the Atlanta area, in this case, an overall safer and more enjoyable place to live where the people can feel like they are part of strong and growing community.

-Thomas Rowe