The Ministry of Truth

[Dave Monroe]

CENTCOM Team Engages 'Bloggers'
By Capt. Steve Alvarez, USA
American Forces Press Service

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., March 2, 2006 – The
widespread use of Web logs, or "blogs," by online
writers has proliferated information on topics as
varied as the authors.

Blogs, in essence, are online journals or forums for
their authors, known as "bloggers."

Public affairs officials here said thousands of blogs
are created each day, and they estimate that more than
21 million blogs are posted on the World Wide Web
today.

Blogs sometimes include information -- accurate and
otherwise -- about the U.S. military's global war on
terror. U.S. Central Command officials here took
notice and created a team to engage these writers and
their electronic information forums.

"The main interest is to drive their readers to our
site," Army Reserve Maj. Richard J. McNorton said.
McNorton is CENTCOM's chief of engagement operations.

Anyone who wants a virtual voice can create a blog and
share information with the online world. The ease with
which bloggers spread information is what public
affairs officials at CENTCOM saw when they created the
blog team.

McNorton said the team contacts bloggers to inform the
writers about any given topic that may have been
posted on their site. This outreach effort enables the
team to offer complete information to bloggers by
inviting them to visit CENTCOM's Web site for news
releases, data or imagery.

The team engages bloggers who are posting inaccurate
or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are
posting incomplete information. They extend a friendly
invitation to all bloggers to visit the command's Web
site.

Many bloggers appreciate the team's contact, blog team
officials said, and most post CENTCOM's Web site as a
link on their blog sites. This, McNorton said, has a
"viral effect" that drives Internet news consumers to
CENTCOM's Web site.

"Now (online readers) have the opportunity to read
positive stories. At least the public can go there and
see the whole story. The public wants to hear these
good stories," he said, adding that the news stories
the military generates are "very factual."

[..]

The team's motto is "Engage," and Flowers and others
work with more than 250 bloggers to try to disseminate
news about the good work being done by U.S. forces in
the global war on terror. The effort, officials here
said, has reached more than 17 million online readers.

"We were given the mission to do electronic media
engagement," Flowers said. "The idea was put forth
that so many people are getting their news from online
sources that we would be remiss if we neglected that
audience."

[...]

Flowers said the Web site is filled with informative
facts, figures, imagery, data and information that
readers can digest before a third party processes and
presents the information for them through other media.

[...]

Most blogs ordinarily have a feature that enables
readers to contact the writer or allows readers to
post comments. When the team "reaches out" to a
blogger, the team members do not conceal their
identity. They fully disclose that they are public
affairs personnel and identify themselves accordingly.
And, McNorton said, they are there to correct
information, no more.

"We don't go in there and get into a debate," he said.
And officials here are quick to point out that they
are not policing Web sites. They are simply offering
bloggers the opportunity to get raw information
directly from the source.

[...]

But, he said, "The power of military blogs is that
they're a letter home from servicemen and women that
the entire world can read," Flowers said.

All bloggers have their niche audience, Flowers said.
Some are faith-based, others are military community
members, and yet others are involved in mustering
humanitarian aid for people in Iraq or Afghanistan.
But while the reasons for their blogs differ, most
bloggers consistently offer the same comment to
Flowers and his team.

"Repeatedly we hear from people, 'I never would have
heard this story in the mainstream media,'" Flowers
said. "People really are interested in what soldiers
are doing. Blogs are individual statements. They're
the voice of individuals. They're a way of
understanding this war on a very human level."

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2006/20060302_4370.html

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