Abstract

Much has been written about the potential for alternative and democratic forms of communication on the Internet. A particular utopian mythology has it that the infrastructure is—in contrast with traditional mass media—inherently biased towards open, egalitarian expression. As a popular and explicitly political means of discussing international current affairs, warblogging may appear to fit this paradigm. However, it is argued that a close relationship with the news media is integral to warbloggers’ culture of self-publication, as practitioners re-mediate knowledge sourced from journalism. The paper explores the contingent relationships between warblogging and professional media, arguing that genre may be a useful concept for understanding how the social potentials of the Net emerge through situated practices.