Photo credit: Blogging Librarian @ Flickr
Today’s issue of the Washington Post features a front page article on the “C” section, titled, “The Election That Has the Whole World Blogging.”
Staff writer Jose Antonio Vargas profiles the Reuters-funded group blog project, Voices without Votes, that features about 20 volunteer writers who cull through dozens of daily blog posts written from voices around the world who are passionate about the political players, platforms, and policies but are unable to vote.
When these global bloggers in Canada, Brazil, the Sudan, and Japan write, a dedicated cadre of 20 volunteers in their 20s and 30s showcase the raw talent in edited features that are usually picked up by the Huffington Post and other larger outfits.
Until recent stories like this one in the Post, the mainstream media was clueless about global bloggers and their American political passions. Or, at least, they didn’t cover the stories as VwV does.
Voices without Votes is edited by Amira Al Hussaini. Vargas writes:
There’s no single directory of international blogs, Al Hussaini says, and she and her staff specialize in specific regions. They make sure that no one region is overrepresented on the site. It’s a labor-intensive process. Though many sign their names in their blogs, just as many do not. Each volunteer has to read the blog, contact the blogger and locate where he or she is. “A lot of people write blogs without telling you where they’re from,” explains Al Hussaini, who speaks Arabic and monitors a list of about 1,000 blogs in the Middle East. Most bloggers write in English. Some, however, need translating.
In late September, I joined the group blog as a contributor. My features can be read here.
Do visit Voices without Votes if you’ve never heard of it. You may enjoy the feature articles authored by volunteers and the original raw pieces by the world’s best.
If you’re one of those non-American bloggers but known by VwV, let me know and we’ll add your blog to the feed. If you’re a frequent reader of VwV, do you have any feedback you’d like to share? And if you just clicked over there, what do you think of it?
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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