Yesterday I went to the Kaiser Family Foundation for a panel discussion on "The Health Blogosphere: What It Means for Policy Debates and Journalism."
One thing is for sure. While Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt, is a member of the "Health Blogosphere" with his own blog, he did not, at least at this event, contribute much to current policy debates. When asked two substantive questions on highly charged issues currently unfolding at the Department, Leavitt made it clear he was not there to make news.
(See the exchange here at 31:09)
Come on, Secretary. Where's the spirit?
While Leavitt wasn't willing to talk politics, he read excerpts of his blog. With good intention, Leavitt disclosed how blogging has introduced him into a new realm of communication - particularly because certain posts have struck dialogues with a new audience.
Unlike an unfettered blog, however, Leavitt said his team vets comments before they are or are not posted. (He called this a "monitored blog effort.") He also seemed in the dark about who his audience is - whether it is HHS employees, policy wonks or patient advocate groups.
Following Leavitt's opener, The Kaiser Family Foundation moderated a discussion on the growing influence of policy blogs inside the beltway - and how they represent the many communities affected by health care policy. One audience member actually rendered the panel silent - something you do not find often at Washington panels.
"Could you make some comments on the demographics of the blogosphere? Today we seem to have white males...and you mentioned it (blogging) doesn't work if you're only preaching to the choir..."
The room fell silent and the panel looked awkwardly at the moderator. The panel was made up of five white males.
"Somebody...?" The moderator begged.
Finally, Ezra Kline of The American Prospect spoke.
"I can say that I've found blogging is enormously open to young, white males. It has no gates if you are them. However, this is a conversation that has been tremendously controversial and long running in the blogosphere. Blogging does tilt male. It does tilt white.
The great problem...in blogging for diversity purposes...is that you had a strange dynamic...I'm just called a "political blogger"....but a female political blogger...she would be considered a "women's issues blogger."
Kline went on to say that the problem is not because there are not those diverse bloggers in the blogosphere - but instead that it is more about who gets the "invites, who Daily Kos links to, who is read by which communities."
Kline's point resonated with me as I had just read the day before about the BlogHer conference in San Francisco. The New York Times wrote about the conference in a piece called "Blogging's Glass Ceiling." And while another reputable blogging conference took place the same weekend, Netroots Nation, their report was placed in the Times' Politics section. BlogHer, on the other hand, was in Fashion & Style. Ouch.
All in all, the Kaiser Health Blogosphere event made the effort to bring health policy bloggers to the table .Unfortunately, it did not do much in the way of representing the presence of independent blogs like Health Wonk Review and The Health Care Blog or patient advocate blogs such as Patient Centric Healthcare and Lemonade Life.
-Erica Anderson, Account Executive
