Mar 1, 2009
The "New Media," the Surge, and the Writing of History
What is the contribution of the"new media" -- electronic discussion forums, especially blogs -- to the making of recent history? Dave Dilegge wants to know.
A retired Marine Corps major and liaison officer to the Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare, Dilegge is also co-owner of the influential Small Wars Journal and its companion blog. In today's SWJ Blog he writes:
The responses he's received are consolidated into a PDF file Thoughts on the “New Media” and are being updated here.
The underlying question is of relevance not only to future histories of the Iraq War but also to many aspects of the history being made today. Two issues arise: 1) How long will it take for academic historians to become savvy enough about the new media to assess its influence on the events they have already begun to explore?; and 2) Who, if anyone, is archiving the evidence base -- those billions of electrons on which long term evaluation of this question depends?
A retired Marine Corps major and liaison officer to the Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare, Dilegge is also co-owner of the influential Small Wars Journal and its companion blog. In today's SWJ Blog he writes:
Last weekend I sent out the following “RFI” [Request for Information] to a number of bloggers I know:
Andrew Exum’s post / review of Tom Ricks’ The Gamble several weeks ago at Abu Muqawama [another important national security blog] got me thinking (once again) about the impact of the “new media” on issues concerning national security, military doctrine and concept development, as well as lessons learned. As one part of this new media I’m not sure I fully grasp our influence – though I am often told we are, quote – “making a difference”. Here is the excerpt from the AM post that got me thinking about this:
“The New Media: Ricks cited a discussion on Small Wars Journal once and also cited some things on PlatoonLeader.org but never considered the way in which the new media has revolutionized the lessons learned process in the U.S. military. [...] Instead of just feeding information to the Center for Army Lessons Learned and waiting for lessons to be disseminated, junior officers are now debating what works and what doesn't on closed internet fora - such as PlatoonLeader and CompanyCommand - and open fora, such as the discussion threads on Small Wars Journal. The effect of the new media on the junior officers fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was left curiously unexplored by Ricks, now a famous blogger himself.”
I’d like to get your thoughts on this - nothing elaborate – maybe a paragraph or two on the core issues concerning the new media and it impact on the military. I’d then like to post the responses I get as one post on SWJ.
The responses he's received are consolidated into a PDF file Thoughts on the “New Media” and are being updated here.
The underlying question is of relevance not only to future histories of the Iraq War but also to many aspects of the history being made today. Two issues arise: 1) How long will it take for academic historians to become savvy enough about the new media to assess its influence on the events they have already begun to explore?; and 2) Who, if anyone, is archiving the evidence base -- those billions of electrons on which long term evaluation of this question depends?