An article on American soldiers who blog about their work appeared a few days ago whilst I was on my holidays - Blogs offer taste of war in Iraq - (Kevin Anderson, BBC News: Technology).
The main premise is that a new generation of USA soldier bloggers, known as milbloggers, are both fighting in the field and writing about their experiences. Of particular note is said to be in how blogging appears to open a "window on modern warfare" and create a new genre of war-time writing. However, the article also mentions that the US military has taken a rather dim view of so-called milbloggers.
Of particular interest in relation to the censorship of milbloggers is how such blogs are not anti-war or forums for trading military secrets. In reality, many soldiers use milblogs, for instance, to keep in touch with people at home, inform the public of the realities of being a soldier, and how milblogs act as a form of therapy. Findings that are very much consistent with my own research findings on work-related blogs, i.e how blog of this kind are a window into the modern workplace and may go on to redefine how work is traditionally portrayed.
Having said that, I believe we need to know more about the justification for censorship beyond the potential of bloggers using blogs as a means to subvert the aims and objectives of the organizations they serve.
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