Academic Blogs & Bloggers & Value-Adding

In something of a throw-away line in a recent post describing the birth of a new blog over at PrawfsBlawg Ethan Leib remarks: "... what academic bloggers can do well: actual commentary on scholarship".

What do others feel about Ethan's proposition?  The ELS Blog editors continuously re-think the core premises underneath this blog and how it can (I hope) continue to add value for readers.  Aside from perhaps a single handful of rare (and clearly warranted) departures this blog has steadfastly remained moored in all things germane to empirical legal scholarship, broadly defined.  (And in the interest of full disclosure, this is a position I advocated at this blog's inception and continue to support.)  However, other academic blogs--indeed, many other blogs, including some widely-read law blogs--conspicuously adopt a far wider stance and frequently delve into such areas as pop culture, personal narrative, political commentary, gossip, photography, etc.  To be clear, there is no "right" answer to my general query, only perspectives.

Comments

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[digital dissertations]

Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!

[conor]

I enjoy your specialized perspective on the law.

I think the debate is whether you cater to a specific audience or whether you go for a general audience. I think popularity pressures some to move towards a general appeal, much like newspapers, magazines, entertainment, etc.

Also, I think the extra stuff (I am thinking WSJ law blog and Volokh Conspiracy) make the readers feel connected to the authors. It becomes a faux conversation, which by its nature always brings in more than just the topic at hand. And the authors use the conversational feel to use the forum to post on more than what originally attracted readers.

Just a thought.

Cheers.

[blawg reader]

Law professor blogs are particularly good at analyzing news events, new appellate opinions, new statutes, etc., in far more depth than say, the NYT or WaPo can offer. There is some commentary on actual scholarship but not that much, and in my view it's secondary.