Harris's "Forwarding"

In Joseph Harris’s chapter “Forwarding”, he explains that blogging about a news story is more similar to adding to the conversation surrounding the event rather than coming to your own final conclusion about what happened. I think this is a key distinction that many people overlook when it comes to reading the news. Each version of a story consists of a new opinion to further the discussion by the many other authors of same story. Each has a unique perspective and takeaway because of the author’s beliefs, goals, and the language the author uses. Harris also writes that blogging is conversation, that, “a dialogue is not a debate. You don’t win a conversation, you add to it, push it ahead, keep it going…” (Harris 36). In this description I understand the way in which academic writing is not a competition between writers but a collaboration of thoughts, for readers to find a more complete and three-dimensional view of a particular story or event. Each author adds a new perspective, thus “forwarding” the conversation to another author to respond and add to. Harris also articulates the role the Internet plays in process and evolution of a news story. He explains that, “the power of the Internet to make texts accessible comes with a cost, as you not only gain readers for a text but also lose control of its uses once you send it forward into the public sphere” (Harris 37). Harris describes that people are able to use the story someone has written and adjust it to fit in their perspective or use the texts they read and change to fit another issue. Andrew Sullivan exemplifies the concept of “forwarding” in his post “The ‘Madness’ of Joy, Ctd”, by re-posting Brett McCracken’s response to another essay about emotions in everyday life. By doing this, Sullivan adds this to the conversation for the public to see. Others are then able to respond and add to the dialogue as well.