The latest post about the Army-milblogger controversy from Wired’s Danger Room blog makes the same point that I made in my conference paper on the subject:
The AWRAC monitoring is part of an ongoing struggle in the military over digital media. To some, these new forms of communications are security risks waiting to happen. Others welcome soldiers posting to blogs, online video sites and social networks as information warfare, combating a wave of Islamist propaganda online.
That is, in terms of the concept of “rhetorical situation,” for the Army, milblogging is an “exigence” which has been articulated as an OPSEC issue. For milbloggers, it is the Army’s response which is the exigence, and it has been articulated as an issue of information warfare. Of course, if you want more of the “academicky,” theoretical explanation, you can check out the paper for yourself.
Technorati Tags: milblogging, milbloggers, information warfare