Alive in Baghdad is for me the easiest of the sites to endorse. The weekly video dispatches fill a problematic void in media coverage of the Iraq war, and provides invaluable insight into the everyday lives of Iraqi’s living in a warzone, It humanises the conflict in a way typical news media footage of the aftermath of carbombs and abused prisoners in Abu Ghraib never can.

The death of one of AiB’s reporters, Ali Shafeya, in December last year highlights how perilous the environments in which journalists work can be. This is particularly pertinent in light of today’s story about ABC correspondent Peter Lloyd’s post-traumatic stress disorder and the trouble in which he finds himself as a consequence.

The other videoblogs – Mobuzz TV, Ask a Ninja, Wine Library TV and Rocketboom - all serve as good reminders of the wealth of content that is on the net, if only you look. Content aside, the production values were universally high – which comes at a formidable expense judging from Mobuzz TV’s fundraising drive at the moment.

Rocketboom, which became an “overnight sensation” in 2004, publishes daily video in short episodes. The tone is ironic and punchy and I can see why it has become so popular.

 
Understandably all these sites, except AiB, are American. I’d like to see what vlogs are out there from Australia and other (I guess English-speaking) countries.

In 2000 George W. Bush won office in a controversial election result – one that some, like doco Outfoxed,  have suggested may have been helped along by the major news services in the US. I can’t see that happening this time around, particularly with the change in media habits in the last eight years.

Microblog site Twitter is providing some great election forums: Election 2008 and Twitter Vote Report. Both these sites publish unmediated (or less mediated) information about the election, offering a fascinating on-the-ground insight into how people are thinking and voting.

Current TV will broadcast tweets marked #votereport in their election coverage, which again will possibly subvert any malevolent corporate over-riding agendas that may influence the election’s outcome. If any such thing exists.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have deterred The Age from filling its site with crap tabloid content.