【VOA】American Mosaic.docVIP

More and More Bloggers Are Expressing Their Thoughts and Opinions on the Internet Also: A question from China about Bobby Fischer. And music by the 18-year-old singer Taylor Swift. Transcript of radio broadcast: 04 December 2008 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) Im Doug Johnson. This week: We listen to music from Taylor Swift … Answer a listener question about chess champion Bobby Fischer … And report about blogs right here at VOA. (MUSIC) Blogs HOST: A blog is short for a Web log. People write blogs to express their opinions and ideas over the Internet. Some people write blogs about political issues. Others use them to share their lives with faraway friends or family. Still other people write blogs to help them deal with sickness, money problems or to choose movies to see or books to read. Bob Doughty has more about the increasing influence of blogs. BOB DOUGHTY: The Center for Media Research recently released a report about blogs. It says all studies agree that blogs are popular around the world. One study found that more than one hundred eighty million people around the world have started a blog. And more than three hundred forty million people around the world read blogs. Another study found bloggers in sixty-six countries on six continents. It found blogs in eighty-one languages. People in many professions, including the entertainment industry and news organizations, are writing blogs. VOA writers are among them. Alex Belida is the chief writer of the VOA news blog. He discusses issues of freedom of the press and VOA programming. He also answers questions, comments and criticism from the public. On a recent blog, Mister Belida wrote about VOAs rules demanding accuracy and objectivity. He wrote that VOA rules state that VOA reporters do not speak for the United States government. He also wrote that the idea that any government agency can tell VOA what to say is false. To read more of the VOA News Blog go to . For a dif