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March 31, 2006 - University public affairs magazine logs onto the blogosphere

Illinois Issues’ Statehouse Bureau Chief Bethany Carson launched the magazine’s first online journal in time to track the scheduled end of the spring legislative session.

Carson’s Web log can be read at http://illinoisissuesblog.blogspot.com.

In the months to come, her posts will enable the magazine to offer eyewitness accounts of policy debates at the state Capitol, along with a front-row seat on some of the political gamesmanship. This more casual style is not often appropriate in the pages of Illinois Issues, or even on the magazine’s Web news page, which can still be read at http://illinoisissues.uis.edu.

“We’ll use our blog as a way to keep up-to-date information available at your fingertips, with the intention to clear up misinformation, not add to the rumor mill,” Carson writes in the welcome to her site.

As is the case with many other news organizations, an editor will get a look at Carson’s post before the rest of the world does. And while readers will be encouraged to message her, their responses won’t be part of her blog. Still, the online journal offers a chance to extend the statewide magazine’s reach and enhance its mission to provide information and insight about Illinois government and politics.

--Illinois Issues, an independent not-for-profit publication, is published through the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Springfield.