I listened to the latest installment of the EMS Garage podcast, Dr. Wesley Versus The Bloggers: EMS Garage Episode 65. Listening to the podcast, I couldn’t help but think that this is a fantastic illustration of an Eternal September event in action.

Now to be fair, Dr. Wesley stated very clearly that he does not consider the bloggers that joined him as bloggers themselves. A few of them that were joining him included The Happy Medic, Medic999, CKEMTP, Steve Whitehead, and of course the always astute and thorough Rogue Medic.

So I’d like to clarify things regarding some concerns that Dr. Wesley made when it comes to blogging. Below are a few quotes from his appearance on the podcast, and my own explanations regarding his concerns:

We need to come up with a different term other than “blog”…

Now each one of those individuals with Dr. Wesley on the podcast use either the WordPress or Blogger platform and use them to create dynamic content posts in reverse chronological order available on the internet with the ability to comment. These attributes match up with what the definition of a blog is according to Wikipedia. Therefore, call it what it is. Call it a blog.

However there is room to further define the type of blog you are authoring. Just as the Mommy Blogs, the Review Blogs, and the Gossip Blogs have done before them, perhaps it is time for the bloggers to better define what their blogs are to them and the public. Are they EMS Blogs, Paramedic Blogs, Ambulance Blogs, Rescue Blogs, Medical Blogs, Responder Blogs or perhaps Research Blogs?

This actually goes back to the public’s perception of who we are as a profession and what we do. Are we better known as EMS, EMTs, Paramedics, or Ambulances? Insert the result of the constant debate over what we should call ourselves for public perception, follow it by the word Blogs, and there is your answer.

My concern is the unsuspecting public who’s healthcare, privacy, and interactions that we hold dear as part of our profession can Google EMS Blogs and come across EMS blogs of Paramedics and EMTs talking in great detail and a very derogatory manner about the patient’s that they care for. That doesn’t do our profession any good at all.

Actually, I like to think that’s quite the contrary. I think this is a great indicator to Chiefs, Directors, Managers, and Supervisors as to what is actually going on in their EMTs and Paramedics minds. It provides insight into the mentality of the EMS workforce today, and perhaps that is something we need to address as a profession.

How would we address such issues? Perhaps in education. Perhaps through a concept called quality improvement. Perhaps with effective psycho-therapy. Perhaps we do nothing. How we address the issues these anonymous bloggers raise is up to us… but to dismiss them summarily as not doing our profession any good at all is to turn a blind eye to problems that may very well exist and are solvable if only we took the time to look and address them.

I liken this attitude to all those who criticize Bringing Out The Dead as unrealistic and untrue. Those criticizers are almost always the people who did not work in New York City back then. The truth, though it may hurt, is that it was in fact very realistic and representative of the era in the 1990s.

Just because we don’t necessarily like what that movie or anonymous blogger says about us doesn’t necessarily make it untrue.

If you have a blog that you get for free, you’re not an honest blogger.

This is an interesting argument and is actually one that has been argued in blogger circles themselves since as early as 2006, but probably earlier if I looked hard enough. In fact on an interesting sidenote along the same lines, the JEMS.com blog network FireEMSBlogs.com is using WordPress MU… which is free. So does this make all the blogs on that site, and therefore JEMS.com themselves because of it’s use dishonest? Absolutely not.

This concept of not being an “honest” or “true” or “real” blogger if you’re using a free platform or free hosting is elitist gibberish. That is one of the leveling factors of Social Media, its accessibility and empowerment to create without a huge financial investment.

Sure having your own domain is nice, having your own hosting and not at the mercy of the Blooger machine outages is a delight, but that doesn’t change the type of blog you are writing. The hard truth is that the blog platform is not what truly matters, it is the actual content of the blog that matters. In the blogosphere, content is still king.

None of anyone’s blogs, who’s online, came in under Google when I typed in EMS Blog, EMT Blog, Paramedic Blog…

The answer to this was actually answered in the podcast, which is better SEO. However it is more than just better SEO because you have to realize that, as I predicted as a con, all of those who moved over to FireEMSBlogs.com lost the power of authority from their links to their other blogs when changing their domain format.

How do we resolve that issue? Some better SEO with keywords, regular content, and linking from other blogs of authority. Of course, what gets links? Good content.

In Conclusion

This huge concern about anonymous bloggers and the effect they have on the perception of the public is truly misplaced. A blogger, whether anonymous or not, will be judged on the quality of their content and whether or not their reader is able to connect with them. The huge majority of those connections are based on a shared commonality, just as the groups of bloggers who connect share a commonality amongst themselves as well. To ignore the ranting anonymous blogs is doing the profession a great injustice and disallowing us to take an honest look at ourselves clearly in the mirror. Doing so may actually lead to making improvements that will matter on both the Responder and Patient Care sides of the fence.

The fear and loathing that Dr. Wesley is demonstrating is nearly identical to that of EMS Agencies who do not understand Social Media. Instead of fearing that which you don’t know, it would serve you better to become educated in Social Media and its uses. Then, if you still feel it is so “evil”, feel free to evangelize against it as passionately as I evangelize for it.

At the end of the day, the public’s perception of EMS will be defined more by the headlines found in a Google News Search than an anonymous blogger who has perhaps 3 or 4 regular readers. The EMS themed blogosphere is in fact a relative infant when compared to the Tech Blogs and the Personal Blogs. How we develop ultimately is in our hands.

With great power…

As always, if you disagree or even more unlikely agree, feel free to leave a comment…