Now that "the crisis" - who doesn't know what I am talking about? - is everywhere, it is also out there: in the RuNet. If the financial hardships have been ardently discussed by many a blogger already, then in addition, since October 8 the ZhZh-blogosphere has its own crisis platform. The community 'Crisis in the Mass Media' ('Krizis v SMI') zeroes in on the refractions of the financial crisis in Russian mass media.

According to the initiators, 'Krizis v SMI' traces the way in which "the press experiences the ongoing economic turmoils." More concrete, they promise to provide inside information about discharges, delays in salary payments, "tendencies and analyses..." and more. If that sounds a bit vague and gossipy, then the emergence of a crisis-linked ZhZh platform is interesting in itself, as a cyberreaction on the situation. 

So what type of a community is 'KvS'? And will it become a relevant digital counterweight to info about the crisis in other mass media sources? Does a blogging community such as this one have the potential to do so, generally speaking? So far, the site has 230 members and is watched by another 314. It offers regular postings, which - in the most recent cases - generate a comment or two. Rather than a news service, the community seems a social networking tool in its purest form: members post brief messages, of the "look what's happening over here!" or "beware if you have an account at this-or-that bank!" type, but also personal analyses of the situation, or even a poetic reaction on the events. 

It could prove worthwhile to check the site on a longer term, and see which function it fulfills for its members. For now, anyone interested in the platform's 'crisis blogging' will have to do with the first 63 entries - no small amount for a blog that was born 21 days ago.

ER