Is Military Blogging Risky Business?

Military blogging was separated into a separate group, namely milblogs or warblogs. Resources represented in this group on a micro level can be very useful. For example, one of the frequently visited resources www.milblogging.com stores large volumes of information on actual field experience of US Marines in different locations. Information about combat operations is very useful in terms of education for other Marines and can serve as a coordination tool for high command in future operations. The importance of the information in this case is supported by the fact that it is "first-hand." This information is often not censored, therefore, it allows acquiring objective information. Another resource, called www.military-blogs.military.com has numerous blog posts separated into functional groups: defense tech, military fitness, military education, real military transition stories, soldier's perspective etc. The use of those blogs for increasing the quality of military experience and education is obvious. Marines share an overall military service impression for the ones who intend to enroll; discuss combat techniques based on experience in order to excel in real operations; share information about coming back to civil life for those who are about to finish service. Blogging is a broad and effective network, which often provides information unavailable under regular military study framework. On the other hand, many officials worry about the fact of information disclosure. Resources such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs imply the risk of information leakage prior to combat operation. Moreover, social networks carry a high risk of spyware intrusion into the central system. Both factors lead to significant loss of competitive advantage of the Army due to the leverage provided by information globalization. Written, video, audio military information retrievable from internet resources can contain very important facts without intent of disclosure. In this aspect blogging may become exposed to the procedure of censorship, which negatively influences previously mentioned advantages of information exchange (Shachtman, 2009).