Today is Blog Action Day. And everyone in the blogosphere is discussing - and taking action - on poverty, this year’s hot topic.

Just about anyone and everyone who is anyone on the Internet (and has a blog) is participating. The list is impressive:

• TechCrunch
• Mashable
• VentureBeat
• SEOMoz
• TorrentFreak
• ReadWriteWeb
• MentalFloss

One of the coolest posts on Blog Action Day that I’ve seen was from Michael Martine at Remarkablogger, who is giving away at least $500 to fight the effort against poverty. Giving it away. I thought that was cool.

In our participation in Blog Action Day, News and Media Blog would like to highlight a few efforts of our own, which we do every day and not just when peer pressure presses in.

• Disaster Victims - The Disaster Victims blog is a NameCritic blog that seeks to bring awareness to the needs of disaster victims, which can be those stricken with poverty as well as those who are more economically advantaged. But a real disaster can also be the cause of poverty as was the case with many victims of Hurricane Katrina.
• Runaway Teens - Another effort News and Media Blog supports is runaway teens. Our Runaway Teens Blog highlights a different runaway teenager every day, with a photo and information about the teen to help people identify them. Like disaster victims, a runaway teen may be a teen who has come from a poverty-stricken background, but it could also be a teen who has run away from a middle-class or upper-class family. Many times these teens get caught up in drugs and prostitution, which often can be a catalyst for a downward spiral into poverty.
• Missing Children - Related to runaway teens, the NameCritic Missing Children Blog highlights missing children with a photo and information to help people identify them. Many of these children are abducted or kidnapped and some are even murdered or raped before found. NameCritic has been instrumental in helping authorities find missing children and our very popular blog has helped identify missing children in various places. A missing child has a greater chance of being catapulted into a life of crime or poverty than children still living with their parents.
• Most Wanted Newspaper - Crime is a cause of poverty that is often ignored. Not all criminals come from a life of poverty and not all people living in poverty commit crimes, but social scientists have inexplicably found a link between the two. Many people who come from a life of poverty and abuse see no other way out than to resort to crime. But we believe criminals should be stopped no matter what their motive, especially violent criminals that do harm to others. Some day we hope there is a solution to the downward spiral of crime and poverty. Until then, we keep on the lookout for America’s most wanted through the Most Wanted Newspaper Blog.

Would you like to sponsor one of these blogs? You can. All you have to do is contact Chris McElroy aka NameCritic. For just a few dollars a month you can sponsor a great charity blog and gain access to its traffic. Together, we can make a difference in striking a dent in the armor of poverty well beyond Blog Action Day.