Political bloggers

Just recently the liberal bloggers held a convention in Las Vegas to discuss their role in the political process. I was disappointed that I wasn't invited since I love Las Vegas and have recently been accused of taking more liberal positions. Having said that, internet played a big role in 04 election by promoting Howard Dean as the early front runner. He was the first national campaign to fully utilize the internet's strengths and he rode that momentum for several months until his true personality was revealed in Iowa. Since the election the left wing bloggers have mostly focused on galvanizing the anti war and anti Bush crowd.

Blogging is not exclusively for liberals and there are many conservative blogs out there as well. In fact, the blogosphere has become the townhall of the new millennium. This new political forum has several interesting dynamics to it and I honestly do think it has a chance to change the political landscape. In college, I read a book called Understanding the Media by Marshall McCluhan. It was dated back then but the message still resonates. The premise of the book is that the medium is the message in politics. He used TV as example of how it shaped current events and focused arguments into newscast soundbites. The Internet is doing the same thing today. The message of modern politics is open to the masses, immediate, largely opinion based, highly partisan and without perspective for the bigger issues facing the country. These characteristics are all influenced and encouraged by the growing power of the internet.

1. Information is now available to a much wider audience than before. Anybody can log onto their favorite website and read the latest happenings of the day. Even with cable you still have to wait for the show your watching to cover the topics you want covered. With the internet you just go right to it. This is both good and bad for political campaigns because you can have your own website and have people read about your candidate at their leisure. But there are so many sites out there that it is tough to control the message sometimes and you can't be everywhere at the same time. When it was just the big three or even with CNN you could control the message by getting on their shows. It is much harder to do that today.

2. Reporting is almost instantaneous with actual events. If someone bombed a building in Iraq an hour ago, I can already read about it. This is really fast and exciting but it also creates a short attention span because so much is happening and being reported so fast. I can check the drudge report every hour and get new headlines. Politically the speed of the internet is a great benefit to the campaigns that are most nimble and able to respond quickly to the latest issue or story. It also allows good politicians to get their message out quickly.

3. Much of what is written on-line and especially in blogs is opinion based and not actual reporting. This is okay as long as people remember this point and don't start taking other's opinions as wholly factual. Sometimes I worry that the truth gets lost in the debate but this is true on TV and talk radio as well. The implication for campaigns is that you better be very persuasive. To run an effective campaign you need to get close to all these opinion making bloggers and make your case to them. Each of them has a following and if you can win them over, you can win their entire readership generally.

4. Bloggers are also usually very partisan in nature and one sided in their arguments. They tend to develop loyal followings who all share the same views of the world. This creates a sense of community in a world where many people do not have that network of likeminded friends. The bad part about this is that most people never hear the other sides of the argument. They begin to think that everybody agrees with them and their position except the extremists from the other party. It reminds me of college when Clinton won in 1992. Everybody on campus was a Republican and we were just stunned that people would actually vote for Clinton. It is easy to to get wrapped up into one's own blog cocoon and miss what's really happening in the real world.

5. The internet is not very good at sorting out the important from the mundane. The large events that deserve in-depth reporting are just sort of thrust out there with all the rest of the day's events. I think this can lead to a loss of perspective and I worry that we are trending this way more and more. The serious issues of the day are not getting the attention they deserve and many times it's because they are too complex for the public's short attention span. Everybody agrees that healthcare reform is one of the most pressing needs of the day. But how many articles and blogs have you read on that issue? Nobody because they would be boring. Instead we prefer to read about tantalizing scandals and hot button issues because they are much more interesting even if less important.

Finally, the results are still mixed as to how effective the internet is in regards to specific campaigns. Yes Howard Dean would not have become the front runner without it but in the end he didn't win the election. Other elections have also tapped into the internet but so far it would be tough to say that any one candidate has won based on the power of the internet and grass roots bloggers. I think talk radio can make a much more compelling case that is helped usher in the Republican majority in 1994. The internet hasn't had that watershed moment yet but maybe it's coming sooner than we think.