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Politics 2.0 - the big one is here
In politics, candidates have to contend with big money, big labor, big special interest groups, big corporate, big media, and now, they have the mother lode of all bigs to exploit contend with - netroots. Netroots is derived from grassroots + internet to describe a new brand of political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. With over 100+ million American internet users, netroots is the ultimate big for politicians, where size of votes really does matter.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, some 15% of all American adults say the internet was the place where they got most of their campaign news during the 2006 mid-term election, up from 7% in the mid-term election of 2002.
Many people used the internet both ways – for news and for communication about politics. Altogether, 31% of all Americans (or 46% of internet users) say they were online during the campaign season gathering information and exchanging views via email, representing more than 60 million votes people. So, if you're wondering where the candidates are going to be besides the 20 states for the February 5th primary, they will be online.
NetRoots
Most candidates delving into social networking are shelving their tightly scripted image machine and joining a network which has access to information from an infinite number of sources, both good and bad, which everyone can link to and comment on. The control the candidates lose is worth the potential friends they make.
Like so many other candidates, Barack Obama is jumping into the Web 2.0 moshpit with both feet. At this early stage, he has rock star status and his web strategy is rocking with his own Facebook-like My.BarackObama.com website. His campaign recently announced a live, interactive webcast streamed from a small Iowa family home on March 31. There will be conference call hook-ups from house parties going on at the same time.
Similarly, most campaigns have a presence on MySpace and Facebook to organize young supporters. The campaigns are flooding YouTube, the popular video-sharing site, with positive clips to spread their message. Something somewhat noteworthy of how candidates are trying to be hip, even to the point of ridicule, Christopher Dodd appeared recently on The Daily Show.
An interesting political experiment is taking shape at Unity 08, where its organizers plan to use the Internet to stage the first-ever national presidential primary election, nominate a bi-partisan ticket and win the 2008 election. Will they be successful? Who knows? But, this would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, and clearly demonstrates the power of online activism and social networking in the political arena.
To assist you in your own political news foraging, we have put together a Political Bits and Bytes of the latest and greatest sites for campaign 2008. Let the games begin!
New!
TechPresident - new group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the web, and vice versa, how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign. We love their eye candy charts of running totals of the candidates' popularity on various social networking sites. It's like a political stock market ticker.
MySpace - just launced a new "Impact" channel designed to empower politicians, non-profits, and civic organizations to connect with MySpace users around the world. A new MySpace campaign contribution widget sits on candidates' sites, which you can click and contribut directly to their campaign. You can even drag this little widget onto your own page and have your friends contribute too. This feat is also possible with campaign ads which you might want to post on your site to show your patriotic zeal. You can also click to see if you are registered to vote and do something about it if you're not. With over 90 million users, MySpace has the potential to be the new rainmaker in netroots activism and MySpace is doing what it can to prove it has the mettle.
One question. Why is Giuliani's MySpace page set to private?
Tried and True
YouTube - TV is so 2004. YouTube is where the revolution begins and for your convenience, this is where you can see all the <I>official</I> political videos from candidates (big snooze). Interestingly, Obama is registering the most views. For more excitement and "macaca" like moments, you can go to YouTube's News and Politics page.
Digg 2008 Elections - Digg launched an election page for all things political.
Drudge Report - here you can get an assortment of links to stories from the US and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and various current events as well as links to many popular columnists, such as Arianna Huffington, Ann Coulter and David Broder. You choose, left, right or center.
Hotline - the inside political scoop - a blog from the reporting staff of the Hotline, a must read for DC's "inside the beltway" politicos.
TPM Cafe Election Central - a public meeting place to read about and discuss politics, culture and public life in the United States. The site hosts both blogs and public discussion areas.
Red Meat - all things partisan
The Daily Kos - a bit to the left
Instapundit - somewhat to the right
Experimental
Twitter - now that candidate John Edwards is using Twitter, you may see other candidates stampede to the site.
Comments
3
Subscribe to commentsStreakerMar 20th 2007 3:59PM
Saying The Daily Kos is a bit to the left is like saying the Sun is a bit on the hot side. The people over at Kos are way over on the left.
JamesMar 20th 2007 5:26PM
Yeah, did anybody notice that 4 of the 5 candidates in the image are Democrats, and the one "Republican" is the furthest-Left guy to throw his hat in the ring with an "R" after his name? It saddens me that "smart" people (those educated enough to get Internet access) tend to skew leftward like that.
Agreed, of course, about the Kos-sacks... too many quotes to choose just one, but yeah, like saying the Universe is "a bit" big.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned TownHall -- they get most of the popular right-leaning authors collected in one place, and started running blogs as well last year.
Victor Agreda, Jr.Mar 20th 2007 11:52PM
James, you just mentioned TownHall! That's why we appreciate the comments-- inevitably we find stuff we hadn't seen.