Reply #5: the net is an extremely important political environment [View All]

[welshTerrier2]

i have no reason to quibble with the points made in the BP except to say that the bottom line is that the net is a critically important political environment ... my involvement with DU, as one small anecdotal example, has made me much more politically active ... i believe Dean's fundraising and his meetups and the incredible influence garnered by MoveOn largely through its internet presence are forces to be reckoned with ...

the "consumer friendly" internet has only been around for around 15 years and it is growing very rapidly ... and today's technology will seem archaic in just a few years ... wait until we do less typing and hold video conferences online ... the potential for grassroots activism is huge ... arguing that only x% of voters read blogs really misses the point ... it's the trend that's important, not the absolute measurement at this point in time ... it would be like saying that only 1% (or whatever) of Americans watched Truman's inaugural address ... kind of a meaningless statistic if only 2% of Americans owned TV's at that time ... TV has obviously become a critically important component of political campaigns ...

one last point ... this doesn't mean to specifically suggest whether bloggers will ultimately be important or not ... the focus is on the internet as a campaign tool ... if the point being made in the BP is that the internet is overrated as a political force, i couldn't disagree more ...

source: http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/001161.html

As many as 75 million Americans used the internet during the 2004 elections to get news, discuss politics through e-mails or to participate directly in the political process by volunteering or contributing money, according to a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press.<skip>

"The last election was a breakout event for the internet," said Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project and one of the authors of a new report. "Every aspect of online politics grew quantitatively and many were wholly new - from the flood of online campaign contributions to rise of political bloggers, from Meetups to streaming JibJab."<skip>

"The (Pew) Project report confirms that the Internet has become the essential medium of American politics," Cornfield said in a commentary published by Pew Research. "It has done so gradually, like other media. Yet the Internet's distinctive role in politics has arisen because it can be used in multiple ways. Part deliberative town square, part raucous debating society, part research library, part instant news source, and part comedy club, the Internet connects voters to a wealth of content and commentary about politics."