Daily Kos Tops Iowa and NH?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
According to a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor: "Blogs still rank well behind traditional television, radio, and newspaper outlets as a source of news, but they are gaining ground rapidly. The liberal blog Daily Kos attracted nearly 4.8 million visitors this July, compared with 3.4 million in January, according to Nielsen//NetRatings…" The population of Iowa is 2,926,324. The population of New Hampshire is 1,235,786. Their total population is, thus: 4,162,110. That means Daily Kos had more "residents" in July than the two "first in the nation" states for the presidential nomination race. Of course, it is apples and ipods to compares a state with a website, but the numbers do point out the increasing locii of geopolitical power and attention that are blogs. One big difference: to meet everyone in Iowa, you have to travel all over Iowa. To get seen by everyone in Daily Kos land a single headlining post is enough. Originally posted November 7, 2005 at PolicyByBlog ...
Read More

Bloggers are First-hand Reporters for the Invisible Primary

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Bill Keller, editor of the New York Times, in one of a series of dismissals of bloggers, summed up his opinion of their contribution to the information society by the following: "Bloggers recycle and chew on the news. That's not bad. But it's not enough." I disagree. Many bloggers are creating new content, hunting and gathering news and information, not just digesting it. The presidential race--or pre-race creates many examples. The invisible primary is a time of severely reduced press attention to presidential hopefuls. Even bigfoot frontrunners like, say, Hillary Clinton, do not get much national media attention speaking to the Women's Democratic Caucus in a rural county in Iowa. As Richard di Benedetto of USA Today once commented to me: "When I started in this business, I was taught that the job of a journalist was to go someplace that the public couldn't get to and report what he saw and heard." (more…)...
Read More

Better Not to be in Office?

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
One of my students, Ben Boudreaux, edits the blog, Horserace08, which tracks the contenders for the 2008 presidential contest. He recently posted that: [John] Edwards could find himself to be at a considerable disadvantage in the 2008 election because he is the only potential candidate to date that is not currently holding an elected office—though Mark Warner will be joining him in that category soon. That is possible. On the other hand, NOT holding office does allow Edwards not to be blamed for votes, policies, and any upcoming disasters. Also, if there is a big anti-incumbent backlash in 2006/2008 he can avoid it. Now he can play "populist outsider" too--a role he plainly relishes. Of course, one of the main benefits of office-holding is being in the public eye. But his speaking tours and blog outreach may make up for that publicity deficit, at least among activists who are paying attention. Indeed, Edwards' nascent campaign seems to be a good test case in what blogs...
Read More

Blogs, Politicians and the “Face in the Crowd”

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Bill Keller, editor of the New York Times, in one of a series of dismissals of bloggers, summed up their contribution to the information society by the following: "Bloggers recycle and chew on the news. That's not bad. But it's not enough." If, indeed, that it was all bloggers were doing or could do, it would not be enough, but blogging today is much more than media criticism. In fact, there are bloggers who are doing everything that journalists ever did. Indeed that's the point about the world of "PolicyByBlog": blogging is a genre, a medium and a technology that can be used by professionals. I don't think Keller was making a movie allusion. But to historians of political communication who are also interested in politicians using blogs to reach the people it is worth recalling the implications of the word "chew." I think of a potent icon of individual populist autocracy gone mad. There were no blogs in 1956 when director Elia Kazan...
Read More

Blogs of War: Then and Now

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
A few years ago I wrote a book on the history of the visualization of war.  Today, writing a book on blogging, I see a striking differences between two "blogs of war," that is, first person accounts of a battle in the Middle East. Then: In c. 1300 BCE, the pharaoh Rameses II and his army fought a battle against a Hittite army at Kadesh, in what is now Syria. The battle was a draw; in fact, the Egyptians ended up retreating. But Rameses' memorial temple--an instance of massive communication--shows on its 100-foot walls pictures and hieroglyphics of the great ruler as victorious. As originally painted, Rameses is bronze skinned, broad shouldered, long armed, resolute of face, wearing the twin crowns of upper and lower Egypt, and many times larger than the Hittites and his own men--a superman in the anthropological as well as comic book sense. (Rameses became the "Ozymandias"  who, in Shelley's poem, demanded that all "look upon my works, ye mighty,...
Read More

Bloggers as Tipsters

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Bloggers can be tipsters on what is happening now, what's "hot" and what's out there. Lottgate, Rathergate, and the Eason Jordan affair are such examples. Blogs, or blog-like websites, can also tell journalists what other journalists are printing or not printing. Blogs can also "get out the rumor" faster because of their lack of structural rigidity. The distributed networks of blogs also allow stories to be vetted very quickly for confirmation or refutation. For example, I was reading the liberal blog Daily Kos on the morning of Friday, July 1, 2005 when the following post, by DK associate blogger, "TheMadEph," appeared. (more…)...
Read More
«‹567