Dean is doing it. Daschle is planning on it. A girl in California is doing it. There may be others (if you know of any, I'd love for you to drop it in the comments) who are doing it. While some of us may be biased since we are already bloggers, it is my firm belief that the blog is the next big medium for mass communication. In the history of mass communication and politics, we have seen numerous politicians leverage and exploit new mediums to their advantage.
Roosevelt had fireside chats. Families gathered around the old crystal set and listened intently through the scratchy static to hear the President of the United States speak to them as a an equal.
Kennedy took television and whacked Nixon over the head with the new medium in the 1960 presidential debates. Reagan took political television and made it into an art form that is still emulated today.
A Florida congressman in the 1994 election used cable to turn the tables on his opponent (forgive me for forgetting his name). The candidate was under funded and could not afford the expensive rates of broadcast television advertising, so he turned to cable, targeted his audience by running commercials aimed at his favorable demographics and pulled a stunning upset.
I don't know that we have yet to see a comparable example of the use of the internet for political gain. However, Howard Dean is showing exactly how powerful it can be. Unfortunately, he is probably a little too far to the left for the vast moderate centrists that decide every general election. In any event, he has demonstrated how a little known and under funded candidate can turn the corner using the internet for fundraising and communication. He has gone from dark horse to in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Have you visited the Bush re-election site? It is pretty and abides by all the marketing principles, but in this age of two-way communication, it leaves much to be desired. A week ago it occurred to me that with the success the Dean campaign is having with his internet strategy and his blog, the Bush campaign should begin rolling out a similar strategy. If any of you can find a live email address on the Bush campaign site, let me know. I signed up to be an e-team leader and received a pleasant auto-response email thanking me for signing up. That is not the way to endear people to your cause who are accustomed to the two-way communication of the blogosphere.
I searched desperately to find any email contact to the Bush campaign so that I could at least offer to help with a Bush blog. No such luck. Instead, I'll contact my friends who ran the Bush campaign in Arkansas in 2000. If they can pass the message, hopefully it'll get some notice.
I'm not certain, but my thumbnail picture of most bloggers is that they lean conservative with a heavy libertarian streak. This demographic may disagree with the administration at times but are generally going to support it over the leading Democratic candidate. The first important things to note (if that thumbnail is accurate) is that these are the people the Bush campaign will want to mobilize as a digital grassroots effort.
More importantly, the higher traffic blogs generally have as many non-blogging readers as they have blogging readers. This is important because sympathetic bloggers have the opportunity to influence an exponential number of voters. The world awoke to the influence of the blogosphere after the Trent Lott episode.
Old media is often days or weeks behind items already discovered, discussed, and debunked by the various blogs. I've been noticing this trend, but it struck home when my daily email from Arkansasbusiness.com reported that the Hunting For Bambi item was a hoax weeks after bloggers had already debunked it. And we did it in a day. It may be important to note that the whole scam came to our attention because a broadcast affiliate fell for the hoax.
Will the Bush administration take this largely supportive constituency of lean conservative, libertarian voters and use it leverage their message and their campaign? Imagine the new communication from the President of the United States. President Bush is a folksy, plain spoken fellow. The blogging medium is a perfect avenue for him to drop a personal note to the world. Instead of families gathered around a crystal set, they will look on their blogroll to see if the President has recently updated. And when he does, they’ll click to it to find a personal message from the President of the United States. Wouldn’t it be nice to read a post from the President next week when he’s back on his ranch at Crawford. He might start a day’s post talking about how he removed two truckloads of underbrush that morning and while doing so, it occurred to him how cleaning out the underbrush reminded him of how badly a tax system is in need of reform. The tax code is full of so many weeds and briars, and so much brush that it’s impossible for the average American to make a path through it. That would have appeal. That would help the President connect with so many Americans who feel disconnected to the process.
Further, something else occurred to me when I showed a friend the “We Can’t Forget” post . While we were discussing it, I realized short of going back to way it was, I want reassurance and comfort. Roosevelt offered it in World War II with the fireside chats, Winston Churchill inspired and led the British people through the Battle of Britain with his regular radio messages. President Bush could reassure and comfort the American people through his blog. Let’s face it, the average American doesn’t listen to the weekly radio address, nor could they tell you what station plays it. Mr. President, it’s time to embrace the new medium.
If not, we may see again the first and best use of a new mass communication medium by a Democratic candidate--much to the chagrin of the conservatives and libertarians.
Posted by Adam H at July 31, 2003 12:27 PM