DailyKos, a partisan political site, has been constructing new community grassroot and netroot activists through the blogsophere platform and in the process it has been shaking up the political landscape. Founded by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga in May 2002, the first year DailyKos attracted over 1.6 million unique visits and peaked last October during the Valerie Plame issue with over 23 million visits during that month. DailyKos has been one of the highest traffic-ranked blogs continually since its inception, consistently ranking in the top five influential weblogs in popularity (links on other sites pointing to DailyKos) and Technorati ranks it fourth of all weblogs currently but during the Plame and Iraq issues last fall it ranked second.
Jerome Armstrong, who coined the term netroots, is also a pioneer in the blogosphere and founded one of the first political blogs, MyDD.com in 2001. The site attracted a lot of attention during Howard Dean's campaign for president. The blogosphere in general jolted politics-as-usual when Dean's campaign demonstrated that it could raise a lot of money online. Armstrong was one of the architects that helped pioneer the "meetup" strategy that pulled Dean supporters together across the nation and works as an internet strategists for political campaigns with his company, Netroots.com. Armstrong is an advisor to former Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner, a potential '08 Democratic presidential contender.
Armstrong and "Kos" (a former military moniker rhyming with "morose"), have just published a book, Crashing the Gate - Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics already ranked #957 on Amazon. Their chapter on The Changing Media Landscape (p. 93) is a good read on the subject of media and politics.
Kos has two bachelor degrees (with majors in Philosophy, Political Science and Journalism) and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law -- all of which have helped him develop the DailyKos site into a political power site. In 2005, over 10,000 diarists wrote posts, mostly on politics on his site. Being raised in El Salvador has probably given him the strength to stand as an outsider as a force for change in the political landscape and a stint in the US Army provided him with the knowledge of how to serve as a footsoldier for change. In a March 23, '05 interview with Robert Niles in the Online Journalism Review, Kos, who considers himself a "partisan" believes that blogs will be the primary source of information for political activists in the elections of 2006 and 2008. Joe Garofoli at SFgate wrote an article April 5 and quotes Kos as saying he is getting "flacked to death" by political consultants who want to take advantage of the power base he has built.
The blogs contributed to the toppling of Dan Rather and to the rise of Howard Dean. Blogs have kept issues alive, such as the Valerie Plame case, that otherwise would have been bumped from the news by other "breaking" political news of the moment. Dan Froomkin's WaPo blog talks about the Plame issue here and how the MSM has kept silent on the story. Sometimes you have to go to the blogs to get the stories.
Blogs have served as watchdogs for the mainstream media (MSM) when the traditional media have lost their indendent function. This was seen clearly when the issue of altering White House transcripts was caught and brought to the surface by blogs such as Wonkette. In January '06, Walmart experienced the force of the online armies and the MSM realized that stories in the blogosphere can percolate up to become MSM topics. The blogs in the last year have begun to influence the agenda of what gets covered and what doesn't in the MSM.
Blogs and diarists/commentators on blogs also help to create activists which is good for a healthy democracy. By serving as the pub-on-the-corner for citizens, special interest blogs can help share information that allow citizens to become active rather than passive participants. This diary, for example, last December on DailyKos, pointed readers to a new information feature on Washington Post's online site, WashingtonPost.com -- Database of Congressional Votes that allows for checking on and keeping up with votes by U.S. Senators and House Reps and lets you "browse every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991, by session, by member and more...."
Political campaigns will be turning more to blogs and online videos to create a buzz. Zachary Goldfarb writes on WaPo about this subject here, giving an example of Lynn Swann (R) and his web site posting "Lynn Swann's Video Blog" the day after announcing a bid for governor of Pennsylvania. With the fragmentation and ballooning media choices available (not the same ol' NBC, ABC and CBS for mass saturation anymore), online venues to capture audiences will be gaining more attention. Goldfarb quotes a media expert forcasting an increase in web advertising of 20 to 50 million (dollars) by 2006 (political spending online in '04 was about $10 million according to the expert).
Tracking the eyeballs online can be very effective and very targeted. Online armies will be altering the beat of the political marchers...
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