NYT: Internet Injects Sweeping Change Into U.S. Politics

[DeepModem Mom]

NOTE: On page two of this article, Nagourney covers the Democratic party's use of the Internet, and the influence of bloggers on the party.

Internet Injects Sweeping Change Into U.S. Politics
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: April 2, 2006

WASHINGTON, March 31 — The transformation of American politics by the Internet is accelerating with the approach of the 2006 Congressional and 2008 White House elections, producing far-reaching changes in the way campaigns approach advertising, fund-raising, mobilizing supporters and even the spreading of negative information.

Democrats and Republicans are sharply increasing their use of e-mail, interactive Web sites, candidate and party blogs, and text-messaging to raise money, organize get-out-the-vote efforts and assemble crowds for rallies. The Internet, they said, appears to be far more efficient, and less costly, than the traditional tools of politics, notably door knocking and telephone banks.

Analysts say the campaign television advertisement, already diminishing in influence with the proliferation of cable stations, faces new challenges as campaigns experiment with technology that allows direct messaging to more specific audiences, and through unconventional means.

Those include podcasts featuring a daily downloaded message from a candidate and so-called viral attack videos, designed to trigger peer-to-peer distribution by e-mail chains, without being associated with any candidate or campaign. Campaigns are now studying popular Internet social networks, like Friendster and Facebook, as ways to reach groups of potential supporters with similar political views or cultural interests....

***

What the parties and the candidates are undergoing now is in many ways similar to what has happened in other sectors of the nation — including the music industry, newspapers and retailing — as they try to adjust to, and take advantage of, the Internet as its influence spreads across American society. To a considerable extent, they are responding to, and playing catch up with, bloggers who have demonstrated the power of their forums to harness the energy on both sides of the ideological divide....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/washington/02campaign.html?hp&ex=1143954000&en=003299f756f21d88&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Old and In the Way]

1. I wish Dean would consider annual online conventions.

It would be an excellent way to get the politicians diectly connected to the grass roots. Podcasts, polling, Q&A, forums, platform building could all be part of a national GOTV...at a fraction of the cost of a conventional convention.

[bemildred]

2. And validated online voting.

That would wake the gummints sorry asses up.

[Dancing_Dave]

3. Democratic leaders in Washington still don't get it

We've got Dean and Gore who are hip to it, but the ones in Washington DC seem to be stuck in there old TV spin warp

[Neil Lisst]

4. That's why the Bushies are so intent on controlling content on the NET