Wednesday, November 01, 2006

blog the vote response

I do not know much about American politics and election, but this video clip is really interesting and, as Chelsey pointed out, does show the power of blogging in providing information and motivating people to participate in elections (of course as well as other social and political activities). This is a perfect example of blogs as public spheres and the idea of Web 2.0. I think one of my questions is: in this video, 'left-leaning' political bloggers (the subjects of this news story) are only a group of people with similar political opinions – they are not the only group who do political blogs. Then how about other groups of bloggers? Are there any problems about 'fragmentation', 'flaming', or irrational discourses that Papacharissi talks about in Chapter 26? It will be more interesting if we can see other sides of the story.

1 Comments:

At 1:41 AM, Blogger Joe E. said...

The 'Blog the Vote' was interesting in how it showed a couple of different political bloggers and examined how they went about what they did. The Montana blogger certainly doesn't fit the typical stereotype of what you would expect to see from a radical left-wing blogger, and I think that this stereotype shows part of the reason why candidates backed by bloggers haven't seen much of an affect from this support.

Just like any new form of media needs to do, the blogosphere is going to have to gain a certain perception of legitimacy with the American public before arguments posted online are given much thought. Somehow, the image of a Montana familyman seems to suggest greater realism and reliability of information -- He's not just some kook sitting in a dark room somewhere.

I did find it interesting that most of the bloggers profiled or featured were male, and I think there truly is a clear gender divide within the blogging community.

 

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