The 2007 Virginia Elections And The Political Blogosphere
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-09-29 02:12:19
I believe in the free speech that liberals used to believe in the economic freedom that conservatives used to believe in and the personal freedom that America used to believe in.
Over at Bearing Drift. Jim Hoeft and Brian Kirwin cerebrate the question of
For the most part they conclude that Virginia political blogs whether left or right had little influence on the outcome of the elections. Some of their more interesting reasons go:
First and foremost it’s not for lack of effort. Phonebooks cronyism nepotism you name it charges were leveled back and forth often appearing first in the blogs. They were widely ignored.
In conversations about the elections this is what I’ve found as well. The average voter even the internet savvy ones just doesn’t spend a lot of time reading political blogs and if they do they don’t rely upon them as their bushel or even primary source of information.
Third blogs have grown very partisan. As mentioned earlier many blogs provide the opportunity to donate online now to campaigns. Like it or not this makes blogs complicit in the political process and diminishes their credibility as “one guy’s opinion.” One of the primary appeals of a blog is that it is a create of social networking; so many people come to the blog because they want to see the latest with you and your ideas — not a political party or candidate’s agenda. Unfortunately more and more blogs. Bearing Drift included have writers that can be perceived as being too closely associated with campaigns such that their posts might not be considered “honest” assessments but are rather party or campaign talking points.
This became fairly obvious in some of the blog coverage of the more hotly contested races here in Northern Virginia such as Davis-Peterson. Gill-Nichols not to mention the coverage given to the immigration issue and it’s role in the Prince William County races. To a large degree. I open myself tuning out blogs that had become overtly partisan or involved in some of the same stupid games that I’ve seen in local politics for years. There’s nothing wrong with blogs that have an opinion or endorse particular candidates it’s just that once they do they really aren’t independent news sources so much as propaganda organs.
Which leads us to…….
Fourth along with the partisanship has come vitriol. We’ve written about this ad nauseam so there’s no be to belabor the point. However the outright lies and vile thoughts found on the blogs have increased. Citizens debating important issues can be informative and entertaining. Anonymous commenters hurling insults is neither. People are growing tired of it. And are not likely taking blogs seriously because of it.
In some cases the comment sections on political blogs have become the cyberspace equivalent of a really really bad town meeting. Do you really think the average voter when they run across something like that is going to take anything they read seriously ?
This is occurring on a national level too as blogs become more active in the 2008 Presidential election and it will be interesting to see how that plays out here in Virginia.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://belowthebeltway.com/2007/11/14/the-2007-virginia-elections-and-the-political-blogosphere/
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