June 5, 2006

Too many questions.

Are political blogs the new Iowa caucus? David D. Perlmutter, a senior fellow at Louisiana State University's Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs and an associate professor of mass communication on the Baton Rouge campus, explores that question in very interesting piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education

Media attention to blogging has exploded, in part because of a number of what I call blogthroughs, events that allowed bloggers to demonstrate their powers of instant response, cumulative knowledge, and relentless drumbeating. Those incidents included bloggers' role in challenging the memo about President Bush's National Guard service revealed on CBS, which may have led to Dan Rather's resignation as anchor of the network's evening news; video logs of the tsunami in Southeast Asia; and the high-profile use of blogs by Howard Dean's campaign for the last Democratic presidential nomination. Now, according to various measurement and rating services such as Technorati and BlogPulse, tens of millions of Americans are blogging on all kinds of subjects, like diets, relatives, pets, sports, and sex. Bloggers include journalists, marines in Afghanistan, suburban teenagers, law-school professors, senators, and district attorneys.

Of greatest interest to modern students of politics are the blogs that focus on public affairs. Mainstream political news media regularly check what blogs are saying about a given story - or how they created it. Surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and other organizations have found that most contributors to those blogs follow campaigns and political debates and are extremely likely to vote in elections. Politicians and activists are naturally eager to get their message to such a target audience while also bypassing the mainstream media's editorializing and heavy fees for advertising. Yet, as one political consultant I know put it, "The $200-million questions are: What are blogs? How can we use them? What exactly are they good for?"

Even experts cannot answer those questions because political blogs are in a state of flux. Are they a revolution or an evolution in political speech and activism - or a return to the more partisan press of the nation's early days? Will political bloggers challenge or complement traditional politics, political work, and politicians? Are bloggers representative of other Americans, or are they a minority of politically active citizens? How much impact will blogs have on political discourse and, ultimately, on voting behavior? Are they further Balkanizing American politics, with liberals reading only leftist blogs and conservatives reading only rightist ones?

What are blogs?
Blogs are websites that feature frequent updates, usually posted chronologically, and usually allowing for and even encouraging a high degree of interaction with readers and other bloggers.

How can we use them?
In a multitude of ways, some more effective than others. If you're serious about using a blog to influence the media or impact politics, I recommend a good consultant.

What exactly are they good for?
Lots of things.

Are they a revolution or an evolution in political speech and activism - or a return to the more partisan press of the nation's early days?
Yes, all of the above. There are thousand s of political blogs. Some are revolutionary, some are evolutionary, some are more partisan than others.

Will political bloggers challenge or complement traditional politics, political work, and politicians?
Yes.

Are bloggers representative of other Americans, or are they a minority of politically active citizens?
Yes.

How much impact will blogs have on political discourse and, ultimately, on voting behavior?
It varies from blog to blog and voter to voter.

Are they further Balkanizing American politics, with liberals reading only leftist blogs and conservatives reading only rightist ones?
Some yes, some no.

Blogs are not the message, they are the medium. Blogs are a publishing tool. Bloggers are people who publish content on blogs, just as newspaper reporters are people who write content for newspapers. Really, is this all that difficult to understand?

Perlmutter edits a political-analysis blog and is writing a book on political blogs for Oxford University Press. I'm sure he's a smart guy - and the piece does get much better from there.

But if I was looking for someone to help me understand blogs and how they impact the media and politics, I think I'd look for a successful political blogger with a journalistic background, rather than a professor.