The Power of Blogs
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in BloggingSan Antonio Express News editorial board member Jonathan Gurwitz has an excellent piece in today’s Wall Street Journal disecting Henry Cuellar’s Democratic primary win despite strong opposition by liberal bloggers. The big liberal blogs tried very hard to take the centrist-minded Cuellar down but the representative won handedly anyway. This brings up the question: is the blogosphere really all that influential?
For those of us who read and write political blogs, it’s easy to forget that we represent just one tiny segment of the American public. Most Americans aren’t particularly interested in politics and even among those who are, many of those don’t read blogs. In fact, figuring out how many people actually read political blogs is quite difficult (as Michelle Malkin discovered last year).
But that said, it’s undeniable that bloggers are influential. The biggest blogs like Daily Kos and Power Line are often referred to and quoted by mainstream journalists while politicians are starting to turn to blogs to help them get their message out. Even bloggers with relatively low readerships have been interviewed on cable news channels (i.e. my recent appearance on CNN). So there is no question that bloggers in general are becoming important opinion leaders.
The question then is not whether blogs can have an influence but rather where they can have an influence. Clearly, as the Cuellar election shows, bloggers simply do not have the political might to influence the outcome of an election. But they do have the ability to make that election a story in the mainstream media. And being able to make something a story is a pretty potent power to wield.
I certainly would not write off the influence of bloggers. This little hobby of ours is moving out of the trend phase and starting to become a cultural fixture. Just because the liberal bloggers failed to knock off Cuellar doesn’t mean they won’t have the power to do so next time. Of course by then there might be an equally strong centrist blogosphere capable of countering the left’s (or right’s) punches. Hey, a guy can hope.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 16th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
The power of Blogs is awsome, I think, because it creaes a venue(s) where anyone can give an opinion on the basis of their view of a particular topic.
It is akin to the Friday night walks through town that I remember as a child. people realy mixed and communicated in a way that doesn’t happen in the world of the Supermall.
The more important influence for those who have deep or even passing interest in the political world or the state of the world in general is education. We teach one another things during these extensive and sometimes adverse commentarys … things that we can’t learn from the tube packages (Fox. MSNBC, etc.) where we perhaps get slanted op-ed type information. bloggers challenge one another to look deep to form opinions. I believe that it will have a strong influence in future ballot box results.
It also creates a significant venting tool for frustration about almost every annoying part of our fast paced world. Great stuff!
It is interesting that Centrist blogs, Left blogs, and Right blogs now seem to be visiting each other. Perhaps small town USA moved to cyberspace and we found it.
March 16th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
GN, I admire your optimism but I hold quite grave fears for the future “acceptability” of the blogiverse in matters politic especially.
Just as one small instance from the last USP Election take the “Swifts” (there is a term that I have forgotten for the moment, is it ‘417′?) campaign against Kerry. Now I am using this to make the illustration and not to make any partisan comment.
One could almost equate these “side campaigns” with guerilla warfare in the context of a wider public debate. That they at present fall outside of any electoral control is concerning. Oh, and they are not limited to the US. During the last NZ General Election several blog sites came to life with the intention, not of promoting a particular party or candidate, of providing “opposition” and criticism to other parties.
As an instance, one blog that I spent some time at last year turned out to be the mouthpiece of the Campaign Organiser for one of the two major parties. His contribution to the party’s campaign through that blog was probably small and inconsequential. On the other side of the coin is the (NZ example again) “sub-campaign” provided by the Exclusive Bretheren Church to the National Party. they spent reportedly over NZD1 mill on a campaign against the Green Party who were expected to take about 7-8% of the vote.
And this is truly where I see the danger.
In the normal world, there is a relative certainty that one can identify and be sure of the truthiness of a “news source”. You might not read USA Today, or NYT, but you know who they are and the politic they follow.
But if you are reading a blog page that is promoting ( or demoting ) a candidate or party then that certainty starts to evaporate.
March 16th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Probligo,
I think your illustration (the Swifties) is a good one. Development of the blogoshere was pretty embryonic at that point. the major success that SBV guys had was TV. they could pitch there sale without any resistance. Had they done that to a veteran in past daysin history other Veterans would have searched them out and kicked their collective asses, (not that violence is the answer, just that this is the first brutal vet on vet political crapola I have seen) the blogoshere is quickly becoming the “town square” where it is not so easy to peddle bullshit and not have to defend it. The technology certainly provides avenues for the false prophets but they have always been there. The internet provides a platform for me to speak … and you to speak … how many times have you been able to get your personal thoughts in a forum where they can be seen (heard) by those who are asking for your support? Thirty-five years ago, politicians knocked on your door, and spoke to you directly …. now they do so through the Fox Network by talking AT you. People are paying more attention (only recently) but as I said in another post they called their elected officials into the office, told them who was boss and said stop the bullshit and do your job … NOW! That tanked the UAE ports deal. That is significant not because of the virtues or evils of the deal, but because they had an opinion and asserted that opinion on their employees (the Congress) and it will snowball and continue and that is good because that is Democracy at work. Hence, the optimism. The net is the first tool for the voter since the town square and we should use it.
March 19th, 2006 at 8:12 am
My point of view develops from digesting lots of information. Blogs are one of the sources. The process of commenting helps me organize my thinking.