In the US, it was the 2004 election cycle that really saw the development of popularised blogging as a political force.
It was during the Bush vs. Kerry contest that bloggers first consistently created news that received widespread attention, began building large audiences, and – most importantly – started to organise and link to similarly-minded sites and stories.
The Argument, a superb book by Matt Bai about the “battle to remake Democratic politics” – charts the rise of the blogosphere’s first two stars.
First there was Jerome Armstrong, an environmentalist and member of the Peace Corps who coined the phrase “netroots” and is described today by many as the ‘blogfather’. He set up the MyDD blog in 2001. Initially this stood for My Due Diligence although the tag-line has since changed to My Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics. It was regarded as the first major liberal blog.
Second is Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, a protégé of Armstrong who founded the Daily Kos. As an army veteran, Moulitsas started his blog for, in his words, “personal therapy” to get his frustrations with the Bush administration off his chest. He provided a voice of anti-Iraq war progressivism, but also created the first popular example of what could be called a Web 2.0 blog.
The success of the Daily Kos was due to the site’s unique, innovative model which empowered individuals to create their own diaries within the main site. Cumulatively, these separate and independent bloggers formed a community around a common ideology and shared interests, and in turn, have generated a huge amount of traffic to the site. Visitors are drawn not only to the front page postings but also to ‘recommended diarists’ that are given mass approval by the site’s community members. It is perhaps a true embodiment of the democratising power of the internet
Following the 2004 election, the Center for American Progress – where I worked – set up a new blog called Think Progress. In contrast to the Daily Kos and other established liberal blogs like Talking Points Memo, they shied away from opinion pieces and established themselves as the first ‘rapid response research blog’.
In the words of their editor, Faiz Shakir: “We saw an opportunity to use our think-tank resources and research skills to carry out analysis in areas where the media was failing, publicising moments of hypocrisy and fact-checking misstatements by conservatives.”
The 2008 election in the US demonstrated the power that progressive bloggers have attained. By breaking stories of national prominence, bloggers began to drive the political narrative on a daily basis. Also, during this election cycle, traditional journalistic outlets began operating their own blogs, while prominent bloggers began doing original reporting.
The Huffington Post broke new ground by enlisting readers to become roving reporters – or citizen journalists. This resulted in one of the most prominent stories of the campaign when a blogger, Mayhill Fowler, recorded Barack Obama making a speech at a private fundraising event in San Francisco. Speaking about people from small towns in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, Obama said: “It’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
This was Obama’s biggest stumble and used relentlessly by Hilary Clinton during the closing chapter of their intense fight for the Democratic nomination.
Because the pace of activity was so ferocious during the campaign, bloggers were better positioned than print journalists to be the first to report stories. The campaign teams were forced to read and react to blogs in order to stay in the loop and avoid missing all the key breaking stories that might cause them joy or pain.
In March, the Fabian Society published a book called The Change We Need, which was edited by myself and an academic at the University of East Anglia, Nick Anstead. We distilled lessons for Britain from Obama’s victory in a range of different areas. Here’s what we said about blogging:
First, blogging is more effective as a campaigning tool when it is used for ‘rapid response research’ – reacting quickly to statements, speeches and policies by conservatives, and publicising moments of hypocrisy, especially where the mainstream media reaction has been poor.
Second, bloggers can usefully exist outside the mainstream structures of a political party or campaign, giving them free license to go on the attack in a way that might diminish the reputation of politicians. This approach also gives the ‘blogosphere’ free reign to attack conservative positions by otherwise progressive politicians, as Obama himself found out in relation to intelligence surveillance legislation.
Left Foot Forward fits firmly into that space. We provide what we call “evidence-based blogging” and tend to avoid gossip and opinion.
And although I am a committed Labour Party activist, Left Foot Forward is not a Labour Party blog. We are a space for progressives of all stripes and although much of our fire is aimed at the Conservative Party and their irresponsible positions in relation to the economy and Europe, we have also taken the government to task over the renewal of Trident, its support of nuclear power, its timidity on drugs, and many other issues. Over the next few weeks we will also scrutinise its pre-Budget report.
And what next for the blogosphere in the UK?
First, video. This, I think, will come in two forms. Blogs like Think Progress frequently post short extracts from CNN or Fox News of conservative politicians going on TV to make false claims about the Obama administration or to pedal particular myths. The same is true in the UK. We frequently hear George Osborne and others talking about Britain’s debt crisis. For the record, Britain has a record deficit but its debt to GDP ratio is still way below historic levels and on course to flatten out at a sustainable rate. We simply do not have a debt crisis.
At the moment, if we want to highlight this we will publish a story with the transcript, but it is much more effective if you can show the clip with the interviewee making the claim in their own words. There are concerns about copyright but the law is, in my view, untested. I hope that Left Foot Forward will start offering this service by the start of 2009, as many others may do.
Next is original video content. There is already some of this taking place. I mentioned the TPA’s anti-EU video, Guido Fawkes produces Guy News, and bloggers on the left like Gav Trait have produced their own videos. My guess is that videos from the right and left, that have nothing to do with party headquarters, will take off as the election approaches.
Second, is the absorption of twitter into blogging platforms. There are already messy ways in which collective tweets of an event – such as this – can be amalgamated into a website using hashtags. Other sites such as Conservative Home and Labour List contain their site’s tweets on the main page. Part of the appeal of twitter is its organic nature but this also means that quality control is lacking. Sites like Tweetminster, which now appears on the Independent’s politics page, are starting to distil this information but there is clearly further to go.
Finally, there is uncharted territory for link-ups between online campaigning groups and blogs. As with MoveOn and the netroots in the Connecticut race four years ago, new groups like 38 Degrees in the UK and traditional campaigners like Greenpeace, Oxfam, and many trade unions can link-up with the blogs. We can provide the underlying analysis for their campaigns and in turn report their successes.
So in conclusion, in the UK we’re at the start of a journey. The right wing blogosphere has not yet been tested and – with the emergence of several key players over the last year or two – we now have a proper fight on our hands.
NOTE: Will Straw is Editor of Left Foot Forward ( http://www.leftfootforward.org/ ). This article is an edited extract from his keynote address at this year’s Future Democracy ’09, Headstar’s e-democracy event ( http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy09 ). For the full version of this talk (in pdf) see: http://bit.ly/76TfMS
NOTE: Article originally published in E-Government Bulletin issue 301.
Click here to visit/return to issue 301 index
