Bloggers Affect Politics by Targeting Influentials, Experts Say

Only about 25% of adults said they read at least one blog in an average week, according to StrategyOne data presented at “Trends in Political Blogging,” sponsored by George Washington U.’s Institute on Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI). But more than 34% of American “influentials” -- petition signers, speechmakers, political party workers and other activists -- read one or more blogs at least once a week. Survey results from the U.K., France and Belgium “suggest those countries are tracking in a similar direction,” StrategyOne Research Dir. Bob Moran said. “The audience may not be huge but the people who are there are hugely influential,” said IPDI Dir. Carol Darr.

Blogs are most effective when they target a particular audience or focus Congress’ attention on bills not on anyone’s “front burner,” said Republican National Committee E-Campaigns Dir. and blogger Patrick Ruffini: “That’s clearly where we're headed.”

Instant online feedback means “parties may become more true to their bases over time because they'll have to,” Moran said. Jackie Schechner, an Internet reporter for CNN’s Situation Room, agreed: “The Internet is constantly changing and moving… If you're smart… you'll figure out how to incorporate it.”

The Web forces accountability and transparency on media and politicians, Schechner said: Bloggers are “so wide and so loud you can’t get away with much anymore… You have to somehow embrace it or you'll get trampled by it.” Bloggers and other online content creators even direct news coverage, she said: When bloggers accused CNN of covering too many “missing white woman” stories, the cable network listened. Journalists no longer are the only “gatekeepers” of information, she said: “Mainstream media needs to learn to respect this medium.”

The BBC and some French TV channels are asking audiences to upload content to station sites, Edelman Paris Dir. Guillaime Du Gardier said: “Everyone becomes [part of] the media; you build your own media landscape.” It’s a mutually beneficial relationship, he said: Mainstream media get local stories from blogs and in return refer viewers and readers. The “free new world” technology offers has had a huge impact in Europe, where politics “don’t have a history of transparency,” he said.

Bloggers have broken many stories, such as Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.)’s earmarking of $207 million in the 2005 federal transportation bill for a parkway near property he owned, said Sunlight Foundation Senior Fellow Bill Allison. “When something [like that] takes off” it’s “the expertise of your audience that drives a story and pushes it forward, makes for a much richer amount of information,” he said.

In 2008, expect bloggers to push more pet candidates to the forefront, as they did with Democratic senatorial candidate Ned Lamont in Conn., Schechner said. Ruffini agreed but said in the fast-changing Internet world it’s tough to make accurate predictions: “Campaign professionals are going to have to learn to turn on a dime.”

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Last week, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) decided to allow an online Democratic PAC to collect money for candidates, even if they haven’t formally launched their campaigns. In an advisory opinion, the FEC ruled ActBlue could become a virtual “repository” holding funds in a bank account and release them to candidates once they file. The ActBlue trend likely will catch on, Schechner said: We'll start seeing new methods to make “funnel[ing] small amounts of money into candidates” easier. In the past, fundraisers used to wonder whether sending “the long letter” or the “short letter” would draw more money, but no longer, Moran said: “If you look at the online space, you can give people enormous amounts of information” about candidate platforms and issues.