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March 7, 2006
I’m at a conference and unable to sit and blog carefully, but since I consult to Edelman PR, I want to say something about the NY Times article. So I’ll do it by proxy. I found myself agreeing with the two blogs Richard Edelman points to: Jeff Jarvis and Paul Holmes. More later, if you want… [Tags: pr edelman nytimes media blogs]
Peterme has a good post about when we do and do not want slick web pages.
The opening panel of the Online Politics conference features Gerald Rafshoon, who was Carter’s media guy, Doug Bailey, who is the publisher of the insider’s Hotline newsletter, and Jacki Schechner, who is CNN’s Internet reporter. The moderator is Chuck Todd, editor in chief of the Hotline.
Doug Bailey says that initially, TV ran roughshod over politics. “No one envisioned it as a tool for democracy.” [NOTE: All quotes are in fact probably paraphrases. And I’m doing my usually spotty, unreliable reporting.] The question should be not just how we can use the Internet to win, but how we can broaden democracy.
Gerald Rafshoon points to the gigantic increase in how much campaigns spend on media: from $30M each in ($78M in 2006 dollars) the 1978 campaign. In the 2006 campaign, the combined total was $2.2B. “It isn’t effective,” and it’s “generated because of greed on the part of the handlers.” “You young people have to take the Internet and make it a force for reforming how people campaign.” He talks about the ability of shooting spots for under $10K and posting them to the Internet. “There are so many ways the Internet could aid the political process.”
Jacki Schechner says the rules are changing. “Television you watch passively…But on the Internet you have the opportunity to talk back.”
Doug: New Internet ads will just be more spam.
Chuck: If you use humor, it will be spread around.
Doug: Video on demand is a powerful tool. You could hear your candidate on the issues any time you want. If you add some humor…
Chuck: What about podcasts?
Jacki: Podcast is a buzzword. We’re listening to more entertainment podcasts than political ones. But viral video is great. And that site that told you which candidate suited you was great. That’s interactive. That’s engaging.
Doug: “In the age of TV, interactivity meant being able to turn you off…Think of the power now available to campaigns to engage you, and you to engage them.” TV took the people’s participation out of the process. Campaigns stopped spending money on door to door organization. The Internet can put the people back in.
Doug: The public has never been as uncertain about the future of the country as they are right now.
Q: I run a project called Video Voter. How important is entertainment when it comes to blogging?
A: (Jacki) I don’t think political blogs are out to entertain. I think there is a market for honest information, but as with any medium, you have to keep it engaging.
Q: The Net’s distribution isn’t even, so how can it help democracy?
A: (Jacki) The Net isn’t as inclusive as we hoped, but it’s a start.
A: (Doug) The digital divide is serious.
A: (Gerald) It surfaced in the Dean campaign. Many participants in the Iowa caucuses weren’t on line.
Q: What about polls?
A: (The Mystery Pollster) People talk about the commodization of information [I was about to post on that topic!], but commentary still counts.
Q: How do we attract minorities and women to actively participate? And how do we get the media to focus on issues that matter?
A: (Jacki) It’s a challenge. I was hired in part to try to get some diversity into the stories. It’s a testament to CNN that it’s trying to get blog voices that need to be heard. I think CNN is very sincere about it.
[Tags: politics+online politics]
Today on CNN, the three people on screen during the business segment went from triviality to triviality, including a long discussion of a site that transposes financial news into musical notes. Meanwhile, underneath them the facts and stories crawled at slow-reading speed.
This is the commoditization of facts at work. [Tags: facts media cnn EverythingIsMiscellaneous everything is miscellaneous]
Daniela Waschow interviewed me when I was in Hamburg. She’s posted the podcast — it’s about 15 mins long — on her site, The Big Comfy Sofa. She certainly asked some questions I’ve never been asked before… [Tags: daniela+waschow podcast]
It would be good to have a president who knows how much work and love it takes to put things together. [Tags: jimmy carter george bush crafts]
I’m at the Politics Online conference today in Washington, DC, on a panel with Dan “Citizen Journalism” Gillmor and Alex “Shorenstein Center” Jones, moderated by Chris “Spot-On” Nolan. We’re talking about what’s changed in the past year (or whatever Chris wants us to talk about).
I’d say that what’s changed is that we’ve decided we’re fed up. Fed up with the same-old of politics, as reflected in the polls. Fed up with the voiceless voice of authority that comes from the media, as reflected in the blogosphere.
Put ’em together and I think we’re seeing a rejection of the institutional use of alienation as a way of controlling us, always for our own good of course. Now we’re discovering one another, which is how we overcome alienation.
(I’d define “alienation,” but that would expose the vapidness of what I’m thinking. So, let’s just leave it as a nice-sounding term, ok?) [Tags: politics media politics+online]
March 6, 2006
Our Jonny was fine, but if you weren’t already a Stewartiac, you wouldn’t know what the fuss was. He was ok, escaped with his dignity, and gave us a few laughs. But shorn of his politic focus, he was just another comedian.
On the other hand, that gay cowboy montage was hilarious. [Tags: jon stewart oscars]
Wesley Morris, a critic for the Boston Globe, writes about the lack of out gay stars:
It’s fine for Hollywood to urge gay tolerance. But it should give America an actual homosexual to tolerate first.
March 5, 2006
Tom Matrullo lets John Kerry’s endless dull thrum of email messages finally get to him. Well put.
My message to Sen. Kerry: The fact that the walking undead don’t know they’re undead should give you pause.
Al Gore, on the other hand, is reanimated. He’s come to his senses. He’s come to himself. He’s speaking the truth and he’s cracking jokes. I think he could win in 2008. (On the other hand, I worked for Dean.) I would vote for him happily.
[Tags: tom_matrullo john_kerry al_gore the_undead]
This is driving me nuts. Someone sent me an email with a link to a site that has podcasts that consist of someone reading a list of stuff. You’re supposed to guess what they have in common. I’m trying to use it in my book to make a point about the importance of the implicit, but for the life of me I can’t re-find the site, plus it’s a tough one to do a search for.
Anyone know what I’m talking about?
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