Changing the Nature of Political Communication
Traditional political communication occurs from the top down with the media acting as the intermediary. With the strong hold of the media machine dwindling in the interactive world, especially with the boom of blogs, that traditional communication is changing. Though it may be too soon to speculate, more direct communication between politicos and citizens makes for not only a truer democracy, but a more interactive and efficient one.
NOTES TO PONDER: Did the traditional top down political communication arise because there were no interactive alternatives? What new role will the media machine play as the interactive world expands?
3 Comments:
Answering your notes to ponder: I think that the media machine will be completely different in ten years. I think the changes will occur slowly but the media especially television news will be unrecognizable from the news we know today. In the meantime the television news media is currently changing. CNN now regularly has an "In the Blogs" segment. It explores what the blogs are discussing and how they are individually changing the news. Changes like these will occur slowly but the news will look completely different in the next decade.
12:04 PM
In your notes to ponder, there are a couple issues. One, was the system always top down? In a way it was, if you look at the way that the Constitution set up the new American society and protected it from the masses. But there are also relics that seem to indicate that political communication was not top-down years ago - for instance, the open town meeting, or the tradition of state legislators to hold office hours in common spaces within their district. One thing that I think is exciting about the internet is how it gives the power to be messengers to everyone - it makes it easy for people to phone bank from their homes with lists of phone numbers and scripts, for instance. The Kerry campaign mobilized supporters through email to call radio talk shows and TV news to push the message that Kerry won the debate, making ordinary supporters into spinners. And, of course, nearly anyone can blog and deliver their own message about a campaign.
8:20 PM
While the net world can create a broader form of communications between elected offials and citizens, it is also easy to see how it can get filtered through a variety of screens. For example, when someone now says they are going to "call their congressman" . . . how many actually get on the phone with them . HOw many blogs and emails will the congressman/senator and his/her staff read?
9:51 PM
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