Wired Into Politics
Though 2004 was really the first election in which the Internet played a huge role, digital politics is very much starting to mature in 2008. Tech media site have interviews with candidates, viral videos are swaying voters for the first time, and, for God’s sake, John McCain has a MySpace page. There has, of course, been a lot of chatter about who has a voice, who deserves to have a voice and what they should be saying.
The traditional media complain that bloggers aren’t qualified to seriously cover something as important as presidential politics, bloggers complain that establishment reporters are too locked into their Beltway circles and have lost touch with mainstream America, and just about everyone agrees that political discourse is too shrill.
You know what? That’s great. That’s actually the essence of democracy.
I have never enjoyed politics as much as I have the past two years. For somebody like me, who is a politics junkie (it’s a medically-defined mental illness, I’m sure), this is the golden age of political discourse – there literally is too much information out there. For somebody who cannot get enough information, that’s heaven. I can instantly look at poll information, have access to political news from the best sources – both from traditional media and partisan outlets – and see or hear just about any speech made by any candidate.
It’s a fantastic, wonderful time to be a political observant – I spent last Thursday parked in front of my TV with my laptop popped open and I literally had every bit of information available sitting right there. Who cares if that information comes from a veteran journalist who’s probably jaded and too cynical, or a blogger who does this in their spare time. Too cautious or too loud, it’s still information, and too much is never enough.
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