Kate, I find this blog to be very well written and interesting, especially as I have a particular interest in how new media technologies are changing politics, political campaigning and democracy. As you say, the general public have been utilizing new media technologies such as the internet to express their political opinions for some time now, however many politicians seem to have avoided these technologies up until the last couple of years. I believe that politicians are now realizing that there is a “credibility attached to amateur media” (Jenkins, 2007) and to get their messages across they must embrace this shift in power from the mass media channels to more amateur new media technologies. Now, when searching for political information on the internet, it seems as though “the same techniques are being used by people who are powerful and the people who are powerless” (Jenkins, 2007), with an example of this being blogs. There are many political blogs such as Larvatus Prodeo and Callaxy which are user-led and cater to people with specific political perspectives; however, there are also political blogs that are run by political parties, such as Greensblog.
GreensBlog is written by ‘SenaBloggers’ or Greens Senators, and allows people “to come and discuss Greens issues, policies and politics with the Senators and their staff” (GreensBlog, 2008) via their comments in response to blogs. I believe that this shows The Greens have recognised the value of the blogging format and have embraced this new platform for disseminating political messages. Other political parties in my opinion are not using the internet to its full potential, being met by social online barriers created by virtual cultures that are skeptical of politicians. While it may appear that politicians and political parties are utilising new media technologies in order to encourage participatory democracy, I believe the main reason for all political rhetoric is to win votes. Therefore, virtual communities have reason to be skeptical of politicians’ attempts to include the general public in online political discussions. With that being said, the internet does allow many people - those who are in power and those who are not - to interact and voice their opinions. I believe this encourages society in general to become more involved in politics which in turn is changing our democracy to being more participatory than it has ever been in the past.
GreensBlog. (2008). GreensBlog – The Official Blog of the Australian Greens Senators. Retrieved May 6, 2008, from http://greensblog.org/.
Jenkins, H. (2007). Henry Jenkins@Beyond Broadcast 2007. [Interview with Jenny Attiyeh of ThoughtCast]. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from http://thoughtcast.org/casts/beyond-broadcast-2007.
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