Questions for "Can Blogs Revolutionize Progressive Politics?"

1) Why do the Democratic leaders embrace blogging as a potential political

Communication considering the traditional media landscape in politics?

-Democratic leaders embrace blogging as a potential political communication because blogging provides a variety of features like discussion boards, Internet donations, live e-chat, social networking tools like MeetUp, and online voting that allows ordinary citizens to participate in politics. Blogs also have the advantage over traditional media of being faster, cheaper, and most importantly interactive, enabling a voter involvement impossible with television or newspapers.

2) Blogging encourages a participatory culture. In what way does the

Participatory culture in blogging expands digital media convergence?

-Participatory culture in blogging expands digital media convergence because it allows more involvement and communication between people. People can communicate with different media on blogs. With pictures, text, video, audio etc. It all allows people to use all of kinds of media to share and express their ideas.

3) In the article, the author says: “The ability of the Internet to erase geographical distances can become a structural weakness in elections where district lines and eligibility are key.” How can blogging counter this weakness in the process of turning the netroots to grassroots?

-Blogging can become a problem when people start making rude comments on blogs or saying things that just wont be necessary for an election. It can also be a problem for people who might not know how to use technology very well, because those people who might not know how to or might just not be able to have access to the internet will not be able to interact like those who can.

4) The author spends the second half of the article discussing the lack of diversity in current blogosphere dominated by elite bloggers. Please use the concept of digital convergence to explain how blogs can become the real bearer of freedom, democracy, egalitarianism, and participation in the new media communication?

-Blogging allows people from all over the world to communicate, share and reflect on their ides on a fast and easy way. Like the article states blogging is becoming very popular among political parties, because it lets them interact with their voters like other sorts of media like television and newspapers, wouldn’t.