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March 28, 2007BELTWAY BLOGROLL
An Online Revolution In Campaign Coverage
Coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign will be nothing like coverage of the past if bloggers Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post and Jay Rosen of NewAssignment.net have their way.
The two media revolutionaries have joined forces for a project designed to get citizens across the country involved in covering the leading candidates over the next two years. They outlined the effort in separate entries at The Huffington Post (also cross-posted at Rosen's personal blog, PressThink).
Here's the gist of it, as explained by ...
... Rosen:
[I]nstead of one well-placed reporter trailing John Edwards wherever he goes (which is one way of doing it), [the project will have] some 40 or 50 differently placed people tracking different parts of the Edwards campaign, all with peculiar beats and personal blogs linked together by virtue of having a common editor and a page through which the best and most original stuff filters out to the greater readership of the Web, especially via the Huffington Post.
... Huffington:
We'll have a Clinton blog, an Obama blog, an Edwards blog, a McCain blog, a Giuliani blog, a Romney blog, a Biden blog, a Richardson blog, a Dodd blog, a Kucinich blog, a Brownback blog, a Huckabee blog. Each offering a wide variety of voices and perspectives on the campaign they are following. These group blogs will also be a compendium of useful information about each candidate, including their latest speeches, upcoming appearances, new videos and ads, recent news articles and more.
Via e-mail, Rosen said the NewAssignment.Net will hire the editor, in consultation with The Huffington Post. One overall editor will work with "sub-editors," part-timers focused on each campaign.
"Our goal is to be interesting, offbeat and useful for readers on the open Web and from the Huffington Post," Rosen said. "Emphasis on useful, different, not the same old thing. We hope to have contributors from both parties, yes. We'll be actively recruiting people; but we're also dependent on those who raise a hand."
He added that he would like to have both Democrats and Republicans covering each of the 12 candidates currently selected.
Rosen said the effort currently does not encompass third-party candidates, independents or the Unity '08 movement, which is using the Internet to build interest in a "bipartisan presidential ticket. Senate, House and gubernatorial coverage also is not in the works.
"Why not?" Rosen said. "Well, it's good to find out if this model can work first."
The money for the project will come from donations to NewAssignment.net, which is a nonprofit based in the New York University journalism school, where Rosen is a professor. He said Huffington "has taken on most of the fundraising burden."
Rosen currently is soliciting applications for the top editor's job. Resumes can be sent to him at pressthink@journalism.nyu.edu.
Some bloggers already have taken on a more traditional role in providing presidential coverage, at least for Sen. John McCain of Arizona, one of the leading GOP contenders.
McCain's campaign team invited bloggers onto his "Straight Talk Express" bus tour. Yesterday's edition of The Blogometer had a roundup of video from bloggers who made the trip.
Posted by Danny | 12:10 PM
