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Inside The Blogway

Folks are talking about a map of the political blogosphere published by The Politico this week. I produced an "Inside The Blogway" map of my own back in January when I spoke to journalism students about blogs and the future of media. I thought Beltway Blogroll readers might like to see it, too.

Here's the image (larger version available as a PDF file), which illustrated the conclusion to my speech, and you can click to the extended entry for my explanation to the students:

I could stand here all day and tell you stories about blogs and technology in politics:
-- I could tell you about the triangulation approach to blogs employed by candidates like Ned Lamont of Connecticut -- embrace them whey they are helping your campaign, deny that you're involved with them when they do things like paint Joseph Lieberman in blackface;
-- I could tell you about the other scandals some bloggers created for their favorites;
-- About the "Google bombs" that bloggers used to try to influence voter perceptions;
-- About the attempts to vandalize candidate bios on Wikipedia, a collaborative online encyclopedia whose content can be edited by the public;
-- About the candidate pages, both real and satirical, that began appearing at Facebook, MySpace and other online social networks;
-- And about the blog luncheon with former President Clinton that deteriorated into a bizarre fight about whether one of the female bloggers "posed" in a way that was meant to showcase her breasts.

But you get the idea. Blogs matter. YouTube matters. Google matters. Wikipedia matters. Online social networks matter. And in a couple of years, desktop applications called "widgets" may be the new, new thing that will matter.

I'll close by giving you a peek at all of those things -- a peek inside what I call the Blogway. This quick slide show will give you a sense of just how rapidly the political media world is changing.

The innovators
-- Instapundit
-- Daily Kos
-- RedState
-- MyDD

Working from outside
-- Outside the Beltway
-- The Agonist
-- Captain's Quarters
-- Hugh Hewitt
-- TalkLeft
-- Right Wing News

Working from inside
-- Americablog
-- Political Wire
-- Personal Democracy Forum
-- White House Watch

Emerging media
-- Center for Citizen Media
-- NewAssignment.net
-- Wikipedia
-- MySpace

Hottest trend: Internet video
-- YouTube
-- PoliticsTV
-- Hot Air

More Beltway bloggers
-- Porkbusters
-- SCOTUS Blog
-- Congress Blog

The newcomers
-- The Politico
-- AirCongress (my personal site, launched in November)

And that's just a sampling. The size of the blogosphere has been doubling about every six months for quite a while now, and it seems like there's a new site or service that goes online every week or two. The bottom line is that blogs and the Internet are powerful forces in politics and the media, and that is not going to change anytime soon.

The new leaders of Congress acknowledged that power last week by granting bloggers special attention when the new session started. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California gave Democratic bloggers special access inside the Capitol, and numerous lawmakers sought out the bloggers. PoliticsTV, which is part media and part activism, posted video interviews with more than a dozen House Democrats. Other bloggers did likewise. In the Senate, Minority Leader MItch McConnell held a conference call with select Republican bloggers.

More of the same can be expected by both parties and in both chambers. And before you know it, more lawmakers may be blogging themselves. Just a few weeks ago, the House approved secure software that every office can use to add blogs to the offerings on their Web sites.

Whether they will avail themselves of it remains to be seen. ... The technologically driven changes we are seeing in politics and the media terrify a lot of my colleagues and a lot of politicians. Rather than embrace the wonderful opportunities presented by the Internet, too many of them have taken cover beneath the imagined safety of their green eyeshades or in their smoke-filled backrooms.

But soon enough, those people will be relics of the past. You are the future. Journalism in the 21st century will be what you make it. Politics will be what you make it. I look forward to seeing how you use the tools you have today and the ones you are certain to create tomorrow.

Posted by Danny | 09:02 PM

Comments

Where's ThinkProgress? I think of them as the leading blog on the left.

Jack | 05.18.07 10:38 PM

Jack: I agree. Think Progress is one of the leading blogs on the left. I subscribe and read it just about every day.

But I couldn't fit the logos of all of the sites worthy of mention into my image and wanted to present as broad a view as possible not only of the blogosphere but of Web 2.0 more broadly.

Danny | 05.19.07 08:26 AM

No Michelle Malkin?

Sissy Willis | 05.19.07 09:21 AM

Sissy Willis: Michelle founded Hot Air and thus is represented by its logo just above the Beltway on the I-270 corridor.

Danny | 05.19.07 09:27 AM

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