In the News (part 2)

Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 04/26/2006 - 09:50

Here is the article from The Stamford Times. They do not have the article online, but have granted permission for me to post it, provided that I properly acknowledge their work and copyright.

Blogging for Votes

By A.J. O'CONNELL
Staff Writer
STAMFORD - They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and fonts. Newsroom veterans, hobbyists, political hopefuls and high school kids post them. To some, they may seem to be nothing more than diaries written in cyberspace, but thousands of Connecticut residents are writing Weblogs, and a handful of these sites are changing the way our state does politics.

Weblogs, or blogs, began appearing in the late 1990s. According to Wikipedia.com, a public online encyclopedia which is something of a blog itself, the first use of the word "Weblog" appeared in 1997, although the earliest blogger is thought to be Justin Hall, a Swarthmore College student who started writing online journals in 1994.

Blogs started gaining notice as news sources 10 years later, during the war in Iraq and the 2004 presidential campaign, reports Wikipedia. Millions of Americans logged onto political blogs like Wonkette.com for news on the race between President George W. Bush and challenger John Kerry. Bloggers were
issued press credentials for the national conventions and election night.

Now, with Connecticut¹s own big race fast approaching, there are more blogs than ever before being written by state residents. Tom Fausel is the moderator of CTweblogs.com, a site that catalogues and displays the latest entries from hundreds of state blogs. Fausel, 50, an information technology worker who lives in Harwinton, has been running CTweblogs.com for 10 months.
In that time, his catalogue has expanded from 50 weblogs to more than 200. He says people interested in both national and local politics write 54 percent of those journals.

Lefties go to sites like MyLeftNutmeg.com and DemocracyforCT.net. Those on the right head to one of many blogs like
ConnecticutConservative.blogspot.com or Ex-Donkey.mu.nu. People who just want political news with as little slant as possible go to
ConnecticutLocalPolitics.blogspot.com, where a group of bloggers share the political news of the day. For people who want local news, there are citizen journalism sites for specific areas of the state, like WestportNow.com and
TheCornerReport.com that talks the politics of the Northwest corner of Connecticut.

Those running for office are getting into it, too, says Fausel.

"I'm seeing a pick-up in interest by politicians [in getting their blogs on my site]," he said. "I just got an e-mail from the manager of [Mayor Dannel] Malloy¹s campaign."

Every politician running a major campaign this year has a site on the Internet, and many plan to host blogs. Both Malloy and his rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, have active blogs associated with their sites.

Blogging is a relatively new part of the campaign experience, but it is turning out to be an important one. Brian Durand, senior campaign assistant and Webmaster for Malloy¹s campaign, says that Malloy¹s site, DanMalloy.com,
gets close to 300 visits a day.

"About 30 or 40 percent of that goes right to the blog," he said.

Malloy's blog is written by a group of campaign staffers who go out on the campaign trail with Malloy, and sometimes there are entries by Malloy
himself. The blog allows the campaign experience to be broadcast to the web-browsing public - photos from an event on Sunday can be up on the web by Monday; a staffer's thoughts on an event can be read by the people who were at the event in less than a day.

"It's most useful in making Dan appear a full person," said Durand.

Blogging for a specific politician may not seem like a good way to attract new attention to that campaign; after all, those who are on a politician's site are likely to be supporters of that candidate.

However, Stamford's Aldon Hynes, writer of Orient-Lodge.com, and until
recently, the Webmaster for DeStefano's campaign, say there is some value in preaching to the choir.

"You can get them to go out and sing on the street corner," he said.

Hynes, 47, has been blogging since 2001. He was one of the first bloggers to receive press credentials for the 2004 Democratic Convention and has set up numerous personal and political weblogs. Hynes has made a study of the social dynamics of the Internet and believes that blogging has brought national politics back to its pre-television roots.

"Starting in 1960, politics became focused on broadcast politics; the 30-second sound byte," he said.

Before then, said Hynes, all politicians relied more on a door-to-door, personal contact approach to campaigns and less on the image portrayed on television.

Thanks to Weblogs, people can watch a political race less and participate more. Anyone who wants to set up a blog can become a pundit, and have an influence on the outcome of a campaign.

However, Hynes thinks that blogs have less of an impact on the local political scene, where politicians still rely on a door-to-door approach to campaigning.

"The more local the race, the less of an effect the blogs have," he said.

He believes that statewide races fall into a gray area.

Chris Bigelow, moderator of ConnecticutLocalPolitics.blogspot.com, sees things differently.

"[Blogs] already have had an effect," he said. "It seems like just one more source where people get their news."

Bigelow's site was started more than a year ago, during the municipal election cycle. He said that several people visited the site for news on local races in the state¹s cities and towns.

"I think they¹re starting to have an effect," said Bigelow. "It's certainly not to the level that [they have an effect on] national politics, where people organize rallies with millions of people on blogs. But they¹re having an effect."