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How Political Blog Sites Took Over The World

Ten years ago, political blog sites were small and in their infancy. Flash forward to today and

whether you are conservative or liberal, libertarian or authoritarian, there will be a site that caters to

your proclivities. But have they become too powerful?

When they started, a political voice was the lone voice of an individual, published onto the web. In2000, the appearance of easy-to-use blogging software made this kind of venture feasible. When

they began, these sites were non-corporate examples of what different people thought, people

raising their voices to be heard outside the normal news channels of the internet. Today the line is

not so clear, political blogs can have many contributors and charge major advertisers, just like news

sites, and they are just as important as mainstream news used to be.

In 2003 the nature of political blogging began to change. Both Howard Dean and Wesley Clark

sought to exploit the power of blogs and those who read them as they campaigned for the

Democratic Presidential nomination. Although they were not successful, they had some successes

and the fact that they tried showed how much more important blogs had become.

A year later, both of the presidential candidates in the 2004 election were, nominally, writing their

own blogs. We were witnessing the birth of a new campaign tool.

That year, political blogs came into their own during the campaign. They were at the heart of the

'Swifting' of John Kerry, and in the swift debunking of those allegations. They were able to do the

research that CBS hadn't in their story about George W. Bush's military service. In the space of four

years they had become a major (if still small) part of the political landscape.

Over the next couple of years a new kind of political blog took precedence: one with many

contributors. These, to some extent, replaced those initial blogs, which were so exciting because

they allowed you to hear one person's opinions unfiltered, and took on a new role of research and

activism. Now they were holding the mainstream media to account and developing narratives of

their own, rather than just giving opinion.

Since then, they have grown in influence, and in the sorts of stories they pursue. The ultimate

moment of triumph came during when the 2008 campaign, when Barack Obama adopted the

grassroots style and values of the blogs. Politicans learned quickly.

It took less that eight years for those lone political voices to take over the whole process.

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Political Blog Sites: Onward And Upward

In retrospect, the year 2000 seems quiet: political blog sites pretty much didn't exist. Today you

cannot hear yourself think above the clamor of the blogs, all desperate for attention, of all different

colors and stripes. It could almost convince you that it had gone too far.

When they began, political blogs were just one person's voice. The appeal was to hear a personal,individual opinion rather than that of a corporate news entity. The appearance of software that made

blogs easy to compose during 2000 and 2001, gave these individual voices a way of being heard.

Today, of course, political blogs are just as likely to be corporate entities than the news sites they

supplanted.

It was apparent that change was in the air in 2003. For the first time some of the contenders for the

Democratic presidential nomination, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark, vied for the approval of the

political blogs. Although they didn't succeed, they had highlighted some new avenues for garnering

support, and this point marks the moment when politicians began to pay serious attention to the

blogs.

In less than 18 months both of the presidential candidates for the major parties were writing their

own blogs. As a means of communicating in an unfiltered way, the blog had arrived in time to help

their campaigns.

The 2004 election was when the political blog came of age. The 'Swift Boat' rumours about John

Kerry were both spread and quashed by blogs. CBS' under-researched story about George W. Bush's

military service was debunked by the blogs. It had only taken four years for political blogs to find

their niche and become an important minor piece in any politician's campaign.

President Bush's second term is when the blogs embraced a corporate identity with many

contributors. These tended to be less about an individual voice, and more about doing research,

activism, and controlling the news agenda. These blogs became a way of verifying what was in the

other media. They were no longer just an alternative take on the news,

As their influence has increased, so have the blogs changed their tactics. Their victory was shown

most starkly in 2008, as the campaign of Barack Obama sought to emulate their style and energy.

The rise of the blogs had not gone unnoticed in Washington.

It took fewer than eight years, two Presidential terms, for political blogs to go from being non-

existent to dominant.

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The Rise And Rise Of Political Blog Sites

It's difficult to believe but only a little more than a decade ago there were no such things as political

blog sites. Nowadays, no matter what you political persuasion, there are more than enough sites to

cater for it. Some believe there are too many.

The early political blogs tended to be very personal, one person voicing their views on a website.They were made possible by the appearance of blogging software at the beginning of the 21 st

century. These early blogs were individual voices, desperate to be noticed above the clamour of the

rest of the internet. Now, of course, there are many blogs which have many contributors, large

amounts of funding from advertisers, and they are real players in the political landscape.

The first major change was when Howard Dean and General Wesley Clark turned to the

'blogosphere' for support in their attempts to capture the Democratic nomination for President of the

USA in 2003. Both men ultimately failed in that endeavor, but they showed that blogs were an

important way of garnering political support, and announced the arrival of blogs as something

politicians should take notice of.

By the time the 2004 election rolled around both John Kerry and George W Bush were apparently

writing blogs. The blog as campaign tool had arrived.

The importance of political blogs during the 2004 campaign is undeniable. They were responsible

for both propagating and debunking the 'Swift boat' allegations about John Kerry. They were able to

follow up CBS' story about George W. Bush's military service in greater detail than even the

broadcaster had. Blogs had gone from almost non-existent in 2000 to being a major political force

by 2004, although they were still relatively small affairs.

After this the larger, multi-contributor blogs really began to develop a presence. As well as personal

bloggers who tended to be valued for their voice, the blogs with many contributors tended to be

driven by issues, and were better at fact-checking, activism, and following and pressing a story. At

this point they became valuable checks on the mainstream media, rather than just intriguing lone

voices.

Political blogs have continues to develop their tactics and reach. President Obama's 2008 campaign

showed that the lessons from earlier in the decade had been learned, as the blogs were openly

courted, and their values and style were adopted by the campaign.

In eight years, political blogs went from being an irrelevance to running the show.