Politics, Blogging, and Web 2.0 - It's about Chang(e)

World Saved As "Bloggers" Mob Political Conventions

from Silicon Alley Insider by Henry Blodget

The myth that old media outlets provide responsible news coverage and new media outlets just rant took another hit last week, as new media staffers flooded into Denver to cover the DNC. NYT's David Carr (right, with Arianna Huffington):

Politico, which also puts out a newspaper, had 40 people in Denver. The Huffington Post had 20 people, Talking Points Memo had 9, Daily Kos had 10, Slate had 7 and Salon had 9. That list is far from comprehensive and does not begin to describe how thoroughly mediated this convention was. (I was talking with Craig Newmark while he blogged in the Big Tent and realized the kids across from him were live-blogging our conversation.)

The turnout also helped muffle the self-serving whine about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket now that newspapers are going out of business. (Who will gather news when theWashington Post shuts down its print operation? Daily Kos, Politico, et al. Daily Kos, by the way, had 37 million pageviews for the month. A successful small web operation might have 1-2 million. And Politico, of course, is run by people who used to work at the Washington Post: It's just a business model that is dying here, not a profession...

Week In Review: The McCain Show During Obama Week, And Why Kindles Won't Be Heading Back To School This Fall

from Silicon Alley Insider by Robin Kawakami

With the Olympics over and Microsoft's Silverlight winning a few hearts and minds in the process (despiteAdobe's best efforts), politics took center stage at theDemocratic National Convention. While it was technically Obama's week, McCain proved that you can teach an old dog new tricks: the 72-year-old Republican nominee held the upper hand in both search engine marketing andnumber of YouTube views. And as speculation surrounding his VP selection grew, McCain unveiled an"exciting and unprecedented" ad during Obama's Thursday night address. Meanwhile, Rock the Vote'sXbox voter registration initiative has dismal prospects for getting gamers to vote for either candidate this fall...