Wednesday, November 08, 2006

bimber, part deux

I admit, when I joined a to-remain-nameless online political organization in 2004, I was motivated. And I was excited that finally—FINALLY! Politics was moving into the digital age. Howard Dean was out of the race by then, but he’d shown people the light. I responded to a few of the emails, wrote my congresswoman, etc. It was really cool to get emails letting me know about issues; it seemed more personal than headlines in newspapers, and since I’d signed myself up and could unsubscribe at any time, and since it involved no cheesy pictures of politicians with kids in front of schools, I found it far less offensive than the direct mail that litters my porch during election season.

After the 2004 election, they kept emailing me. I wasn’t sure what to do then; I’d signed up for a specific purpose, the time for that purpose had elapsed, and here they were, shifting gears. They were trying to mobilize a huge, motivated, self-subscribing list of citizens towards other, related projects—not all of which I agreed with. I still get their emails, but I rarely do anything more than glance at them. As Bimber notes in summarizing his case studies (p. 194), activist organizations have to be careful about the volume of mail that they send, or I’ll suffer from “activist fatigue.” I guess that’s where I am now. It’s no longer novel that I get emails targeting my issues.

But I still notice when a candidate spends the time to look polished in a technological arena. When I read the voting guide published in our local paper, I scoffed at candidates that didn’t provide emails or web addresses. And I visited some of the websites, even for candidates I didn’t plan to vote for, anyway. Perhaps it’s an ideological stance: if a candidate doesn’t pay enough attention to his constituency to provide them with a modern way of getting to know his views, I won’t pay enough attention to him. Get a website, politicians! Or better yet, an army of bloggers. It’s a commitment to teh FUTUR3!

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