United Liberty
New Media
How the Old Think Tanks in Washington Are Using New Media
Fri, 06/19/2009 - 11:34am | posted by Chris Moody
Editor’s Note: Chris Moody, the Manager of New Media at the Cato Institute and an excellent blogger, will be joining us here at United Liberty from time-to-time.
Be honest.
Before the advent of Web 2.0, social media, online friend networking and micro-blogging, would you have been able to name any of the top three think tanks in Washington? For most non-political junkies out there, the answer is usually a resounding no.
Liberal Bloggers: Conservatives Are Way Ahead Of Us On Twitter
Sat, 08/22/2009 - 10:10am | posted by Doug Mataconis
Some of the leading lights of left-wing blogging are acknowledging that they’ve been out-organized on the Internet’s fastest growing social networking site:
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Liberal bloggers established online political activism, besting their conservative rivals during President George W. Bush’s eight years in office. But conservatives are now finding great success 140 characters at a time. Even this week, the conservative organization Club For Growth promoted their Twitter account on their $1.2 million ad campaign against health care.
Even though President Obama and national Democrats use Twitter – the social micro blog that everyone from Ashton Kutcher and Shaquille O’Neal to Chuck Grassley and Newt Gingrich often use to directly speak to followers – Republicans have embraced the technology. And with major policy issues being debated and the midterm elections right around the corner, liberal bloggers acknowledge the GOP has the upper hand when it comes to using 140 character messages known as “tweets” to influence the discussion.
“While it is obvious the progressive blogosphere is superior, we are being out-organized on Twitter,” said Gina Cooper, a blogger who helped organize Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of online liberal activists that met last week in Pittsburgh. “There is some catching up to do on the progressive side.”
Tracy Viselli, who attended Netroots Nation, agreed with Cooper and admitted that liberal bloogers are ceding this valuable territory to conservatives.
“Twitter is a news funnel,” she said. “Conservatives are very tightly knit and getting their message out very well.”
Whether this organizational advantage will amount to anything in the end is, of course, a huge unknown.
The New Media
Wed, 09/03/2008 - 6:09pm | posted by Shana Kluck
To our faithful readers, we apologize for not updating since Tuesday. We’re all in various modes of travel back to our homes and trying to “recover” from a busy and exciting Rally for the Republic.
This morning, I’m visiting family in Plano, TX, doing something I rarely, rarely do- watch the “old media” on television. While listening to Meredith Vieira, of NBC’s Today Show, interview Katie Couric and Brian Williams on the floor of the Republican Convention in St. Paul, I was shocked by something I heard Katie say-
What is the media? You can’t paint it in the broad stroke you used to. It includes the thousands and thousands of bloggers and partisan reporters.
