IP Democracy: The 2006 Election Night Winner: The Internet

I spent a good chunk of last night standing in the rain campaigning for local candidates, disconnected from the Internet and television, so I have to take it on faith that the Internet and bloggers played their predicted high-profile roles in informing the electorate of the mid-term election developments.

One hot-bed of Internet-related election activity was DC restaurant Tryst, where a group of A-list political bloggers, including John Aravosis of Americblog, John Amato of Crooks and Liars, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit and Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters, had been assembled by CNN in a “blog party,” which, was streamed both on air and on CNN’s web site. (Wonkette, however, reports that CNN’s Wi-Fi set-up didn’t work as well as the usual free Wi-Fi at the Trysts, raising the question about how well bloggers fared in the deal.)

Other bloggers helped to uncover alleged voting abuses through the day — Red State’s Eric Erickson (who dropped his pseudonym last night and let it be known that he is really a she, Victoria Gardner Coates, a professor of Italian renaissance art history boy, when I make a mistake, I make a big mistake…Eric Erickson is still Eric Erickson and presumably is a he — another writer, AcademicElephant revealed she is Victoria Gardner Coates) pointed to a video that purportedly depicts a poll observer being blocked from a voting station.

The Internet’s nascent broadband video conferencing capabilities played a key role in the coverage last night as new organizations enhanced their TV crew-produced coverage with video interviews conducted via web cams. ABC offered “field reports” from students located at 40 universities around the country, powered by start-up video calling company Sightspeed.

Last week I spoke to Sightspeed’s CEO Peter Csathy about ABC’s plans to use his company’s mostly free service to supplement its professionally produced video content. He’s pumped about the role that personal web cam videos can play in news coverage more generally. This “breaks down the barrier between the broadcasters and their audiences and allows them to bring viewers into the shows,” Csathy said.

And of course, all of the major TV news organizations had constant updates, interactive maps and other specialized coverage on their web portals.

All of this points to the biggest winner of the 2006 mid-terms elections: the Internet. Much has already been written about the role of YouTube and other new web sites in shaping voter perceptions during this election. Now, it’s clear that the Internet is also crucial in shaping professional news organizations’ coverage of election day results.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 8, 2006 8:06 AM to IP Democracy