Earlier this week I pointed out a post by Jerome Armstrong were he talks about how blogs will be used different in this Presidential contest compared to the on in 2004. In regards to his post I thought it might be interesting to look at which aspects of blogging that actually had an impact on the election campaign in the 2004 race. I therefore did a quick Google search to see if I could locate any articles discussing the topic. I realize off course that I could be searching for months if I had the time. Instead of doing that I will post some of the interesting articles I found as an introduction; and encourage people to discuss the mater her on the blog: This article by ZDnet, posted in November 2004, argues that blogs helped shape and speed the presidential campaign's dialog, and contributed to a powerful grassroots mobilization that many analysts at the time said could tip the balance of the election.
This article by ClickZ argues that Blogs became mainstream media's guides to the Internet and therefore made an impact on the election landscape.
The article, The Rise Of Blogs, on the Beltway Blogroll argues that blogs put issues out before the public that mainstream media did not cover and therefore made an impact.
This report by Campaigns Online concluded in its study of the 2004 campaign that only blogs that managed to produce a user-friendly interactive atmosphere, like the Howard Dean’s blog, had an impact on the election.
Do you have an opinion or do you know of a good article discussing the matter, please let us know.
Update:
This is an interesting contribution to the question: Blog impact on Ohio 5/2/06 primary elections. Read the discussion on the comment section.
And this article, looking at the impact of blogs in the Canadian election 2006.
And this one, claiming Google bombing could potentially impact the 2006 U.S Senatorial election.
QuandO claimed the the impact of blogs on the 2006 U.S Senatorial election was negligible.
Peter Daou believes that assessing the influence of blogs is difficult: First, there’s no consensus on metrics. Second, blogs serve many purposes, some of which are more social than political. Third, the use of the Internet in political campaigns cuts across so many areas that it’s easy to confuse netroots influence in the communications and messaging realm with other Internet-based political applications such as organizing and fundraising. Fourth, ‘influence’ is a hazy term.
Blogs also begin to impact Japanese Political World.