Conventions Throw Doors Open to Bloggers

Conventions Throw Doors Open to Bloggers

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: November 25, 2007


The Democrats are opening the doors of their convention in Denver next year to more bloggers than ever before. The move gives bloggers and the new media a chance to shine, much as they did at the trial of Scooter Libby earlier this year, and to bring a whole new perspective, and competition, to convention coverage. This is, after all, the first convention since the rise of YouTube.

Their presence also makes the media itself a bigger story and increases the likelihood that you will be seeing more stories by the media about the media covering the media. Exhibit A is on your screen right now, nine months before the convention.

Bloggers obviously bring a different take — less restrained, more granular, in real time — from that of the mainstream media, and that’s exactly what the Democrats want when they gather at Denver’s Pepsi Center from Aug. 25-28.

“We’re looking to break down the walls of the Pepsi Center,” Jason Rosenberg, the director of online communications for the Democratic National Convention Committee, told me the other day.

There’s a bit of the storm-the-barricades blogger spirit in that remark. But Mr. Rosenberg, 28, also means that the party expects the bloggers to go beyond the placards and pageantry and send out dispatches and videos from behind the scenes.

Convention activities will go for 96 hours; with networks no longer providing wall-to-wall coverage and television viewership declining, Mr. Rosenberg hopes bloggers can help kindle excitement about the event and, by extension, about the Democrats themselves.

“Bloggers can give you 24-hour coverage of the convention, of the delegate meetings, of the caucuses, of the parties,” Mr. Rosenberg said. “Everything that goes on, the bloggers can be there to cover.” This includes speeches not delivered in prime time or too late for East Coast print deadlines.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/us/politics/26web-seelye.html

:evilgrin:

Which one of YOU is going??