Third Party Blogging
I just finished reading the special edition of the Congress Online newsletter, How Congress Uses Blogs and was interested by the five different ways representatives are using blogs and I think that they make a lot of sense. It is important to note though that this article did maintain that Congressional offices are hesitant in starting to use blogging in a widespread manner.
As I have written about before, one of the reasons why Congressional offices are not exactly jumping through hoops to blog because they are afraid of the consequences blogging will have on spin control. They are afraid to put too much information out there that can be troublesome in the future.
The fourth type of blog the article mentioned was Third Party Blogging. This is a technique that such figures as Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer have used and have posted blogs on established outside blogs such as Daily Kos. Now I think it is a good idea to use such influential blogs because of the large audience they reach, but I have to wonder if Congress members are so afraid of spin control and getting too much information out there, why they would really want to do this. Daily Kos allows readers to respond to blogs that are posted and as such a Congress person will have to deal with people who do not necessarily agree with them and who might post negative comments about them.
With all the concern over spin and the way that some elected officials are so paranoid about how people perceive them I am surprised they would want to open that can of worms. Yes, it does mean they do not need to sit in front of the computer and create blog entries day after day, but to me it does not really add up.
I wish that more elected officials would drop their cautious outlook and work overtime to speak to the people and create an open forum for discussion and I would like to see more people like Tom Tancredo step up to the plate and post their own blogs for their own constituents.
As I have written about before, one of the reasons why Congressional offices are not exactly jumping through hoops to blog because they are afraid of the consequences blogging will have on spin control. They are afraid to put too much information out there that can be troublesome in the future.
The fourth type of blog the article mentioned was Third Party Blogging. This is a technique that such figures as Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer have used and have posted blogs on established outside blogs such as Daily Kos. Now I think it is a good idea to use such influential blogs because of the large audience they reach, but I have to wonder if Congress members are so afraid of spin control and getting too much information out there, why they would really want to do this. Daily Kos allows readers to respond to blogs that are posted and as such a Congress person will have to deal with people who do not necessarily agree with them and who might post negative comments about them.
With all the concern over spin and the way that some elected officials are so paranoid about how people perceive them I am surprised they would want to open that can of worms. Yes, it does mean they do not need to sit in front of the computer and create blog entries day after day, but to me it does not really add up.
I wish that more elected officials would drop their cautious outlook and work overtime to speak to the people and create an open forum for discussion and I would like to see more people like Tom Tancredo step up to the plate and post their own blogs for their own constituents.
posted by dcae at 5:33 PM
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