09 July 2008

Oregon Voters Increasingly Part of Wired World

Internet offers challenging new environment for candidates, news media

An online presence has become an essential part of a U.S. political campaign.

By Steve Holgate
Staff Writer

Portland, Oregon -- Only a few years ago, the media world was simpler. Campaigns -- and voters -- interested in political coverage concerned themselves primarily with newspapers, television and radio, now known as “mainstream media.” These major news outlets understood and took seriously their responsibilities as gatekeepers of information.

The explosive growth of Internet-based new media has changed all that. Now, not only are there no gatekeepers, but there is no gate. It has been knocked down by the new world of podcasts, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Youtube and other Web-friendly innovations. Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can become a commentator on the electoral process.

Even on a battlefield as modest as Oregon’s 1st Congressional District, old news media relationships have changed and the new rules are evolving, undercutting the dominance of traditional news outlets.

In a recent interview with America.gov, David Sarosohn, a political columnist for Oregon’s largest and most influential daily, The Oregonian, described the challenge. Americans, he said, now expect their news to be reported to them as it breaks. “They don’t wait for the paper to be delivered in the morning. They don’t wait for the evening newscasts,” he says. They go to the Internet.

This trend is not simply a new wrinkle in the media world, but for newspapers especially, Sarosohn says, “they are a challenge to our very existence.” He makes clear that the only way the mainstream media can compete with this new world is to join it. “If you want to be the authoritative source … you have to be on the Web.” He said his paper’s main political reporter often spends more time writing his blog or doing podcasts than he does writing articles for publication.

THE NOVICK EXPERIENCE

Steve Novick’s humorous ads enjoyed tremendous popularity on the Internet.

Candidates in Oregon, like their counterparts across the nation, are learning to take advantage of these changes. Steve Novick’s recent campaign put out a series of funny and iconoclastic television advertisements during his fight for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate, but the high cost of television air time limited their usefulness.

The campaign found a multiplier in Youtube, where the ads were posted and “went viral” -- technical jargon for became immensely popular. This popularity brought national attention to Novick, and that national attention became a local news story, another payoff for Novick from one set of ads.

There are limits, though, to even the biggest Internet successes: Novick still lost. His national fame ultimately failed to give him sufficient votes in Oregon.

For most candidates, including both major congressional candidates in the Oregon 1st, their most important Internet tools are their campaign Web sites. These sites have links to biographical information, political positions and endorsements. Democratic incumbent David Wu’s is at wuforcongress.com. His challenger, Joel Haugen, a Republican, has his Web site at haugenforcongress.net.

These sites are not electronic versions of the old-fashioned campaign pamphlet. The Web sites for these candidates, as for others, are powerful networking tools, which create contact lists of their supporters’ e-mail addresses. The candidates can tap these lists to send campaign information, volunteer opportunities or requests for financial support to voters already inclined to listen. The Web sites help to create a sense of commitment and belonging among a candidate’s supporters.

This kind of electronic campaigning is still in its infancy but already is transforming the political process. Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is currently the standard against which others measure themselves. By cultivating direct contact through the Internet, he already has involved a staggering 3 million Americans as volunteers and contributors.

In Oregon, Haugen and Wu have more modest goals, but they continue to improve their Web presence. Haugen told America.gov that his current site soon would be upgraded. “My campaign manager calls [the current site] the old fogey one,” he says with a chuckle, “The next one will be more hip. More in the Facebook style.”

In the Oregon 1st, as elsewhere, the quest to discover new possibilities for Internet campaigning, to find that extra tweak that will attract new supporters, is an important force shaping the new political scene.