Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press - Softcover

Boehlert, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416560114 ISBN 13: 9781416560111

Publisher: Free Press, 2010

Synopsis

THE WORLD OF ONLINE NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION HAS EXPLODED in the last ten years. Social networking sites, YouTube, and blogs offer hours of entertainment, but have also become important vehicles for activism. The "netroots," as Eric Boehlert calls this phenomenon, have risen to incredible power, and never has that been clearer than in the 2008 presidential election.

Bloggers on the Bus traces the major events that rocked the campaign trail and reveals the stories of the online activists who made it all possible. In the tradition of Timothy Crouse’s essential bestseller, The Boys on the Bus, Bloggers on the Bus goes inside the modern world of liberal politics to reveal the stories and scandals at its very heart. Boehlert exposes just how much influence the online community—and especially the blogosphere—had on the outcome of the 2008 elections. Bloggers have set off an industry debate about journalism and privacy and have changed the face of campaign strategy.

This ad-hoc, mostly pro bono, community has been able to change, in telling and significant ways, American politics and media. Colored by vivid portraits and character sketches, this book will reveal the new wave of changes that has revolutionized progressive politics. Like the many passionate reporters and observers who came before them, these men and women are breaking new ground every day. Bloggers on the Bus will chronicle that media and political rebellion as it unfolds and introduce readers to the fascinating players involved.

About this title

About the Author:

Eric Boehlert, an award-winning journalist who has written extensively about media and politics, is a senior fellow for Media Matters for America and the author of Lapdog: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush. A former writer for Salon and Rolling Stone, he lives with his wife and two children in Montclair, New Jersey.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. Award winning journalist Boehlert (Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush) introduces the new generation of political muckrakers who took the 2008 presidential campaign-and old guard, by-the-numbers reporting-by storm. From the banner names of newly minted powerhouse The Huffington Post to the vitriol dished out by established liberal outposts like The Daily Kos, Boehlert presents a Web's-eye-view of the American left's grand reawakening. The netroots, as they became known, "literally kept the lights on during a very dark period for liberals"; prominent blogger Digby puts it more bluntly: "The Internet became available just as American politics turned bat shit crazy." That craziness only accelerated through the presidential campaign, including the polarizing campaign of Hillary Clinton, Obama calling small-town Pennsylvanians "bitter," and the entire shock-and-awry VP candidacy of Sarah Palin. Boehlert also examines the use and misuse of social networking sites like MySpace, and some seismic changes in televised news (including mainstream media's biggest new star, unlikely MSNBC news host Rachel Maddow). Blogger Markos describes his site as "a place for passionate activists, not conflict-averse weenies"; Boehlert illustrates that ethos well in this opinionated, impossible to put down narrative, chronicling with cagey insider detail the failures of copycat reporting and the inspired citizen-journalists picking up the slack.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1416560114
• ISBN 13: 9781416560111
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304