Society

The BBC has an article on the rising use of the Internet in American politics, with a special focus on podcasts.

The Center for Media Research said in their email briefing today that there’s evidence that more young people are interested in Social Security in the wake of the ongoing debate over how to strengthen the system for the future.  CMR wrote: President Bush’s campaign for social security reform has moved the debate to center stage….

Thanks to Matt Cronin of WebLiquid for passing along an article (free registration) from Online MediaDaily. WHILE SEARCH MARKETING IS RESPONSIBLE for much of the resurgence of online advertising, politicians have been relatively slow to purchase sponsored search links. But activity on Google this week indicates that search engines might play a more significant role…

Consumers Union created a web-based ad spoofing prescription drug warnings in an effort to convince people to contact Congress and lobby for a law requiring more disclosure of drug trial test results.  An article describes how they promoted it. Schneider and Kathy Mitchell, who directs Internet advocacy at Consumer Union’s Austin, Texas, office, decided early…

Steve Rubel launched an interesting discussion on whether RSS growth has stalled.  As I see it, the problem is that RSS is difficult to explain in laymen’s terms and it is saddled with an ugly acronym.  To this day, people cringe at the term HTML, but they have no problem accessing a web site. For…

MoveOn.org continues to generate press for itself over its ability to bundle contributions to targeted campaigns.  The latest example comes courtesy of the Charleston (WV) Gazette: Early Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., sent an appeal over the Internet urging people to contribute to the re-election campaign of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. In less…

Reuters: It took just minutes for the Vatican to alert the world’s media of Pope John Paul’s death — using text messages and email so the 2,000-year-old Church could meet the new demands of real-time news. The Vatican isn’t exactly known as a bleeding-edge technology center, so any large organization who isn’t prepared to use…

MIT will host a grassroots technology conference in 2 weeks.  It certainly tilts left, but online organizing ideas ultimately ignore the political spectrum.  The workshop is described as follows: Workshop proposals that were accepted fit into one of these themes: a) Making technology relevant to communities b) Online politics post-2004 c) Uniting movements for social…

The Tennessean covers the story of a state rep who has taken to blogging — and offending many of his colleagues in the process. Rep. Stacey Campfield has been taking a beating over his blog. The Knoxville Republican’s Internet postings about goings-on at the state Capitol have been called less than ”outhouse worthy” by one…

Townhall.com is spinning off from The Heritage Foundation to become a separate entity and is shedding its 501(c)3 tax status in the process.  This represents a major development as it will no longer be constrained by IRS rules to avoid political activism.  It has the potential to become a powerful conservative grassroots activation tool.  (As…