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The times they are a changing...
Political conventions not so much. They still look to be the scripted, partisan hype machines they've been in the decades since political parties discovered the power of television. But what is different is the change in the complexion of the media and the rise of bloggers.
The Los Angeles Times notes that not only are there two African-American cable TV networks but that both will be covering Barack Obama's historic nomination at the Democratic National Convention next week.
For TV One, which has never covered a political convention, the decision to be in Denver was simple. It wanted to showcase what it considers to be one of the most critical moments in African American history... "Our mission is to celebrate African American culture and to chronicle African American achievement," said TV One Chairman Johnathan Rodgers
As Amanda M. Fairbanks, writing in The New York Times, says The Year of the Political Blogger Has Arrived.
This year, both parties understand the need to have greater numbers of bloggers attend. While many Americans may watch only prime-time television broadcasts of the convention speeches, party officials also recognize the ability of bloggers to deliver minute-by-minute coverage of each day’s events to a niche online audience.
“The goal is to bring down the walls of the convention and invite in an audience that’s as large as possible,” said Aaron Myers, the director of online communications for the Democratic National Convention Committee. “Credentialing more bloggers opens up all sorts of new audiences.”
And, Micah Sifry posits at NPR that bloggers of color bring a different perspective to the political blogosphere.
Now that blacks and Hispanics are participating online in such large numbers, I think it's a safe bet that they're going to keep looking for news and commentary about politics written by voices they can identify with. What that means is a bigger market for black and Latino bloggers, and hopefully, a much richer and more interesting conversation for everyone to participate in, whatever their background.
The Democratic Party has for decades worked to increase the diversity of convention delegates. Listen here to a California Report interview with a woman delegate who has been attending since 1952 when she was recruited to add diversity to the delegation and a young Asian-American man who ran to be a delegate in an effort to increase API participation in party politics. You can take a look at the diversity breakdown of the California delegation here and see a report on the national convention's diversity here.
All these factors combined means that the great news this year is that among the diverse new blogging voices covering the Democratic National Convention will be a multitude of women of color. This is a fantastic opportunity to get a range of views you won't likely find anywhere else. I encourage you to add these women to your feed readers alongside BlogHer (for whom I'll be a woman of color blogging the convention) and expand your perspective as you follow along from home in your robe and bunny slippers like our own Lisa Stone.
And just a little PSA before I present you with links to many awesome women of color covering the convention: Many of these bloggers and bloggers covering the convention in general need your support. If you value being able to read the voices of diverse women bloggers, please consider contributing some financial support.
And please add any links in the comments of women of color I might have missed.
The MOMocrats have already smashed the mold of political coverage to smithereens and as part of their delegation to the convention they have four contributors who are moms of color.
Sheila Bernus Dowd blogs at Xiaolin Mama, Cynematic (Cynthia Liu) blogs at Pillowbook and Glennia Campbell blogs at The Silent I. Additionally, new MOMocrats contributor and Obama delegate, Julie Lythcott-Haims blogs at Obama's site.
Adrienne George will be covering the convention at the Black Women in Europe Blog as well as cross posting to the African American Political Pundit, Democrats Abroad Sweden, and AfroSpear Think Tank blogs.
Shireen Mitchell aka Digital Sista will be posting from Women Wired In as well as contributing posts to Women In Media & News, Blogher, Huffington Post and others.
Liza
