A New Approach

Since my last update I've written two additional articles for Red State, a site built on a citizen journalism-like model. To reiterate the problems I've encountered, some of the political activist communities I've joined have high barriers to entry. In order to start participating and forming relationships with other activists, your work - anything besides commenting on other people's work - must pass by a moderator before it is published. The first time around I wrote two "diary entries", this time I wrote two more and next time I don't think I'll write any. I've received zero feedback and that's really annoying. I.e., they're still pending review and I don't foresee this changing anytime soon since it's been over two weeks.

I'm going to continue commenting on other stories published on these sites to familiarize myself with the type of people using them, but to avoid any future citizen journalism woes, I've decided to join another political activist group specific to Wisconsin. The gubernatorial race intensifies daily as Scott Walker, Milwaukee County Executive, is up 9 percentage points over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. While this opportunity is relatively short-lived because it will be over after the November 2 election, it's still a great experience.

Again, in the interests of intellectual diversity, I've teamed up with Scott Walker's political activist community, MyScottSpot. Here, I've made a profile page, which is ultimately a pseudo-Facebook for conservative activists supporting Walker. (I have friends!) I've also connected with grassroots organizers and even received text messages inviting me to participate in rally events, door-to-door recruitment sessions and phone drives.



MyScottSpot compliments Scott Walker's Brown Bag Movement, an initiative that is branded as a simple solution to Wisconsin's complex problems. (You can actually get brown lunch bags with the "solutions" printed on them.) I'm waiting for some to be mailed to my house, HA! Anyway, I plan to explore this community deeper and observe it's evolution over the final month of his campaign up through election night.

Has anyone heard of the book Obama Zombies by Jason Mattera? It's an interesting book that addresses Obama's use of social media and savvy marketing to build support for his campaign. How does Scott Walker's use of new technologies compare to that of the Democrats in the 2008 election? Is it effective? Has the Republican Party finally figured out that younger generations don't want to see billboards and yard signs; rather, digital natives need interaction and technology to capture their attention.

These questions, along with others, are what I'll be looking to explore as I continue interacting with this online political activist group.