TECH

Bloggers Get Good Seats At Convention

by Winter Casey

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008


At the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, some of the best seats in the house have gone not to major media types, but to bloggers writing favorably about Sen. John McCain and the Republicans.

As the convention has unfolded, it has become clear that bloggers, many of them GOP partisans, have received unprecedented access to the auditorium, and a number of them have passes that allow them to work in spaces with a view of the podium.

Bloggers with the special blue-card access include BlogHer, Blogs For Victory, Hot Air, NewsBusters, TechRepublican, and Hip Hop Republican. Some blogs, such as Townhall, RedState, and Politicker, were given multiple seats.

The convention planning committee says it tried to treat new media and traditional journalists the same in terms of access and work area. More than 30 bloggers have access to seats inside the auditorium with a view of the podium, while additional bloggers have credentials to be inside the bowl, said Melissa Subbotin, deputy press secretary for the convention.

"As innovation and technology continue to take center stage, bloggers continue to play an important role in driving news coverage. At this year's convention, we have taken steps to recognize bloggers as a growing segment of the mainstream media," she said in an e-mail.

Subbotin said that the committee mainly considered whether bloggers had original content on their sites and whether those sites had been created more than six months prior to the deadline for new-media applications.

Erick Erickson of RedState says he applied online, answering questions about the focus of the blog, the number of bloggers, and the readership size. Traditional media outlets are generally credentialed through the congressional press galleries.

In 2004, Republicans authorized about a dozen bloggers at their convention; this year they expected to credential as many as 200. Experts say the conventions could set a precedent as to how new media and bloggers are credentialed for political venues in the future.

According to new-media guru David All, "The sheer number of bloggers that have been credentialed this year is very indicative of how the establishment views the importance of modern media."

In 2012, he predicted, "the last thing you are going to see is a step backwards. You will likely see a flattening effect, with people being credentialed strictly on their audience size and influence."

Blogger John Feehery, who was the top press aide to GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert, said the parties are credentialing more bloggers "because they want to influence the influencers."

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