Karin Dryhurst
The Rest of Us?
David Sirota claims that Washington media outlets like The New Republic and Politico focus on the Washington elite to the detriment of “The Rest of Us,” those ordinary Americans concerned with how major public policy decisions affect their quality of life.
Media critics for years have faulted Beltway journalists for cozy relationships with K Street and Capitol Hill sources. For this reason, these journalists have failed more than occasionally to shine light on government misuse of power as many analysts have noted.
Sirota argues that the popularity of sites like Open Left and DailyKos stems from their attempts to address the broader concerns of Americans who are otherwise ignored or neglected in the press.
In theory, the Internet enables the inclusion of these perspectives, especially on matters of politics and policy. But in practice watchdog journalism on the Web will suffer from the same limitations as print reporting if these perspectives do not appeal to a more diverse and wider audience, especially underrepresented young people who too often feel disconnected from the way government impacts and shapes their lives.
A quick look at the demographics of OpenLeft, DailyKos and Politico reveal similar audiences.
Visitors to all three sites are most likely to be white, affluent, male college graduates. This is truer for DailyKos and Politico than for OpenLeft but it’s still a clear trend. A comparative share of each site’s audience also logs in from the same cities: Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Sirota notes Politico’s 4.6 million visitors in September compared to the 74 million visits to DailyKos in the same month. But these web analytics can be misleading as “visits” include multiple visits by one visitor.
It may well be that “The Rest of Us” are today still facing the same underrepresentation in the democracy of the web as in our actual democracy.
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Posted at 12:08 PM, Mar 02, 2009 in
Media
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