Netroots
The term Netroots was invented in 2002 by Jerome Armstrong, a political blogger, for political activism through blogs and other online media such as wikis and social networks . It's a trunk word from the internet and grassroots , because of the technological innovations that set Netroots apart from other forms of political participation. In the United States, it is mostly used by left-wing groups.
The term overlaps with the related concepts of e-democracy , participatory democracy and open source governance, which are, however, more specific, better defined and more accepted. Netroots Outreach is a campaign-oriented activity that the network uses to complement traditional activities such as working with the grassroots movement to gather votes and organize efforts at local and regional levels through bonding. Such efforts include Meetup and the Netroots-Grassroots Association, which sponsored Howard Dean's election as DNC chairman in January 2005.
Occasionally the term is used synonymously with the term blogosphere ; however, the blogosphere is viewed as a subset of netroots, because it only describes the online community of blogs, with netroots also encompassing several liberal outposts online, such as MoveOn and Think Progress.
Advocates believe that the main characteristics of Netroots are its decentralization and connectivity in the network, that it forms communication points whose aim is to influence traditional media, but which are not directed outwards. The Netroots shows itself to be non-hierarchical and decentralized through events like blogswarm .
American origin of the term
The first known use of the term in its modern definitions is Netroots for Howard Dean by Jerome Armstrong in December 2002 on MyDD. Howard Dean was one of the first to discover the potential of blogs and websites, and his campaign "laid the foundation for Obama's eventual election victory." Democratic political advisor Joe Trippi attributes the short-lived success of his then client Howard Dean to listening to and leading the Netroots activity.
The Netroots also played a key role in the election of Wesley Clark to the 2004 presidential campaign. The rising power of the Netroots can also be seen during the 2006 midterm elections . In one example, a Senate campaign volunteer filmed Democrat James Webb's comments from then Senator George Allen. The remarks in question, in which George Allen referred to the volunteer as "Macaca" (the volunteer was from South Asia), were viewed by many as racist. The video was published on YouTube . The resulting Netroots attention to the video sparked a series of events that ended in the Senator's defeat. James Webb had indeed been successfully selected and subsequently entered the Senate by-election for Virginia. Netroot's activities also supported Ned Lamont in his victory over Joe Lieberman in 2006.
Blog writers have contributed to several controversies. These include comments from then Senate minority leader Trent Lott at a birthday party from then Senator Strom Thurmond, the Dubai Ports World controversy, and the US lawyer controversy.
Other similar activities
Netroots activity is also taking place in Iran , which has a disproportionate number of bloggers, and in the UK , where strong support for e-democracy can be found in the form of local forums, have become an approved form of feedback on government performance. Netroots UK was started in 2011 as a project in partnership with the organizers of the US Netroots Nation to empower netroots in the UK through training and networking. In Australia, the Netroots “progressive” lobby group GetUp has more members than all Australian political parties combined.
Netroots activity has also begun to appear in student politics, where social networks like Facebook have been used in student polls.
In Sweden
The Swedish Social Democratic Labor Party has opened a network for all “progressive” bloggers in Sweden. The network meets regularly and holds an annual convention, Nätrot (Netroots in Swedish). The first Nätrot assembly was held in the Swedish Parliament in 2006 with Joe Trippi as the guest speaker. The second, in 2008, also in the Swedish Parliament, and the third, Nätrot '09, was in Visby, Almedalen with John Aravosis from Americablog and Jane Hamsher from Firedoglake .
In 2010 the book "Netroots - A progressive blog movement that determined the agenda" (Netroots - En progressiv bloggrörelse som sätter agendan) was published in Sweden (Author Johan Ulvenlöv).
In 2012 the largest gathering of progressive bloggers in Scandinavia took place in Stockholm.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Eric Boehlert: Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press . Free Press, New York 2009, ISBN 1-4165-6010-6 .
- ^ William Safire : On Language: Netroots , The New York Times . November 19, 2006.
- ↑ blogswarm ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Daniel Grinsted : 'I Have a Scream', or: Netroots alone is not enough , The independent blog about Barack Obama . February 3, 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- ↑ Netroots Nation
- ↑ GetUp
- ↑ Netroots.se ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Americablog
- ↑ Firedoglake
- ↑ Evelina Burstrom: Boken om rödgröna bloggar , VK bloggen . July 5th, 2010. Archived from the original on September 6th, 2010 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 6, 2010.
Web links
- Netroots Nation - Netroots Nation hosts the largest, most concentrated gatherings of progressive bloggers each year.