this took place on capital hill. The panel consisted of Dan Riehl Melissa Clouther and Stacy McCain Tabitha Hale. Each talked about interactions between congressional offices and bloggers:
Hale Riehl, and Clouthier
Melissa made some serious points saying:
Bloggers will notice things first, they can give good hits to a local congressman on the issue. A local blogger can connect the congressmen with grass roots.
Framing is very important when the MSM is the conduit for information being released it will not be used in a manner that favors a republican/conservative
thus it is vital to have the blogger relationship so that the positive message is released otherwise the lack of coordination keeps us playing defense.
I could not agree more, why should you provide fodder to organization that not only oppose you but help sustain them?
Dan Riehl brought bluntness to a new level but spoke some common sense:
To the press: you think we are idiots, we think you’re idiots but we need to work together as we’re on the same side. We need to be on the same page and beating democrats.
You can’t ignore and neglect us, step on us and we will step on the foot.
No one person is that important but our mass and aggregate is important.
If you are a press person establish a relationship with a couple of bloggers.
If you want for example to get a video out give it to a blogger, he will post it, others will link and the MSM will get it from them, you get the attention, the blogger gets the hits, win win.
Tabitha Hale talked about facilitating bloggers (as she has for me.) The purpose of these events is to put faces with names, working and getting the dialogue started. Right now it tends to be the entire blogosphere vs Washington.
This actually sounds a lot like my have fedora will travel stuff, my example. Lets say a congressman is planning a bill to say reverse a green regulation that will allow a local factory to continue without layoffs. If he goes to the media, it becomes a story about the experiment with a republican as a foe. If he goes to a blogger like me and if his supporters can finance a trip to the district that can be a week of stories and post, all about said job, here and at the Examiner. A week worth of stories that he can reference and instead of the media creating the template we do.
Remember the NYT is being read in most districts, a blogger appearing locally can create news locally where the congressman’s voters actually are. By the time the MSM strikes, the narrative is out there.
Any takers?
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