neticulum

Hey, the internet actually does effect real world politics! I watched the Colbert Report for the first time in months this week to observe the  the pop culture commentary on the Republican National Convention, and discovered this little gem: the hype that led to Sarah Palin being picked as McCain’s vice presidential candidate originated with and was generated by a 21-year-old conservative blogger.

This political science student created a website suggesting that Sarah Palin be drafted as the vice presidential nominee. The “Draft Palin” movement picked up hype in the mainstream media, and the idea circulated, spiraling out of control and into the hands of the McCain campaign, who ultimately took it to heart. Thanks to the internet’s archiving of various media, we can actually trace where her name shows up in relation to being on the McCain ticket, and thus observe the evolution of the political phenomenon from thought into reality.

This serves as a counterexample to Cass Sunstein’s argument that the internet serves as a platform for mainly likeminded poeple to communicate, thus creating “echo chambers” in which no actual activism or critical dicussion is acheived.