FROM GRASSROOTS TO NETROOTS: THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET AND OTHER MEDIA ON POLITICS" COLS="45">FROM GRASSROOTS TO NETROOTS: THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET AND OTHER MEDIA ON POLITICS
Journalism >> FROM GRASSROOTS TO NETROOTS: THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET AND OTHER MEDIA ON POLITICS" COLS="45">FROM GRASSROOTS TO NETROOTS: THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET AND OTHER MEDIA ON POLITICS
The Impact of the Internet and Other Media Technologies on Politics
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In today's politics, a provocative ad from MoveOn.org can have so much impact on political discourse that it is debated in Congress and on countless TV shows. YouTube is the site not only of "Obama Girl" but also You-Tube-based debates as candidates and the mainstream media try to tap into younger voters and the energy of the Web. Presidential candidates all are trying to reach voters with their campaign Web sites, cell phones and other interactive media. And activists of all kinds are using the Web to build community, fund-raise and persuade others about their cause. In this American Forum we will look at the impact of the Internet, and other new media on young people, activism and Campaign 2008.
Confirmed guests include:Cyrus Krohn, director, e-campaign division, RNC
Josh McConaha, internet director, DNC
Jeanne Cummings, political reporter, Politico.com
Dotty Lynch, political consultant, CBS News; journalism executive-in-residence, American University School of Communication
Adam Green, campaign director, MoveOn.com
Moderator: Jane Hall, assistant journalism professor, American University School of Communication
This event was held Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Panelist Bios
Cyrus Krohn is director of the Republican National Committee's eCampaign Division. He joined the RNC following two years at Yahoo! as director of content production and election strategy. Prior to Yahoo!, Krohn spent 10 years at Microsoft. He was Slate.com’s first employee and then publisher before the webzine was sold to the Washington Post. Krohn also managed the political advertising efforts for MSN.com, the Microsoft Network, and was executive producer at MSN Video. Krohn worked in CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau producing Larry King Live and Crossfire and served as an intern for Vice President Dan Quayle.
Josh McConaha is the Internet Director for the Democratic National Committee where he oversees online communications, organizing and fundraising. After running an online project for EMILY's List, he joined the DNC in September, 2004, and has been there ever since. McConaha has directed the launch of such DNC programs as PartyBuilder and 100actions.com. He is a native of Dover, Ohio, and a graduate of American University.
Jeanne Cummings has covered politics at every level, from state and local governments to five presidential campaigns. In recent years, her focus has been on tracking money and politics. Her coverage has ranged from documenting the rise of well-financed independent political organizations to dissecting presidential candidate fundraising to tracking a wave of new companies opening lobbying shops in Washington. As chief lobbying and money correspondent at Politico, she will oversee team coverage of both those areas.
Dotty Lynch is an Executive in Residence in the School of Communication and a political consultant for CBS News. The 2008 election marks Lynch's 11th Presidential campaign as a professional journalist and pollster. She stepped down at the end of 2005 as the Senior Political Editor of CBS News, where she covered politics for 20 years. Lynch began her career in politics and journalism at NBC News in 1968 and joined the polling firm of Cambridge Survey Research in 1972, where she worked on polling for the Presidential campaigns of George McGovern and Jimmy Carter, and for many Senate and Gubernatorial campaigns. In the 1980s Lynch developed the concept of the gender gap and is one of the major authorities on the topic of women in politics. In 1983, she opened Lynch Research, a political polling firm where she was the first women pollster in a Presidential campaign-the Gary Hart Presidential race and the Mondale Ferraro general election.
Jane Hall (moderator) is an assistant professor in the School of Communication at American University specializing in politics and the media and media ethics Before joining the faculty in 1998, Hall was a journalist in New York for more than 20 years. She covered the news media for nine years as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Hall won the Los Angeles Press Club award and editor’s award at the Los Angeles Times and was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. She is a weekly panelist on Fox News Watch, the media-analysis program on the Fox News Channel. She has appeared as a commentator on the media for numerous other television programs, including NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose, CNN, and The O’Reilly Factor. She also has written about the media for a variety of publications, from the Columbia Journalism Review and the Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics to Rolling Stone.
