The National LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative

by: Pam Spaulding

Sat Dec 06, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM EST

One of the frustrations some new media folks like myself have is that many professionals working in establishment politics (or cover it) have a meager understanding about several aspects of blogging:

* what motivates bloggers, and who or what do they represent -- citizen journalism, commentary, rabble-rousing activism, etc.?
* what are the tools they use to communicate and how effective are they, what constitutes viral success?
* what is the difference and relationship between a blogger's post and the reader comments and dialogue that spring from them?
* what is a blogging community and do blogs represent the grassroots or something other level of institutional organizing in our movement?
* how can establishment organizations work with blogs, establish their own blogs and maintain credibility with online readership of independent blogs?

More below the fold.

One of the most important aspects of this gathering is that it brings bloggers from all over the country -- regional diversity and POV is sorely lacking in establishment DC, which is in its own political bubble, and those of us working for change outside of that network will get a chance to share tools, notes and the different struggles in LGBT rights around the country and how we can work together in what is going to have to become a 50-state strategy to combat the well-funded right wing desperation to wind the cultural clock back. It will take citizen journalists, MSM and non-profits working on the same page. Not the same message or tactics, mind you, but this is a chance to see where the commonalities lie, and where difference is a strength, not a weakness or something to quash.

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UPDATE: Leaders from the California and Florida ballot initiatives gave their impressions:

Joe Sudbay, Americablog
Megan Kinninger, Freedom to Marry
Marty Rouse, Human Rights Campaign
George Simpson, Equality California
Josh Cohen, Bloggers Against 8
Tobias Packer, Equality Florida

Participants talked about the campaigns and what lessons they learned. What wss and wasn't said is interesting. It was a common thread during the discussion that a ground game to convince voters didn't measure up to the aggressive online tactics. Boots on the ground field work was  absolutely necessary -- the Yes On 8 knocked on doors whereas No on 8 didn't.

As we've seen on the blogs in the wake of the election results, it was clear whatever outreach that did occur on the ground didn't include going into communities of color.

Irene Monroe aptly noted that the success of the Mormon Invasion ad doesn't resonate with many Christians who conflate religious and civil marriage and that the messaging simply doesn't work in many communities of color. She's from Massachusetts, and key was using key language appropriated by the fundamentalists and turn it against them. Massachusetts is more secular and in many ways more liberal, and to address religious communities of color requires using the language of religion.

Related:
* Open thread - flicks and pics from the conference
* Shameless celebrity moment at the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference (Kate Clinton)
* This Trip's $30 Keyboard (Autumn)
* The National LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative