Talk Back
An exciting thing about blogs is the universe of thought it brings to our fingertips. Jay Rosen -- who I never would have read or heard of, without the blogosphere (sorry, Jay -- my short range, not yours) -- has become a favorite. In this article, he discusses how the Internet is moving reporting from a lecture to a conversation. While I think that's all good and well and, no doubt, accurate, it's not what floats my boat. The place my mind keeps racing as I read the article, is how it all applies to politics and governance. He makes the point, quoting a James W. Carey, that:
Republics require conversation, often cacaphonous conversation, for they should be noisy places. That conversation has to be informed, of course, and the press has a role in supplying that information. But the kind of information required can be generated only by public conversation; there is simply no substitute for it. We have virtually no idea what it is we need to know until we start talking to someone.
I'll continue to have town meetings and mail out updates, but I'm excited that this space might contribute to a fuller public conversation. Feeling my oats a bit, I'm going to start getting the word out to constituents that this is up. I hope they'll jump in the dialogue and share their collective wisdom and insight.
Republics require conversation, often cacaphonous conversation, for they should be noisy places. That conversation has to be informed, of course, and the press has a role in supplying that information. But the kind of information required can be generated only by public conversation; there is simply no substitute for it. We have virtually no idea what it is we need to know until we start talking to someone.
I'll continue to have town meetings and mail out updates, but I'm excited that this space might contribute to a fuller public conversation. Feeling my oats a bit, I'm going to start getting the word out to constituents that this is up. I hope they'll jump in the dialogue and share their collective wisdom and insight.
posted by steve u. at 12/31/2004
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2 Comments:
Steve, why don't you put your legislative questionnaire on your web site. Its a lot easier to fill one out and zap it to you than to send it by snail mail.
I'm going to. However, I still need to reach out to my constituents who aren't wired, and I didn't know how to limit responses only to my constituents. So, I figured I'd go snail mail like I always have in the past, post those results and, then, put the questions on this site for anyone to address. If you have any better ideas, post them below or directly to my email steveu@infowest.com. Thanks.
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