DDTI: Wes Boyd on MoveOn.org


Wes Boyd, of MoveOn is talking about "Bringing Ordinary People Back into Politics." Broadcast is about story telling and story telling is about conflict. Attack and defend leads to cynicism. Everyone backs away and watches on TV.

MoveOn started as online petition during the Clinton impeachment. In four days, 23,276 people signed the petition. They realized that these were people who were looking to be heard and they could be reached cheaply.

In 2001 MoveOn asked people what they cared about. The answers were Campaign Finance Reform, Energy, and the Environment. MoveOn has been effective in raising money around specific issues, including financing ads about the Iraq war. MoveOn's membership doubled at this time.

The Virtual March on Washington let people schedule calls to their congressperson so that there were be a continue roll of calls against the war in Iraq. The was an easy way for people who called to post the responses to their questions in real time.

Rated discussion groups allow people to participate and for the good posts to rise to the top. (Although this seems to reinforce the echo-chamber effect.)


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Last modified: Thu Oct 10 12:47:20 2019.