Description

“There is a big cohort of passionate, smart, politically savvy activists—people who know how to organize, raise money, communicate and effectively utilize technology and new media—who have come into politics within the last decade who feel like their strategies have been effective but their voices are not being heard. If these voices are ignored by the Democratic establishment, we could lose not only all the resources they bring to the Democratic Party, but could well lose the opening we have for a long-term Democratic majority.”
-Mike Lux, Open Left, September 14, 2007, quoted in Chapter 1

The progressive “netroots,” fueled by bloggers writing on websites like the Daily Kos and working through online organizations like MoveOn, are on the verge of spearheading a revolution that may well define the coming political era. Still, their purpose, goals, and track record remain largely misunderstood. This book provides an understanding of the loosely affiliated groups that collectively call themselves the progressive netroots: who they are, what they hope to accomplish, what they’ve done so far and how likely it is they will succeed in a plan so audacious it would result, if realized, in the transformation of America from a television-focused, center-right nation to an Internet-focused, center-left nation. Netroots weaves together a range of evidence and arguments to shatter conventional myths about this online movement. It explains why the left is better positioned than the right to take advantage of the decentralized nature of the Internet. As progressive candidates make uneven progress toward winning elections, the progressive netroots are working to drive media narratives and building real and virtual communities of activists that will contribute strongly to electoral success. Netroots documents the achievements of this emerging political force through an engaging analysis told with an eye toward history and in the bloggers’ own words.

Read Matthew Kerbel's Commentary seen in Political Communication Newsletter: Commentary

• Puts Internet politics into context with earlier technologies like radio and television and the dynamic nature of journalism over the past two centuries.
• Shows students and scholars new ways to assess and measure the impact of the blogosphere.
• Looks at the meaning of open source politics, the importance of power versus ideology, the media as a source of building political capital, the Internet as a source of grassroots empowerment, and the Internet as a vehicle for elite as well as mass discourse.
• Offers a clear, engaging presentation accessible to students offering original research of interest to political scientists and communication scholars.
• Accompanied by a website at: http://homepage.villanova.edu/matthew.kerbel

Author Info

Matthew R. Kerbel is professor of Political Science at Villanova University and author or editor of six books on politics, the mass media, and the presidency, including If It Bleeds, It Leads: An Anatomy of Television News and Get This Party Started: How Progressives Can Fight Back and Win. He worked as a radio and television news writer for outlets including the Public Broadcasting Service in New York City, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Reviews

"Kerbel (Villanova Univ.) has written a lively, accessible history of the emergence of the blogosphere as a force in U.S. political life. Recommended."
—CHOICE

"...a serious assessment of whether the netroots have had demonstrable political consequences and of what their likely long-term impact on American politics will be."
—The American Prospect

“Where Netroots really shines is as a digital ethnography. … [It is] a compelling and nuanced portrait of the netroots phenomenon. No academic account to date has been so successful at capturing how the progressive blogosphere sees itself.”
—Political Communication

“Kerbel shows convincingly why the blogosphere matters in American politics. His analysis of conservative and progressive blogging communities explains how the left has taken greater advantage than the right of the distributed networking potential of digital media. The core argument is that the progressive netroots are positioned to use the Internet for movement building in ways that may rival how conservatives used message control in the mass media echo chamber to build their movement in decades past. This argument is well documented and nicely presented, making the book accessible for students and an important source for scholars.”
—W. Lance Bennett, Director, Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, University of Washington–Seattle

“Kerbel offers a rich and lively description of progressive politics online, with a special spotlight on blogs. A thorough and insightful account of the significance of the netroots in the evolution of American politics.”
—Bruce Bimber, University of California–Santa Barbara

“A bracing read. Kerbel not only ‘gets it,’ he explains it well—‘it’ being the netroots phenomenon that has reshaped American politics in the past decade. If you want to understand where politics is in 2009 and how it got there, read this book.”
—Nate Wilcox, coauthor of Netroots Rising

“Finally, a book that places the lefty netroots in the historical context of earlier examples of technological and political change. Such a context helps readers to see the significance of what progressives aspire to build: a new, much more democratic architecture of politics.”
—Marcy Wheeler, blogger, “emptywheel” at Firedoglake.com