The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But It Needs To Be

Sorry for lateness, as My Sunday Thing has slid this week into My Monday Thing and quite nearly Tuesday. Such is a life of casual brutality and 400-level classes deconstructing post-colonial literature. How about that for a pretentious opening? You’re all but required to read the rest to see if I recover.

This is also kind of a discussion piece on blogging, youth demographics, and bringing more people into the online process. For those looking for my usual content, “John McCain is old and crazy, Rudy Giuliani is a white supremacist, and the system is corrupt and must be skull fucked to death.” Neat.

Anyway, one of those things that have been eating at me has been something along these lines: this blog as a concept is supposed to serve as a rally point for youth political operatives looking to ferment serious change in their environments. It is a belief that the infrastructure being built, (democratized, low cost, and with the ability to reach mass audiences) will almost certainly lend itself to the 18-30 set that’s all but grown up anchored in the ins and outs of digital communication.

That attempt at appeal to youth, oddly enough, is completely at odds with the present system. The system, as it stands, is run for boomers.

The picture Bowers paints in his post regarding BlogAds demographic numbers is of a hyper politicized group of people in their late forties, brimming with excess wealth and massive educations just looking to crack some online political skulls. And this bears out in the reading; the content, tone, use of language, all tailors almost exclusively to a true believer, aging audience who want only to take the fight to the Rethuglicans and the Bush Crime Family and KKKarl Rove. The sense of humor is circa 1974, and I don’t mind being quoted that I can find four sharp objects sitting on the desk in front of me that I’d rather drive into my skull right now than read the daily “Cheers and Jeers” post at DailyKos.

The exception to this Boomer-run phenomenon, interestingly, is Wonkette.

Written by a 23 year old editor who’s survived longer than other, more established journalism/media personalities in Gawker Media’s brutally competitive numbers game, Wonkette pulls in a readership of between a million and a half to two million unique hits a month in non-election season months. But the most striking part? The 21 to 34 age demographic is 51%, seemingly proving that there is an audience of non-boomers out there who will read political blogs if they’re presented in a way that speaks to them.

This leads to another question, which is mainly, what’s Wonkette doing right that the mega-blogs are doing wrong? My main thoughts lead to the style and language. I once referred to their style as commenting on politics through the same lens as you would comment on Paris Hilton; emphasizing what’s ridiculous and tawdry over substantive, but never missing the underlying incredulousness of how stupid and outrageous it is. Think Don Sherwood.

Its the same formula that essentially fuels the Stewart/Colbert goliath, and makes heavyweight champs out of guys like David Cross; you can present horror and stupidity with a sense of humor, and make your point better than flogging your “IMPEACH NOW/100,539 Reasons Why DUBYA Is Worse Than Hitler!” diary at the Great Orange Satan. If anything, that kind of stridency turns people away from caring.

What I’m not doing is saying that entertainment needs to be the focus of every political blog. There’s a place for pure politics and organization, as MyDD has proved, and it doesn’t need massive traffic numbers and appeals to target demographics. Those looking for a serious rumble will find the fight, be they 16 or 80.

What I am saying is the revolution will need to be sold; any attempt to really appeal to a massive young audience, the kind that builds voting blocks using the internet, will have to engage them in a language they resonate with.

You’re thinking, “Fucking revolutionary dude, we figured that out in 2003, thanks,” but nobody is doing it. Music For America, which appealed to me immediately as the perfect venue for connecting the advocates with those who will vote but need to be talked to in a human way, has essentially withdrawn its online component. They’re still immensely important to the infrastructure of any coming youth vote and are doing great work, but the big prize of the internet audience has been left hanging.

But all of this is just me, and I’m into a full on sip and swerve, listening to TI, occasionally singing broken Jackson 5 strains to my dog. Say what you will.