Statehouse blogging

Governing magazine in its July edition covers state capitol blogging. Featuring Texas, Governing reports on the editorial and informational aspects of state political blogs. From private citizens to paid journalists to members on the floor, bloggers offer a focused view into the local state legislative process once only provided by political newsletters and newspaper reporting, but with the added value of immediacy favored by younger and the more real time constituents.

Even though it is now thought that blogs are more editorial and entertainment in nature than news reporting, this could quickly change. To compete with the blogging popularity, the dailies, such as the Austin American Statesman's Postcards from the Lege, are beginning to launch their own group blogs with journalists writng more informed and unbiased posts than those published by private individuals. Texas State Representative Aaron Peña is careful to evaluate just what information he can publish on his blog. "Trust is the most valued commodity on the floor," Peña states in the Governing article. "Legislators need to know that when they talk to me, I won't just go and put whatever they said on the blog." However, he also feels that his constituents can get a better sense of who he is from his blog than from what they read in regular press releases.

Instant Influence - A new generation of web scribes is shaking up state capitol politics.
(available in HTML on governing.com)