Gather has a lot of political writers and commenters on the site. Yet, as many of you have noticed, we don't feature political articles as Editor's Picks very often. What is the reason, you ask? Our editorial mission at Gather is to create a vibrant interactive dialogue among our members, not to favor one side of an issue or the other. We have found that one of the best ways to accomplish this is to frame debates through Gather Editorial's Today's Topic posting. This allows us to pair up two Gather members, often of differing views, and let the community share their opinions, constructively and productively.
There are also a lot of other political discussions underway at Gather that I recommend that you consider.
Bloggers have a strong voice at the table. Gather believes the blogging community provides us with viewpoints that challenge our members on many levels. Bloggers like Rob Port, Seth Williams, and Greg Schiller from the conservative perspective, and Jonathan Schussler and Natasha Celine from the liberal side of the discussion, with Joe Gandelman holdingthe middle ground, enrich the dialog for all. They are well read, articulate writers who respond well to constructive discourse. Check them out on their pages, or through tags, like www.gather.com/politics, www.gather.com/conservative, and www.gather.com/liberal.
Political organizations are ramping up as well. You'll notice political organizations like The American Conservative Union, Democracy Matters, and Mike Huckabee President 2008 on the site as well. These groups are on Gather to understand what their side, and the "other" side is saying about current topics on a daily basis. Follow these discussions and join in – they make for fascinating participation.
Open the conversation with Mainstream Media (MSM). While the bloggers have well-informed opinions, there are many issues that also benefit from the perspectives of more established media. On Gather, these media outlets appreciate the opportunity to engage the Gather audience, and create an interactive dialogue with users through the comments received on the articles that they post. That is why Frontline, The American Prospect, The New York Observer, and numerous public radio entities like American Public Media post their content on the site. Check out groups like Grist.org and Food Talk from American Public Media, the producers of The Splendid Table.
Create dialog with guest authors. Why are George Will, Barack Obama, and Ellen Goodman (to name a few) on Gather? Because in their traditional role, they publish their thoughts with no direct feedback. On Gather, they have a rare opportunity to hear directly from their readers. As they publish, they are aware of and respond to comments posted to their articles. In fact, beginning on April 17th we are starting an "Ask the Author" program where members can actually have live discussions with some of the nation's top authors. Our "Ask the Author" series will include some political authors in a few months.
Discussion centered on a theme. Topical debate is a great way to air differing views. As I mentioned above, we try to do this frequently with a first-in-the-morning topic of interest. Next week, we will host our first two-day content event, the Gather Earth Day Series, sponsored by Grist.org. For two days on Friday, April 21 and Earth Day (Saturday, April 22) we will feature a wide array of environmental content, related to the business, personal opinion, and politics of the environment. With authors like Laurie David and Travis Bradford, plus contributions from Barack Obama and Whole Foods, we should have a great line up of differing opinions to be debated.
What are your thoughts for how to better open the dialog on Gather? We would love you hear your thoughts, and have you participate in the discussion.
David Cooperstein is Editor in Chief at Gather. His past "The Editor's Desktop" columns can be found at editors.gather.com, a group for people who want to connect around the content on Gather.
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Comments: 26
My suggestion would be for Gather to encourage the political heavy hitters who are members to always personally respond to at least some of the comments made to their articles. And, respond to them in a no-spin manner.
The legions of Gather need to know that no one is simply using Gather as a political "get-rich-quick scheme".
If the name brand politically-based members here on Gather begin to draw a large audience, their writing and commenting styles will influenece the basic writing and commenting style of all political writes here on Gather.
Gather should not let any political writers turn this site into a self-promotional tool. The best way to do that is to make all members play by the rules, especially the heavyweights.
The Arts, recovery, family experiences, spirituality, dance, recipes... One of the biggest attractions to me is the diversity of subject and the treating of all ideas and interests as equally important and valid.
Politics is only one part of life.
Since I'm still finding my way around this place I don't feel qualified to say much else. Except Thanks to everyone who publishes and comments on Gather. You make my liife more interesting and my knowledge base broader.
greg, rob and seth are not among them.
george will's contributions - or those posted for him, anyway, have been less than impressive. i have not seen any articles by barack obama, and i visit the political tag page fairly often... in fact, this article is the first i'd heard of it.
politics on gather - altar facing the choir, or preachers in search of a congregation?
not that I've been looking that hard, was copied
from a print journal and pasted into Gather.
Unless I have missed something, that is
not exactly personal participation.
talking about butterflies or desperate housewives kind of loses its innocent joy in the harsh light of reality. when i'm no longer paying companies to invade third-world countries for profit and geopolitical war games, i will then be very happy to post pictures of my dogs playing with my cat.
I love politics for at least 10 hours per year. Thats enough.
Uh well If I can ignore George Will in the back of Newsweek, I can ignore him here as well.
martinchill, stop trying to make me feel guilty, If I allowed it, I could end up in jail along with my beliefs.
There are many, many things that make up a wonderful life other than politics... but the stuff that the crack heads in DC have been stuffing us with for over 35 years makes this venue a very public form of exposure and public discussion. Big brother politics is affecting every thread that makes up the American culture and the thread is rotting and very tangled.
I am as patriotic and all American as possible but I believe that America's government needs some big fixin'.
Allan
Me, I read stuff here, The Weekly Standard, The Guardian, The Nation, the NYT, Xinhua News, Al Jazeera, various Indymedia, you name it. The more, and the more varied, the merrier!
Hey, David C. -- you mentioned left, right, and middle, but you missed me because I'm the uncategorizably rational voice of political analysis and media crit, eh? :)
The nav system still seems as exclusive as inclusive.
L.
There is a world of opportunity in GatheWorld which is why I participate at all. It would just be nice if the powers the sprinkle rewards did so in a more fair, balanced and less self-oriented way. Sorry, Editors, but that's the way I see it.
Allan
One of the piece of advice to everyone - to be more visible, use tags carefully. Everyone of you that writes about politics should put your own definition of your postion in tags "progressive," "rational," "fundamentalist," etc. And make sure you use the word "politics" to tie into the suggested tags at the top.