This article, that a friend emailed me today, in USA Today highlights some of the very real benefits blogs bring to the proverbial table. One thing blogs can do is what I call "hyperlocalization" which is taking a national issue, feeding it into the local blogosphere and having it come back out the national blogosphere-media complex amplified in a way the local news could never do it, with the focus and stamina the national media can never maintain. That's "hyperlocalization". And here's a perfect example from USA Today:
They're people like Mario Delgado, the publisher of Porkopolis, a Cincinnati-based blog that determined Ohio stands to gain nearly $34 million from 135 projects in the pending House appropriations bill that funds health, education and labor programs.
It's just not every day someone from Cincinatti gets USA Today to be their bullhorn. And this clearly cycles back to the local level and has an effect on the political calculations of all the locals, including the politicians. It's one thing to deliver pork to rich campaign contributors. But quite another to explain all that waste to your constituents. Hyperlocalization.
Good government types all over the country are doing this and the sites highlighted in the USA Today piece are just the beginning.
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