July 21, 2008

Calling All Young Bloggers

Posted by Sarah Burris at 11:00AM

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(Blogging from the annual Netroots Nation conference in Austin, Texas.)

Sunday was the close of the annual Netroots Nation conference, formerly known as YearlyKos. Over 3,000 bloggers, consultants, and curious politicos descended upon Austin, Texas to talk about independent, grassroots media.

At Thursday's Youth Caucus, people spoke about how much older most of the attendees were. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the mistake in her Saturday morning keynote address when she referred to the bloggers in the audience.

The truth is the average age of bloggers is more like the age of your parents, or an ex-hippie who is in retirement and getting involved again. Youth being synonymous with blogging is a misnomer.

Ian Magruder, a young blogger and filmmaker from California agrees, saying:

"Most people outside of the blogosphere have this idea that bloggers are all a bunch of angry young liberals. In actuality, you're average blogger is a well-educated, middle class baby boomer.

The entire concept of blogging or at least political blogging, is still foreign to most Millennials."

Another major component to the demographic of Netroots Nation attendees is cost and accessibility. Most young people can't afford the various levels for ticket prices which begin at $175 and cap off at $400. Add to that the cost of a hotel --anywhere from $70-200 per night -- the cost of food and the fundraisers and parties during the conference, and it's clear why gatherings like these are out of reach for most young bloggers.

Democracy for America worked to help those who couldn't afford to attend by offering 30 scholarships, many of which were to young people. Netroots Nation is going to help with this for the 2009 conference and provide student rates.

Most young people may not call themselves political bloggers, but the prevalence of personal blogs written on Facebook, Myspace and Blogger shows that young people approach blogging differently than their older counterparts. For instance, Kevin Bondelli, a new media consultant and youth politics expert, believes there's a generational cultural preference:

"Blogging is not as exciting a tool for Millennials as it is for older generations. Social networking and other very quick tools for sharing themselves trump the blog as a form of expression. The older generation has never been able to express themselves to an audience before, yet are not entirely comfortable with this next step that Millennials have taken. For older generations, blogging is the new pamphleteering. I also think that the older generation writes more for the sake of writing where Millennials are writing for their friends."

When asked how bloggers can recruit more young bloggers they all agreed it was the million dollar question. It seems like a natural place for young people. Millennials are active, involved, and they know where they are on issues. They've got a better grasp on technology than any generation before them. Yet the struggle is figuring out how to include them in the larger political blogosphere.