Internet plays biggest role ever with political conventions

In this story: 'Dip in a little or wade in all the way' 'National EKG' of convention viewers RELATED STORIES, SITES

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- The Big Three U.S. TV networks will devote less air time than ever to the upcoming Republican and Democratic national conventions.

But politics junkies will not have to miss a minute, thanks to an explosion of political Web sites sending their own reporters to the conventions and offering the public the opportunity to be "dot-com" delegates.

ELECTION LINKS: Full Results VIDEO  Election Battle  Speeches/ads  Video Search Rep. Convention Dem. Convention States: Key Facts Poll Archive Bush/Gore on the issues Pres. Bios What's at Stake Electoral Battle Map Battleground States Follow the Money Who Was In and Who Was Out Debate History Election Battle Facts Florida Who's Who Europe's view     TRANSCRIPT Thomas Goetz chats about online convention coverage

The Internet will play its biggest role ever when the Republicans meet July 31 to August 3 in Philadelphia and the Democrats convene in Los Angeles August 14 to 17 to kick off the final phase of the 2000 presidential campaign.

Hundreds of reporters for news Web sites will be on hand to cover platform debates and nominees' acceptance speeches. Those covering the Republicans will tap into a private Internet network to check agendas, see texts of speeches and access Congressional Quarterly background.

At both the Republican and Democratic conventions, the public is being urged to join the proceedings as virtual delegates by filling out online surveys on platform issues.

America Online subscribers will watch gavel-to-gavel coverage and participate in nightly chats on the day's developments with well-known political commentators and news makers. Through the site's Election Guide 2000 they also can participate in polls, match their views against candidates' stated opinions and read the daily diaries of delegates AOL has asked to chronicle their convention experiences.

Residents of all 50 states except New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wyoming, can even register to vote online, through a link to BeAVoter.org.

"We see it as an opportunity for the average citizen to pick what they want out of it," said Kathleen deLaski, AOL's director of political and government programming and a former ABC News political correspondent. "That's what's nice about the Net. You can dip in a little or wade in all the way."

The pervasive nature of 2000 campaign coverage is a far cry from the first presidential election of the online age in 1992. Bill Clinton was a dark horse out of Arkansas then and election coverage consisted of messages voters left each other on proprietary electronic bulletin boards that pre-dated the Web.

"We didn't know what online access was" back then, said Adelaide Elm, a founding board member at Project Vote Smart, a nonprofit political site in Philipsburg, Montana.

Project Vote Smart set up its first Web site in time for the 1996 election. This year, the non-partisan site is tracking issues, voting records and other information on 13,149 federal, state and local elected officials and candidates. Earlier this year, the organization teamed up with MTV and Rock the Vote to boost 18- to 25-year-olds' interest in politics and voting.

In 1996, Josh King worked at the White House creating photo opportunities for Clinton's reelection campaign. This year, he is helping run SpeakOut.com, one of a number of Web startups looking to make money providing political coverage. Its forte is in real-time interactive polling.

In one deal, the private Washington company is teaming up with MSNBC to conduct real-time polling of people's reactions to convention speakers.

While they watch the proceedings on MSNBC TV, people can log on to SpeakOut.com, fill out a short demographic survey, then use a scale of 1 to 100 to rate speakers and speeches.

SpeakOut.com SAYS IT can handle up to 8,000 participants at a time and compile results of polls within minutes, producing "a national EKG" of what people think, as King put it.

With both the Republican and Democratic parties using other versions of SpeakOut.com's interactive polling technology on their official Web sites, King said, "Information is no longer a one-way street."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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CNN.com/AllPolitics.com - Election 2000
Republican National Convention
AOL.com
Register To Vote - BeAVoter.org
The official Rock The Vote web site
MTV.com
SpeakOut.com
Al Gore's official Presidential campaign web site
C-SPAN: Campaign 2000
George W. Bush for President Official Site
Presidential Campaign 2000
Reform Party Convention 2000

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