2000 conventions wired for online politics

Up to 2,000 Internet journalists will cover the GOP convention

From CNNdotCOM Correspondent James Hattori

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- The unprecedented amount of online convention coverage is making this a truly wired year for politics.

Both online journalists and campaign Web site editors will pull out all the bells and whistles from their high-tech bags to bring online viewers into the political arena.

"What we're trying to do is to give everyone a virtual convention experience," said Burt Pines, executive editor of the official GOP Web site. "It's never been done before. And I'm sure we're going to stub our toes and bump our knees lots as television did back in 1948."

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Philadelphia in 1948: A landmark year for political conventions and technology. It was the year Harry Truman pulled off a surprise election victory over Thomas Dewey, and it was also the first time live television cameras were on the convention floor. The Republican and Democratic parties held their conventions in the same Philadelphia hall in 1948 because of the elaborate wiring the technology required.

Today, Philadelphia's First Union Center is accommodating the GOP convention and yet another new medium. With commercial broadcast networks dramatically cutting back coverage and cable news channels offering traditional gavel-to-gavel coverage, online journalism hopes to make its mark with streaming video technology and chat rooms.

"We're trying to create something new," said David Bohrman, CEO of Pseudo.com. "Something that is not television but uses a little bit of television and a lot of the Internet; something that couldn't exist on television."

Pseudo.com, a New York-based Internet media and entertainment company, was one of the first to announce it would provide full online coverage of the Democratic and Republican conventions. It even secured its own skybox alongside the traditional networks.

Five 360-degree camera feeds and five audio feeds will give viewers the chance to direct their own coverage. You won't get any sweaty-brow close-ups -- just various crowd and podium shots, or commentators in the skybox.

Participation comes via chat rooms. With promises from Pseudo.com to integrate online comments as their hosts and live guests are on the air, the goal is to make the conventions more accessible.

"It's an event that a lot of people can't participate in. You can't get in here if you are just a regular person. But with the enabling power of the Internet, you can feel it, you can touch it, you can get a sense of what it feels like," Bohrman said.

Pseudo won't be alone. America Online has a skybox and Voter.com will have a floor camera -- all that in addition to coverage on news sites like MSNBC and CNN.

And it's not just the media. Political convention organizers have taken to the Net like Furby collectors to eBay.

Both parties have Web sites allowing online viewers to register as virtual delegates and contribute to policy debates. The Democrats, who have taken over Staples Arena in Los Angeles for their mid-August convention, recently held an online news conference with journalists from around the country.

Democratic Convention Chair Terry McAuliffe said taking the convention online is historic, giving billions of people instant access.

"No matter where you are in the world, you're going to get to be a delegate here. It's going to be the most open, accessible, interactive convention ever held in the history of American politics. It's truly exciting," she said.

Republican Convention Co-Chair Andy Carr said the Internet gives political parties a new way to reach out to supporters.

"I encourage everyone to jump on the Web site (and) sign on as a dotcom delegate. You'll get to be a delegate with your state delegation and you'll get special access to what's happening at the convention," he said.

It's an unprecedented technical challenge for a single event. Democrats say they have the capacity to add 20, 000 visitors to their streaming video feed every second, while the Republicans say their goal is to make convention Web coverage compelling and relevant.

When television began to change the face of politics in 1948, no one really knew how powerful it would become. Twenty years later, the technology had truly arrived. As Chicago police cracked down on anti-Vietnam War protestors outside the Democratic convention, the live images made many people queasy -- and may have exacted a political toll. Richard Nixon went on to defeat Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in history.

In 2000, Republicans and Democrats are expecting a convention media crowd totaling 15,000 reporters and crews. That includes up to 2,000 Internet journalists, who are getting special attention in both cities. In contrast, there were just a handful of online journalists at the 1996 conventions.

In Philadelphia, organizers have even set up a special tent known as Internet Alley. It will be a regular stop for political leaders to meet with reporters from some 35 Internet media companies.

In Philadelphia, political leaders will meet with online reporters in a special tent called Internet Alley

No one knows how many Internet viewers will log on to the convention coverage. But for now, that's not how success is measured.

"I think we will get a lot of interest, but I don't think the standard will be the number of people," Bohrman said. "It's going to be what the experience is, and hopefully a fair amount of people will come to see it."

Chat rooms and jumpy, small-screen video may not be as compelling as television. Still, in election year 2000, political leaders can't risk underestimating the Internet. As the conventions kick off, national campaign officials from both parties can agree on one thing: the Internet is now a substantial presence in U.S. politics.

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