As the pundits and political armchair quarterbacks begin to analyze this year’s election in Mississippi, one thing is for certain – new media made a real difference.
Blogs are now where an increasing number of Mississippians are turning for their political news. Websites like this one, Majority in Mississippi, Fire McCoy and the Boys, Jackson Jambalaya, and others are providing up-to-date, analytical information and opinion conservatives won’t find in the mainstream statewide media.
The liberal’s answer to these conservative blogs is Cottonmouth, which has repeatedly been proved in error both in their predictions and their pulse of the average Mississippi voter.
Projects like Fire McCoy and the Boys began as a simple blog post and a grassroots campaign was built around the concept with many groups and individuals catching the vision for conservatives to take the state House. Focusing coverage on an effort as important as this can move the needle.
In addition to blogs, Facebook and Twitter in Mississippi seems to be heavily used by conservatives, giving like-minded people from the Coast to the Delta a chance to join forces, share ideas and expose people saying one thing and doing another anytime and anywhere. This is something Democrats in Mississippi have yet to truly grasp.
Mississippi’s 2011 election could be described as the year new media really rivaled the influence of the traditional media, giving the people a more complete glimpse of Mississippi politics. And new media certainly helps keep the traditional media honest on how they portray stories and/or unnecessarily hiding or sensationalizing them.
Mississippi remains starved for true journalistic effort. The traditional media of the day, with the exception of a handful of reporters and editors, are overwhelmingly sympathetic to the liberal cause in the state and nationwide. We have seen this displayed over and over again during this election cycle. It’s sad to say, but there are some very visible people in Mississippi’s traditional media (particularly print media) that don’t “play it straight” or even pretend to anymore.
So now what? Well, Republicans now control the Governor’s Mansion, the Senate and the House and now has a major responsibility to govern. Great work has been done to get us here, but that was the easy part. Now comes governing. The same people who had no role to govern will all of the sudden have a leadership role. It’s hard to overstate how important winning the House was.
The entire conservative community, particularly the blogging community, has a responsibility to hold our new leaders’ feet to the fire. Proper redistricting, the Sunshine Law, Charter Schools, immigration reform and a host of long overdue changes on how we approach our state budget that have been stymied by obstructionists in the Legislature should now get done. While conservative bloggers have great relationships with those who will now govern, it is important that someone makes sure that conservatives don’t get “weak kneed” when it comes to making the big decisions that are long overdue and will be good for our state.
It’s important for all of us to hold those accountable for what they said during the election campaign. That’s why Y’allPolitics keeps over 7 years of archives searchable on a daily basis.
Thank you all for reading and we invite you to help spread the word. New media makes a difference… and it will continue to be a major player in Mississippi politics for years to come.
Magnolia Tribune
