This year's campaign is far more interactive on a daily basis than any previous campaign in Encinitas. Besides our local newspapers, we have their online versions where readers comment. Besides the instant feedback (sometimes awful) this means that we aren't limited to the physical papers we must fetch at our door or beyond. Check the links in the sidebar.
Blogosphere
EYNU blog and Our Mayor blog both post political news about our council, council candidates, local issues and smattering bits of things outside of Encinitas. EYNU links in the sidebar lists a few other blogs of interest who started this cross-blog linking years ago.
Lisa Shaffer has been keeping her Facebook entries very current, to the delight of those following her campaign. She's been posting brief messages or linking to news, events or people of interest here as well as her campaign website and monthly newsletter. Hands down, Lisa, is a leader in our 21st century environment.
Teresa Barth has a Facebook page she actively used to communicate with voters in the 2010 election, well ahead of the times. Through her Facebook page the NYT article from Tony Kranz became a real keeper for the EYNU files, because in Encinitas we love our trees.
Tony Kranz' shared article from Mark Wisnewski is called, Why Trees Matter on his Facebook page. Tony is a likeable guy according to his friends meter. Tony has also spoken at city council meetings frequently in the last several years. Clips of Tony are all over the place at the encinitasyouneedus YouTube channel.
Recently I looked for and found this Facebook page, Dave Roberts for Supervisor. Dave is from Solana Beach and is running for County Supervisor to fill incumbent Pam Slater-Price's seat. This man has always been a really good supporter for Encinitas citizen voices and shared undertakings with this city while he has served on Solana Beach's city council.
Campaign Websites
All of these community leaders have their own websites too, listed in the sidebar. These are early days. There may be PAC's to list later this year, or more.
Thought You Might Like to Know Newsletter
Our mayor in exile, Teresa Arballo Barth, has a robust weekly email newsletter that is hands down one of the greatest summaries of our local politics, business, tourism and public interest one could imagine. It's a graphically pleasing, professional looking newsletter without bells and whistles. It's treasure lies in the hard work kind of dozens of links each week to what matters most in Encinitas. This is no slap dash affair. No, it's lots of time and editing 52 weeks a year. For someone just wanting to get up to speed in what is going on politically in Encinitas, Councilwoman Barth's Thought You Might Like To Know is made for you.
This is a glance at the 21st century media alternatives to give you a framework, a guide to where you can find a wealth of information. Have you found that cable 'news' or a simple Google search can take you down a rabbit hole to harrowing tea parties, distortions, utter nonsense and threats? It's good to know that every single source linked and described in this post are places to rely on to show some short cuts to quality, to the good stuff.
"In the absence of activist movements that draw in a very substantial part of the population for interaction. Interchange -- the kinds of things that went on in the Occupy community for example -- in the absence of that most people are kind of at sea when they face the internet. So yes, they can find things of value and significance, but you have to know to look for them and you have to have a framework of analysis and perception that allows you to weed that out from a lot of the junk that surrounds it." Noam ChomskyThe advantage of all of the social media, the websites, blogs, YouTube channel clips means voters can hear from their candidates, speak to their candidates, know what is going on without the high cost of corporate media or mailings. The yard signs, mailers, banners and all of the trappings of a campaign are absolutely necessary and fundraising is vital. Please do what you can where you can. This post isn't an excuse not to support candidates of your choice.
And Twitter Too?
Anyone who followed the Arab Spring stories, the Occupy activities too, know that Twitter was used for rapid mobilizing of large numbers of people. It gave spontaneous actions tremendous leverage to keep groups flexible. Who knows how this tool might work in our upcoming campaign. The Face Look versus FaceBook phase will come later this year when people are out in the neighborhoods, knocking on doors, hanging out at grocery stores and engaging people face to face in conversations. Real live interaction is powerfully good stuff and the social media, blogs, etc. won't change that reality.
The point is that we don't have only the purchased methods of communication, or armies of volunteers to feel we can begin. We have the internet with the price of an internet connection. And even that isn't a prerequisite thanks to the library and WiFi spots. Crowds clicking on links and surfing the net will help get us a new start in Encinitas, just you watch.
