Political conventions provide a showcase for Journalism 2.0

There probably won't be any surprises at the Democratic National Convention, which is taking place in Denver this week. Barack Obama had the nomination sewn up when the primaries ended in June, every moment of the event is meticulously orchestrated, and even many of the speeches delivered by prominent politicians are released well in advance. But if something unexpected does go down on the convention floor, nearly 15,000 members of the media will be there to cover it in real time. Within that not-so-small army of journalists are untold scores of micro-bloggers, mobile-video-uploaders, and all sorts of 2.0-era reporters.

Electronic media proponents have been working tirelessly in recent years to stay a step ahead of their stodgier, dustier ink-and-paper counterparts. One major roadblock faced by the grassroots media is lack of access. The New York Times, Newsweek, and the television networks all have permanent seats in the White House briefing room, but there isn't even standing room for small-time bloggers. Large-scale, quasi-public events such as the political conventions tend to provide more free access to smaller media outlets. And if anything unexpected happens out of earshot of the network studios high in the rafters, you can be sure that there will be a camera phone videographer and a Twitterer there to record it. There are many certainties about this year's political conventions. One of them is that mobile media and digital content will be given top billing--or a least a seat at the table.

For more:
- read this article about new media at the conventions from CMS Wire