Feature Article

Beyond CNN: The ‘Netroots’ Effect

By Jeremy Pettibon

Grassroots organizing has long been an important part of democracy. Its main premise is that individual people may not be able to alter opinion or policy, but that collectively, connected by common “roots” – backgrounds, needs, and motives – a group of people can bring about change.

Until recently, grassroots organizations were somewhat limited geographically, since means of communication generally constrained groups to personal gatherings locally and only one-to-one conversations over greater distances. Communications between people in different countries was slow and expensive. Technology, however, has quickly changed the paradigm. The evolution of the internet has given activists the ability to gather “virtually” and to contact one another in real-time, with many-to-many communications more easily achieved. The internet nearly eliminates geographical limitations; it enables the creation of nationwide as well as international grassroots organizations. This collective activism via the internet is commonly called “Netroots.” Like the “CNN Effect” that media coverage can have on government policy, the internet is capable of producing a “Netroots Effect.”

What many consider to be the moment that the Netroots effect became apparent is the surprising success of Howard Dean’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. At the heart of the Dean campaign was his website, “Dean For America.” Visitors were invited to become members of the organization, receive email updates, contact other members nearby, post details of campaign events they were hosting, and get involved in other ways. Although he did not eventually win the nomination, Dean’s strategy catapulted him into the heat of the race and forced other candidates to change their own strategies and their messages. Also as a result of his impressive base of supporters, Dean was shortly afterward elected to be Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Many other organizations – mainly domestic, but increasingly international – have taken inspiration from Howard Dean’s use of Netroots, and in some situations have produced a Netroots effect. As with the CNN effect, there must be a certain degree of policy uncertainty in order to attribute a policy change to pressure from citizens on the internet. One example that could be an illustration of the Netroots effect is the U.S. government’s decision in 2004 to label the mass killings in Darfur as genocide. The White House had been wavering on the topic of whether to officially use such a strong term, and Congress was mulling a resolution of its own. Online groups such as the Save Darfur Coalition (www.SaveDarfur.org) launched campaigns urging Americans to sign online petitions, email and phone their representatives in Congress, write letters to editors of local papers, and to take other actions meant to raise awareness and pressure the government to act. Congress eventually passed a resolution declaring the killings genocide, and the White House soon followed suit. Although it cannot be proven that Netroots changed the outcome of this campaign, it can be strongly argued that the strong online response and actions taken by online activists pushed politicians over the line they had previously not been willing to cross.