Blogging 2004 Election

I ran into some people at the national Polit sci meetings in Chicago who blog politics. I was amazed at how narrowcast their view of the world is! Tlk about the electronic media having shrunk from broadcast (3 major TV networks) to narrow-cast (cable, Fox, Internet news, etc) ... these people were not communicating with anyone except people who agreed ideologically (almost exclusively Liberal for the group I met). Then they have interse arguments among themselves but on an incredibly narrow spectrum (is this dancing or blogging on the head of a pin!).

When I talked about the Midwest and conservatives or moderates they seemed quite confused and uninformed. Is this the Balkanization of American dialog? (The Balkans are a metaphore for fragmented into many tiny ieces like the area of former Yugoslavia we call the Balkans). Any ideas? Or are there threads that penetrate across affinity lines?

Steffen