The Power of ‘One’: Matt Drudge

Posted by Abhijith as Uncategorized

This post is about Matt Drudge and how one individual is cited to be the driving force behind a nation’s(USA) line of thought, atleast politically.

Frankly, a visit to www.drudgereport.com will make you dismiss the site as a useless remnant from the days the internet was born. It is a three column collection of links, devoid of graphics save a handful of pictures embedded from some other site, an unconventional layout of ads, banner and links: in all a seemingly boring place to visit.

However, scroll down a bit and you will see the statistics of the page displayed: 19 million+ visits in 24 hours. At first I was like, Are you kidding me? A Google and Wikipedia later I am told to believe that this is no ordinary site; it is a website which decides what the media should be talking about.

The website’s history, courtesy Google search and Wikipedia, is that Matt started a mailing list with some news he collected from here and there, made it a website, published the Lewinsky scandal when noone would, became a sensation, sustained readership because of the links he posted and continues to be in the forefront of ’shaping public opinion’ through his headlines and stories he links to.

All he does in link to various external websites, though he does host exclusive stories, like the O ba ma-turban uproar and the Mc C ain bomb-bomb-bomb-Ir an comment.

From what I have read on commentary about this website, the national media is forced to cover whatever Matt features on his website - because of the volume of visitors to his site. And increased coverage of his site in turn means more people returning to check for news.

So it’s something like this: one guy, sitting in Miami, monitoring websites and his inbox for stories noone bothers to report or ‘miss’, decides to make an obscure article his main headline, and boom-it’s all over the media! Isn’t it fun to be that guy… This, is the power of one.

The story behind The Drudge Report goes beyond this: fine print on Al Go re’s loss, John K er ry’s debacle, Hil lary’s downfall and negativism over M c Ca in will point to Matt Drudge’s selection of news stories. He is mentioned as a factor in all these events. This also gives me the creeps because misusing it….well let’s just hope he doesn’t.

Of course, this website is mainly concerned about politics in the USA. So if you want to follow what’s happening, this one site is almost more than enough.

For all his fame Matt is cited as a very reclusive guy, furthering his ‘Godly’ status. Atleast columnists refer to him(and his website) as one….

I am fascinated by this guy because for all the policies set by corporate enterprises, effort spent on presentation, content, research on target audiences, a guy with a simple, down to earth website linking, mind you, not even hosting stories can channel opinion so forcefully. Any media outlet dreams of such power.

Further reading: Google Matt Drudge and go through links over a couple of pages; for a summary Wikipedia him and his website.

trackback:  http://abhijith1729.blogspot.com/2008/06/power-of-one-matt-drudge.html

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June 9, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

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