Social Media: The New Political Battleground

As we all know, and I've posted before, social media is the new way politicians are trying to reach the younger vote for this years elections. The main criticism now is that the information being put out there, especially on YouTube, is not the best quality source to base your opinions on....I bet you didn't see that one coming did you?! They're afraid of what's being posted since it cannot be controlled or influenced by anyone. People can post whatever they want and claim it's the truth and that it came from a reliable source.

Maybe we shouldn't be putting so much faith in all aspects of social media...almost a catch 22. What do you guys think?

Top 50 US politics Twitter accounts to follow

This is a list of the top 50 Twitter accounts for following US politics and election coverage according to Richard Adams's blog. Very interesting how it has it broken down into categories..thought it might be of interest to some of you. This is supposed to be the most intellectual Twitter accounts to follow as far as actually getting accurate information, not necessarily the most popular accounts.

Journalists

Ben Smith @benpolitico
Hyperactive politics blogger for Politico
Dave Weigel @daveweigel
Political blogger for Slate, specialises in Tea Party and conservative coverage
Felicia Sonmez @fixfelicia
Political blogger with The Washington Post
Taegan Goddard @pwire
Veteran Political Wire blogger with remarkable news judgment
Susan Page @SusanPage
Washington bureau chief of USA Today
Alex Wagner @alex_wags
White House Correspondent for AOL's Politics Daily website
Reid Wilson @HotlineReid
Editor of The Hotline, part of the National Journal
Phil Elliott @PElliottAP
Covers national politics and elections for the Associated Press
Beth Reinhard @bethreinhard
Covering Florida politics for the Miami Herald
Garance Franke-Ruta @thegarance
Political blogger at the Washington Post
Mike Memoli @mikememoli
Reporter in the Tribune Washington DC bureau for the Los Angeles Times (among other Tribune papers)
Erin McPike @ErinMcPike
National political reporter for Real Clear Politics
Mark Knoller @markknoller
White House correspondent for CBS News Radio
Suzy Khimm @SuzyKhimm
Political reporter for Mother Jones
Jake Tapper @jaketapper
ABC News senior White House correspondent

News feeds

NPR Politics @nprpolitics
Political coverage from National Public Radio News
McClatchy DC @McClatchyDC
Washington DC bureau of the McClatchy Newspapers chain
Swing State Project @SwingState
Democrat-orientated highly detailed campaign and election news
Wonkette @Wonkette
Political snark and gossip from the left
GOP12 @GOP12
Breaking news on the likely Republican presidential candidates and other races
Senate US @senatus
Non-partisan coverage of the US Senate
PolitiFact @politifact
Tweets from a nonpartisan politics fact-checking website
Cook Political Report @CookPolitical
Twitter feed for Charlie Cook's respected forecasting outfit

Pundits

Liz Mair @LizMair
Former RNC online communications director, Arsenal fan
Larry Sabato @LarrySabato
Director of the University of Virginia's centre for politics
David Wasserman @Dave_Wasserman
House of Representatives analyst at the Cook Political Report
Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox
Serial blogger and DC politics junkie
Sam Graham-Felsen @samgf
Former chief blogger for the Obama campaign in 2008, now a new media consultant
Donna Brazile @donnabrazile
Veteran Democratic political strategist
Chuck Todd @chucktodd
Political analyst for NBC and MSNBC

On the left

Christina Bellantoni @cbellantoni
Covering the White House for Talking Points Memo
Atrios @Atrios
Pioneer blogger and acid-witted tweeter Duncan Black
Nico Pitney @nicopitney
National editor at the Huffington Post
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
Influential progressive politics blogger for Salon.com
The Wonk Room @wonkroom
Collective news blog of the Centre for American Progress Action Fund
Steve Benen @stevebenen
Blogger at the Washington Monthly
Alan Colmes @AlanColmes
Recovering ex-host of Hannity and Colmes, surprisingly good Twitter feed

On the right

Erick Erickson @ewerickson
Editor-in-chief of RedState.com and Tea Party favourite
Mindy Finn @mindyfinn
Republican new media operative
Doug Mataconis @dmataconis
Virginia lawyer and libertarian blogger
Timothy Carney @TPCarney
Author and columnist for the Washington Examiner
Josh Barro @jbarro
Senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute
Mark Hemingway @Heminator
Washington Examiner blogger
Reihan Salam @reihansalam
Conservative political writer and fellow at the New America Foundation

Political parties

Republican Study Committee @RepublicanStudy
Influential caucus of House conservatives
Nathan Daschle @nathandaschle
Executive director of Democratic Governors Association

Pollsters

Nate Silver @fivethirtyeight
The pollster's pollster, now blogging for the New York Times
Public Policy Polling @ppppolls
North Carolina-based polling company with a good track record
Mark Blumenthal @MysteryPollster
Blogger and founder of Pollster.com, now migrated to Huffington Post
Scott Rasmussen @RasmussenPoll
President of Rasmussen Reports polling company

ABC Streaming Live on Facebook for Novemeber Elections

Apparently the quickest way to get updates on next month's elections is on Facebook. ABC will be streaming live the night of November 2 to ABCNews.com as well as directly to Facebook to keep voters updated by the minute on the outcomes of elections. Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will be hosting this live event entitled "Vote 2010" directly from ABC News Studios in  New York, as well as directly from Facebook's Palo Alto base. This will allow voters to actually interact and ask questions during the broadcasts. I guess the old days of waiting for the news stations on TV to broadcast updates are a thing of the past.....?