Messaging, Mobilization and Money

Pete Daou and I appear to be reading from the same playbook.  At TechPresident, he writes many of the things I've been arguing for some time.

The pyramid of Internet political functions consists of message (communications), money (fundraising) and mobilization. Atop that pyramid sits communications. Message drives money and triggers mobilization. Devoid of a compelling message to spur their use, the most advanced web tools will lie fallow. The impetus to use technology is always external to the technology; the impulse to connect and contribute begins with the inspiration to do so and the inspiration derives from the message.

Daou is exactly right about the three points on the internet pyramid, and they are exactly the elements I named in my first post at The Next Right.  In another post about Obama's integrated new media campaign, I laid out the impact of blogs as follows...

• Messaging - communication, particularly targeted to specific audiences and influentials, rather than mass communication
• Mobilization - community development and reinforcement, online-to-offline activism; individual mobilization can be due to direct campaign contact, peer relationships, or general community influence
• Money - good fundraising is the result of doing #1 and #2 effectively; donations can reflect an investment in the ideas (#1), or in the relationship/movement (#2)

However, while I agree with Daou that mobilization and money are subsidiaries to message, I would argue that mobilization should be divided into two distinct areas.

• Activist mobilization is tangible, direct participation in politics; things like cavassing, voting, phone banking, volunteering and other political advocacy.  Activist mobilization is a tangible, direct participation in politics. 
• Community mobilization is conceptual buy-in; it is the organization of people around ideas, themes, priorities, ways of thinking.  Community mobilization makes people available and positioned for activist mobilization.

To put this in terms of the modern Left: progressives felt poitically powerless even during the 90's, they developed unifying grievances in four areas (Democratic and Republican Parties, the government and the media), and began messaging about those problems and their solutions.  As a result of the Left's powerful online information activism, millions of people organized around the progressive's themes and agenda.  That was community mobilization. 

It was only after those themes had been spread to, and accepted by, a large community (activists, philanthropists, media, politicians, and the general public) that the Left could create effective activist mobilization. 

Good tools are a force-multiplier, but they are not a shortcut.