In fact, what we have is the emergence of a new category of storytellers . Political portals exist in the vortex between web sites produced by professional media outlets, candidates for elective office, activist groups and advocacy organizations. Increasingly, they seek to bridge political action and political information-seeking. In the 1996 and 1998 cycles, political portals were significant but functioned mostly as off-shoots of other sites or ventures sponsored by nonprofit organizations. This year, several dot-coms have entered the marketplace, bringing into sharp relief the contrasting economic and political motivations of site producers.
Political portals pose two main threats to good democratic practice.
Opacity and redlining reduce the ability of the Internet to promote affordable free speech for candidates, advocacy groups and citizens, and may serve to increase voter confusion, cynicism, and complacency. Opacity is easily rectified. Redlining is more difficult to remedy, and may be more amenable to an indirect solution involving database structures and access. This article examines the political economy of political portals. The next section examines political portals in terms of the motivations of site producers, and suggests a distinction between public interest, advocacy and for-profit sites.