MySpace in '08
Friday, April 27, 2007
In early April, MySpace announced that it will hold faux primary elections on January 1st and 2nd of 2008. "The MySpace community will give America its first Presidential primary winner in 2008," commented Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace. But should we care what the MySpace community thinks? We absolutely should! As TechCruncher Michael Arrington points out, MySpace has more people registered than Mexico has residents, making it the 11th largest country! MySpace also consists of American youth, who are notorious for omitting presidential elections from their list of priorities. Do you recall P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" campaign in 2004? Various celebrities were photographed giving the peace sign with those three questionable yet authoritative words sprawled across their chests. Later we found out that Paris Hilton, who was among the Vote or Die'ers, hadn’t even bothered to register to vote! Guess that wasn't "hot" enough for Paris. In addition to the elections, MySpace is also taking part in a new reality show, Independent, in which the country will vote on an Independent candidate that can potentially run for president in '08. The show will be the first of its kind, with the MySpace community deciding on the challenges that the contestants have to face. The elected official will win $1 million, which will have to be either donated to a political cause or can go towards their own presidential campaign. Jeff Berman, general manager of MySpace Video, explained that "this is about enabling people-powered politics. It seems bizarre that in our day and age, "people-powered politics" are being enabled. With the tools available, a push to create a true democracy is long overdue. In 2000, we learned our lesson the hard way, yet it is almost 2008, and we are still getting ready to fill out those same antiquated paper voter registration forms. I offer MySpace my personal kudos and hope that their efforts reap benefits in inspiring young people to go through the low-tech registration process and vote. The democracy in our country is in a sad state with less than half of citizens under 25 voting, and I am excited to see what type of impact MySpace can have on the ambivalence. Labels: Myspace, politics, Techcrunch
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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