And they’re off
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
With the primaries well on their way, we are beginning to see the real impact social media is having on the voter turnouts as well as the actual votes cast. For reference sake, I will note that on Facebook, Obama has an overwhelming lead with 61% of participants of the US Politics feature supporting him. Clinton has just 18%, and Edwards comes in 3rd with 10%.
On the Republican side, surprisingly, Ron Paul is the front runner with 37%. The support for the other candidates is split fairly evenly. In order, Huckabee is 2nd with 19%, Romney 3rd with 14% and McCain 4th with 11%.
Facebook doesn’t break down these figures further, for example, indicating the median age of supporters. However, it can be safely assumed that the majority of these folks are in their 20s and 30s and, thus, represent a voice younger than that captured by the polls conducted by CNN and other traditional news organizations.
With that said, the argument can be made that social media is having a relatively big impact for Democrats. In Iowa last week, where Obama was victorious, young people came out in record numbers. According to Time, “[t]urnout among the youngest slice of the electorate more than doubled from 2004.”
The same was true in New Hampshire yesterday. In a press release today about the state’s voter turnout, the presence of youth - deemed as adults under 30 - increased 25% from 2004, from just 18% to 43%.
An article from MTV.com about Clinton’s win in NH broke down the numbers. In Iowa, just 10% of Democrats aged 17-24 voted for her, while 57% voted for Obama. In New Hampshire, 22% of 18-24 year olds supported Clinton, but an astounding 60% rallied for Obama.
So how did Clinton manage to win in New Hampshire? While young voters are taking the most active role in history in the primaries, so is the rest of the population! In that same article, strong support from women, 46% to be exact, was cited as the reason for her win in NH. Apparently, women in Iowa don’t care much for other women.
Perhaps what’s even more telling about the success of social media in these elections is CBS’ announced plans this week to partner with Digg on coverage pertaining to the campaigns. It’s a you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours kind of deal. CBSNew.com will feature stories rated highly on Digg on their site and Digg will feature articles from CBSNews.com.
It’s nice to know that when all is said and done in November, our country is already well on its way to creating real change. Through the integration of social media, apathy is quickly becoming very passé.Labels: 2008 elections, digg, Facebook, new media, politics, social media, Web 2.0
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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Social Networking & Decision ’08 Take 2
Friday, November 30, 2007
This week, the Republican version of the YouTube debate aired on CNN. Compared to the Democratic debate, which aired several months ago, the conservative bunch did seem a bit more uncomfortable, which made it all the more interesting to watch.
If you recall, when the Democratic debate aired, there were rumors that the Republicans would not participate. I believe Mitt Romney said explicitly that he did not want to disgrace the sacredness that is political debate by allowing YouTube to lead it. Looks like technology won this round, and it is in the running for the next.
On Monday, news of Facebook and ABC’s partnership emerged, signaling another revolutionary step in our approach to elections and garnering news. ABC developed an application for Facebook called “US Politics,” which users can add to their profile. The application presents news on the election, and allows Facebookers to voice their opinions on certain topics, participate in polls and, most importantly, communicate directly with reporters!
How? The ABC reporters, whose articles are fed through the application, have Facebook profiles. As a Facebook user, you are invited to send them private questions and comments on their articles. Within this exchange, you can feel free to pose questions and issues that they can then raise with the candidates or investigate on their own.
Sure. This may not seem so profound to us, as in our profession, we engage the media on a regular basis. But the rest of the public does not. Actually, it is not far fetched to say that the majority of people are not even aware of how news comes about. Think about it…. How often have you been asked something as nonsensical as, “Can’t you just write a story and get it published?”
And while the ABC/Facebook partnership will be focusing on the presidential race, its success will determine how reporters interact with the general public in the future. Pretty soon, we might all find ourselves in the driver’s seat.Labels: media, new media, politics, Public Relations, Web 2.0, Youtube
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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Decision '08 and Web 2.0
Friday, August 31, 2007
Next year's election is certainly driving old and new media to become more creative. First, we had the CNN/YouTube debate and now the online divisions of the Washington Post and CBS are teaming up to create a unique kind of coverage. The two media moguls plan to announce the news on Tuesday. Both websites will feature material from the other media. The Washington Post site will have political clips from CBS affiliates and the CBS site will feature political commentary from The Washington Post. In addition, visitors will be able to interact with reporters by commenting and asking questions in a live exchange. This last bit has yet to be detailed, so who knows what it really entails. Sure it's nothing super groundbreaking, but it is an interesting step, considering how fiercely territorial media companies are with their material. If successful, it could signal the first of many big media convergences online. It should be noted, though, that this seemingly unorthodox approach has been in the making. Research firm, the Bivings Group, reported that 92% of the 100 largest US newspaper websites are offering video, which is a 31% increase over last year. Some of the sites pull the video from the AP or local news stations, while some make their own original content. So it is a natural step for these two big players to team up to try to stomp out the growing competition. Labels: new media, politics, video, Web 2.0
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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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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