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To access links, see Steven Clift's blog: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=267 Post: Candidates "doing" the digital parades - AP Wire - Candidates seek youths at MySpace The other week I had a good chat with AP reporter Anick Jesdanun about what I called the "digital parade." In past elections candidates took a built and they will come approach. Only their core supporters (and opponents) came. So to reach out to possible voters, some candidates are now "going to the people" online. Campaigns know how to "do" a parade. They gather volunteers to march with candidate with signs and send other volunteers up and down the parade route to try and get more of their stickers on people than the other candidates. With MySpace you can see the competitive size of each candidates support base. If you can see it, then it matters to campaigns. You can't see their own web site statistics, so web traffic to those sites doesn't really matter politically. While there have been a number of MySpace and the 2006 election articles, I'm quoted in this one. :-) Also, the most popular candidate on MySpace by far is Kinky Friedman, the independent candidate for Governor in Texas. He has close to 25,000 friends on MySpace. That is five times more than the Democratic candidate for Governor in California mentioned below. Read on below and see the blog version for links. Steven Clift http://dowire.org AP Wire | 08/17/2006 | Candidates seek youths at MySpace Candidates seek youths at MySpace ANICK JESDANUN Associated Press NEW YORK - Phil Angelides, California's Democratic candidate for governor, had nothing to do with creating a MySpace page under his name. His teenage daughter was the first to point out his presence on the popular online hangout. But rather than kill a volunteer's unauthorized efforts, the campaign has embraced the youth-heavy site, using Angelides' personal profile page to post position papers and other announcements. It also scans the comments section to gauge what's on youths' minds, turning it into an informal focus group. "We've come to embrace it as our own," campaign spokesman Brian Brokaw said. "It can help you reach an audience that otherwise might be more difficult to reach. Not as many young voters watch the evening news." ... Angelides, currently California's treasurer, has more than 5,000 friends - and counting. "It's almost like an endorsement list," said Steven Clift, editor of the Web site Democracies Online. "Pictures show up, and it gave me the impression that these are real people who support these people." Ned Lamont, who defeated Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in last week's Connecticut primary, had more than 175 MySpace friends. Although it's not possible to isolate MySpace's contribution to the win, its ability to mobilize friends and those friends' friends created "waves of support that Lamont was able to catch," Steve Schneider, a political science professor at the State University of New York Institute of Technology. Many candidates, however, are sitting on the sidelines for now. Although California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign has turned to YouTube to circulate critical information on Angelides, his MySpace profiles are all unauthorized, some even unflattering ... *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To comment/for links: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=267 To network: http://groups.dowire.org Submit posts: http://dowire.org/submit Member profile for Steven: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/stevenclift ----------------------------------------- Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/newswire Replies go to members of Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/topic/125189 For digest version or to leave Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail, email [email protected] with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.
