US politics and the internet

Published 18 September 2008

Were the election to be decided on clicks alone the Democrats would be walking away with both a landslide victory and lots of Facebook friends

New media is key in vote USA 2008

The internet and social software has already been a highly visible force in this extraordinarily connected US Election contest. The candidates are seemingly wanting to join us in every conceivable way, as well as utilising third-party services like Myspace and twitter, both camps have created social networks of their own in my.BarackObama and the wonderfully named McCainSpace.

This isn’t necessarily translating into active engagement from all voters though, indeed were the election to be decided on clicks alone the Democrats would be walking away with both a landslide victory and lots of Facebook friends.

In an effort to engage the population in the political process, last month the Commission on Presidential Debates announced it was developing ‘educational partnership’ with Myspace. Earlier this week the site, MyDebates.org launched, and it’s surprisingly good.

The profiling begins with an ‘issues quiz’, a series of fourteen questions which are designed to inform you which candidate you are most closely aligned with on key policy points. Your responses are then put into the context of the rest of America, allowing you to interrogate the response data with a combination of state-by-state and demographic-based criteria. MySpace users can then go on to add this information to their profile should they wish to wear their party colours more visibly.

Whilst all very well executed with the slick visual language of news infographics, the site is going to have to really prove itself during the first live debates. Promising to offer live coverage streamed onto the site combined with spot polls on key questions that arise, this would appear to be one of the most exciting meetings of new media with the political process yet.

The only stumbling block at the moment seems to be a rather slow start. At the time of writing, with just over a week to go until the first debate there’s only 3330 friends registered onto the page.

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3 comments from readers

mouran
18 September 2008 at 16:42

there is something abnormal about US policy, presidential candidates, why they should pay their homage to their new God "jewish lobby", how did they got their power? there is something abnormal, why anti-Semitic, Holocaust, human history is full of tragedies, why only ur new God,

U'r talking about policy, do you know what's policy of now a days, to be a real politician you've to have these characters:

1- cynicism, be a snappish dog.

2- be a big liar, deceive others.

3- don't respect people easy to deceive "deception

system".

4- ur personal interest first.

its very advanced civilization

voyage
18 September 2008 at 16:57

there is something abnormal about US policy, presidential candidates, why they should pay their homage to their new God "jewish lobby", how did they got their power? there is something abnormal, why you can talk about anything but don't try to talk about anti-Semitic, Holocaust, human history is full of tragedies!!!!, why only ur new God!!!!,

U'r talking about policy, do you know what's policy of now a days, to be a real politician you've to have these characters:

1- cynicism, be a snappish dog.

2- be a big liar, deceive others.

3- don't respect people easy to deceive "deception

system".

4- ur personal interest first.

its very advanced civilization,

tata
22 September 2008 at 14:40

what is this nonsense?, jewish people is our friend, when you like someone you'll do ur best for him, whatever happen.

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About the writer

Iain Simons writes, talks and tweets about videogames and technology. His new book, Play Britannia, is to be published in 2009. He is the director of the GameCity festival at Nottingham Trent University.