Drastic times call for drastic measures or it is a case of keeping up with the times because if you haven’t noticed every presidential candidate for the 2008 election has a MySpace page. MySpace has introduced a section dedicated to the 2008 election called Impact Channel. It will be an online version of a town square, a collection of links to political MySpace pages that will make it easy for the site’s 60 million monthly American users. Many of these users are from the youth demographic which is always pivotal for candidates and very hard to come by.
Now you can be critical if you like, but remember in 1992 when future president Bill Clinton was seen on MTV and Arsenio Hall’s late night TV show playing the saxophone? George W. Bush totally denied MTV (even for an interview) and lost the election to Clinton. Basically, if the candidates seem pressured to do this type of tactic to stay in the race, you can’t blame them.
It’s hard to tell what type of effect this is having. Barrack Obama leads all candidates with 81,623 friends, but Hillary Clinton still leads the Democrats in the latest polls, and for the record, Rudy Guliani has his page set private.
“Part of the motivation is seeing how Howard Dean jumped on the blogging trend in 2003 and established that as a powerful force,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “A lot of candidates don’t want to miss the boat on what could be the next big thing.”
MySpace executives predict that 86 percent of its American users are voting age and even younger users are on campaign coordinators’ radar. “The election is a little less than a year away,” said Christian Ferry, the national e-campaign director for John McCain. “A 16- or 17- year-old is going to be eligible to vote in 2008.”
The Impact Channel will also feature voter registration tools that are intended to function as a cyber version of the Rock the Vote youth drives of recent years. Of course when you talk presidential candidates you have to talk campaign contributions. The MySpace pages will feature a one-click payment function to help candidates solicit contributions. This tool will appear on each candidate’s official page, and can be easily dragged onto a user’s own page. And from there it can be dragged to a user’s friend’s page, making it as easy as swapping songs of your favorite artist.
Shaunna Clark, a junior business management major, said, “I feel that it’s good that the candidates are reaching out to younger voters in a platform that they are used to because there will be campaigns to motivate young voters. But if every time you visit MySpace you can get reminded to vote and look at your favorite candidate younger people will be more likely to vote.” Junior Avery Whalon had a different take on the matter. “I don’t know if it will have much impact because with every candidate having a page it doesn’t seem like either of the candidates is doing anything new. It’s like they are all seeing what the next person is doing instead of thinking what they will do next to be different.”
While MySpace probably has not replaced regular campaigning from city to city and it probably won’t have the same impact as the Iowa Caucuses or the New Hampshire primaries but, you will definitely hear from the candidates between now and next November even if it’s through a bulletin posting , a message, or even being on your friend list.