Brand Republic
 
Edition:
UK |
Asia
 
Digital jobs

Jobs

Find over 3000 jobs
 

Directory

 

Gordon's Republic

The MySpace election 

Comments:0   Add your comment
The 2008 US Presidential election is looking to be the most exciting race for some time, and MySpace and YouTube have a real role in making it real for a generation that usually really doesn’t care. Sadly the chances of seeing that in the UK anytime soon look slim.The latest spark has been fired by MySpace and MTV, which have unveiled plans for a series of discussions between US Presidential candidates and online users, which will be streamed live.

That's real politics. Live questions and quickfire answers, which will come from candidates including Senator Hilary Clinton to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The event also marks the first wide-scale collaboration between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's and Sumner Redstone's Viacom.

The event will be held on university campuses across the US and streamed live on MySpace and MTV.com, as well as screen on MTV and its campus TV station mtvU. Users submit questions by sending email/ instant messaging or by text message. Questions from the audience will be selected by moderators at the event and then presented straight to the candidate.

It's a step-up from the recent Democratic Party presidential debate held by Google's YouTube and Time Warner's CNN that featured pre-recorded questions from YouTube users at home and was moderated by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.



All that gave anyone was all of the candidates rolling out their well-prepared, spin-ready, standard answers, making it as about as much fun to watch as cement drying. At least cement offers some from of interactivity.

Jeff Berman, MySpaceTV general manager, said: "Neither of us wanted to see yet another event with a dozen candidates giving consultant-crafted answers said in a telephone interview. The event aims to promote unfiltered direct conversations."

The event is part of MTV's 'Loose Change' initiative that was launched 15 years ago in an effort to get youth voters to take part in the political process. It's a great idea and something that is sorely lacking from British politics whose embrace of new media is still rudimentary.

It's the kind of thing that Gordon Brown should be looking at if he does indeed call a snap spring election next year. And after the PR spin month from hell David Cameron needs all the help he can get.
Published Aug 23 2007, 03:17 PM by Gordon Macmillan
Filed under: , ,

Comments

No Comments
 
To comment on this post you have to be logged in

 

About this blog

Gordon's Republic

Brand Republic's daily blog on digital, media and plenty in between.
 

About the author

Gordon Macmillan

Blogging for:

Gordon's Republic

Member since: 03 Jun 2008

Last login: 24 Nov 2009

Total Posts: 1,618

 
 
 
 

Tags

 

Syndication