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MySpace Candidates
"It's a great place to recruit people to work on your campaign, and it's an interesting place to think about how you can do fundraising."
By Alana Germany
May 17, 2007
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The presidential election might be a year-and-a-half
away, but all of the major campaigns are in full
swing. Of course, candidates are using the standard
political tactics – traveling the country, making
speeches, and debating the issues. Youth Radio’s Alana
Germany investigates the newest strategy candidates
are using to reach young voters: MySpace.
MySpace is my life. I'm on it almost twenty-four-seven, and know my MySpace page can be the source of a lot of drama.
But I still don’t understand why presidential candidates would want to be on MySpace.
JOE TUMAN (on tape)
It's an inexpensive way to reach an audience that sometimes gets ignored - younger people.
ALANA
That’s Joe Tuman, a professor of speech and communications at San Francisco State University,
Tuman (on tape)
It's a great place to recruit people to work on your campaign, and it's an interesting place to think about how you can do fundraising.
ALANA
Twenty-year old Quincy Mosby is one of the thousands of MySpace users who candidates have reached. He “friend-requested” Barack Obama in hopes of linking to the Senator’s profile and rallying support for his candidate.
QUINCY (on tape)
I'd like to think that, you know, by having him up there, that'll make them think about, "Hey, maybe I should vote for that guy, cuz he's on Quincy's page and Quincy seems to be not such a bad dude."
ALANA
He knows how important it is to help spread Obama’s message. And take it from an expert - in a place like MySpace, that's like a big popularity contest, a lot is riding on how you present yourself.
The upside of Hillary Clinton's site is…there's a lot to look at. The downside is all the merchandise she displays, which is kind of tacky and really clutters things up. It's also interesting there's no sign of Bill around.
John McCain's MySpace layout is ridiculously boring - a dark background with hazy white stars. As you scroll down his page, the stars disappear, and you descend into blackness. I hope that's not what his presidency will be like if he's elected.
Mitt Romney goes wrong in his pictures section. They’re all of him at rallies looking like a stereotypical politician - shaking hands here, giving hugs there, Please…the baby kissing bit it the oldest trick in the book! John Edward’s page is my favorite. MySpace is about being yourself, and he has pictures playing with his children on the beach and having lunch with volunteers during a clean up after Hurricane Katrina.
So what are all the presidential campaigns ultimately hoping to get out of their social networking profiles? Professor Joe Tuman says in the end, no matter what the platform, candidates are still commodities…who will do whatever they can to attract voters.
PROFESSOR TUMAN (on tape)
They're packaged like products. And the prettier and more appealing a product you can make something, the more likely you are to sell it.
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