Written By Kate Zimmermann | November 8, 2006 | Share This |

To follow up on the Video the Vote project that I blogged yesterday, check out their YouTube profile. Videos have already been uploaded to report excessive lines, rude and incompetent poll workers, voting machine security issues, broken machines, difficulties with the touchscreen, and so on. Today the New York Times reports that political blogs used these YouTube videos as supporting evidence to publicize voting machine irregularities. Below is one of the most popular videos, showing a polling station videographer being intimidated and barred from entry,

Interestingly, the combined effort of citizen videographers and political bloggers has uncovered more than the shortcomings of our voting system, it’s also proven that social media is a more efficient means of dispatching breaking news. The NY Times confirms, “In a lot of ways [social media] are helping to set the agenda for the mainstream media in fast-moving events like this.” As blogs and other viral media become the preferred source of breaking-news information, print newspapers, radio, and even television will either have to speed production or find a new angle. Jeff Jarvis predicts that as blogs and Comedy Central clips become more important vehicles of political dialogue than television, politicians will need to reinvent their advertising strategies. He writes, “I believe that we will see an ever-declining influence of television and political advertising on TV in future elections. [Politicians] will find new ways to get ugly in new media.”

The real test will be in translating the gloss that politicians are accustomed to presenting for television into a more authentic voice for social media. For the 2008 election, at least, going from glossy to genuine will be what politicians struggle with most. I expect they’ll take an advertising route similar to highly-branded corporations - spending outrageous sums on banners, email campaigns, and rich media, until they learn to leverage SEM and SEO. In the meantime, there will always be a blogger with a video camera to bring out the ugly.

Topics: Blogging, Media Convergence, Social Media |