Political (De)Generation: MTV And America's Youth Vote

If you log on to mtv.com this month, it may take you a while to figure out there's a presidential election about to take place. There's news all right, in MTV-speak: news about album releases, news about a hip-hop group's upcoming tour, news about feuds between teen pop stars. You might notice the word "vote," but it's an opportunity to vote for your favorite character on the new show "Jackass." Scroll down a screen and you'll find an alphabetical list of the pioneer rock network's programs. There, beneath the listing for "Cool Crap Auction," you can click on "Choose or Lose," which will link you to MTV's election coverage -- programming that broke the network news barrier with its reporting and forums aimed at young U.S. voters back in 1992.

If you turn on the MTV cable channel, you may get a slightly better sense that there's an election coming. Vice President Gore participated in a September MTV town hall forum that has been in frequent reruns, a team of four young reporters covered the conventions and have reported numerous stories about youth issues, and a continuous assault of get-out-the-vote public service announcements are planned for the week or two before election day. But this is not 1992, when MTV's ubiquitous reporter Tabitha Soren was covered, it seemed, as frequently as some candidates. "I spent as much of my working time doing interviews with other press organizations as doing my own," she recounts. That was the year an MTV forum participant asked then-Governor Clinton about his underwear; the infamous "boxers or briefs" moment was retold in almost every major newspaper. And anyone who followed the presidential campaign of 1996 will remember that year's Todd Oldham-designed "Choose or Lose" tour bus, the giant roving carpool of advocates, reporters, producers and musicians that brought a high-concept road trip to grassroots voter registration. "It was great for us," says executive vice president David Sirulnick. "It got loads of attention. It just coincided with a time when many newspapers were going to color, suitable for framing a red, white and blue bus on dozens and dozens of front pages across the country."

"The novelty has worn off," says Sirulnick. While the network as a whole is more successful than ever, "Choose Or Lose" ratings have remained stable; the audience for campaign coverage has not grown with the boom in MTV viewers. And to the extent that media define media, establishing what is important by what gets covered, "Choose or Lose" has seen a season of neglect. Perhaps, in part, it's because this year's intrepid young reporters don't cut the same kind of celebrity figure that a red-coated Soren did during the novel 1992 season. Or maybe it's the absence of an icon like the colorful and frequently covered tour bus. Or a candidate like Clinton who rendered himself an icon of sorts by linking his campaign to youth culture. This year late-night talk shows and the once-fledgling Comedy Central channel (incidentally co-owned by Viacom, MTV's corporate master) have dominated the buzz over pop culture's intersection with political culture, collecting a New York Times magazine cover and numerous inches of news analysis. Sure, Comedy Central boasts a young audience; in fact, in The New York Times magazine some college students admitted the "Daily Show" was their main source of campaign news. But comedy is entertainment, not information. Host Jon Stewart's send-ups of the candidates never feign in depth exploration of youth issues.

Campaign 2000 has been an exceptionally rough season for everyone working to galvanize youth interest. "The candidates reinforce that," says Mario Velasquez, the president of Rock the Vote, a voter-registration group affiliated with (but separate from) MTV. Velasquez has been wringing his hands all year, trying to lure young people to issue forums and registration drives with the promise of free music tie-ins. "It's been really tough. We've been going to college campuses, we did a 25-city bus tour, but it's been one long struggle. We've been giving away CDs and holding concerts all over the country, but kids just aren't coming out." Rock the Vote has extended invitation after invitation to the candidates, even offering an opportunity for Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan to debate concurrently with the major party candidates. "They didn't even dignify us with a response," he says of all four presidential hopefuls.