iPolitics Is Everywhere -- Feel Empowered Yet?

By Jessica Clark, In These Times. Posted November 29, 2007.

Grinning like a rock star, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards strides out to a lighted platform in the center of a townhall gathering at the University of New Hampshire. With his glossy 'do flanked by the neon red-and-blue lightening bolts of the "Choose or Lose" logo affixed to the wall, Edwards nods and pauses to make deliberate eye contact with students in the audience. It's a made-for-MTV moment.

The first in a series of MySpace/MTV "presidential dialogues," the feel and format of this late-September forum stands in stark contrast to the previous night's party-sanctioned Democratic debate at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. At that one, moderator Tim Russert controlled the debate with a firm hand. But pandering to the youth vote is nothing new -- what sets this event apart is the way viewers interact with candidates.

Like other rejiggered debates in this campaign cycle, the ongoing MySpace/MTV presidential dialogues are the product of two forces reshaping voters' engagement with candidates. The first is a growing disgust with the mainstream press, expressed most strikingly by the surging popularity of citizen-generated media. The second is a public call for greater political access in the face of an imperial presidency and a weak Congress. The hope is that participatory politics will counteract voter apathy that results from top-down politics.

If we're to believe the hype, this is a banner moment for unmediated political action.

"Tired of scripted old-style presidential debates?" boasts the presidential dialogue webpage (www.myspace.com/election2008). "MySpace and MTV join forces to empower you to ask questions directly to top presidential candidates and respond to their answers in real time." This rhetoric of self-determination can get bossy: "Declare Yourself!" screams a blinking graphic. "Ask Questions!" advises a widget that allows users to launch MySpace's instant messaging (IM) software. "Spread the Word!" urges a tool that lets users link to the forum from their profile pages.

And, most importantly: "Vote." In the lingua franca of today's participatory politics, clicking on a button translates into democracy.

MTV correspondents Gideon Yago and SuChin Pak work the crowd. Yago announces that there will be "no delays, no censors, no tasers." Washington Post reporter Chris Cilizza fields IM questions and weighs in on live polling data. He seems put out being the mouthpiece for chatroom personae like "LunarGoddess68," who has a question about Edwards' education plan. Edwards answers even the most esoteric of student questions directly, and gamely responds to Cilizza's awkward interjections about real-time viewer response pie charts.

Viewers rate candidate responses with either "like it" (clicking buttons that indicate the candidate answered questions, understands reality or has good ideas) or "don't like it" (buttons that indicate the candidate dodged questions, is out of touch, has wrong ideas). As these things go, Edwards' appearance is a success. By the end, 94 percent of online respondents have given him "like it" ratings. Yet, MTV says, of the 2,300 people who submitted questions online, only three make it into the discussion.

From the point of view of candidates, this format is useful. Why pay for focus groups when you can crowdsource feedback for free? MySpace wins big too, gaining a seat at the table as an arbiter of presidential power. And MTV accrues gravitas to balance its other MySpace-inspired production: "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" (which promises viewers "hair pulling ... ball-busting and, er, even some butt waxing").

But what about voters? Are we feeling empowered yet?

Democracy in the Internet age, baby

For decades, broadcast outlets have been both voters' main conduit to the candidates and the major financial beneficiaries of political campaigns. By the time the 2008 election rolls around, politicians and their allies will have spent $3 billion on advertising in traditional broadcast media, according to an April report from Wachovia Capital Markets.

But with user-driven digital platforms now quick at the heels of broadcasters, legacy journalism outlets are partnering with search engines, video-sharing sites and social networks in an attempt to remain relevant while still retaining the driver's seat.

July's CNN/YouTube presidential debate (www.youtube.com/debates) offered a hybrid of new media and old gatekeepers. YouTube users submitted nearly 3,000 video questions for Democratic candidates -- including one from a climate-change obsessed snowman. Moderated by journalist Anderson Cooper, the debate featured 39 of them.

Critics like Matthew Yglesias, a blogger and associate editor at The Atlantic Monthly, complained that mainstream outlets are violating the open spirit of online communication. "Instead of delivering some sort of Politics 2.0," Yglesias wrote in the July 25 Guardian, "the [CNN/YouTube] debate only provided a further level of mediation between citizen and politician. The professional journalists portrayed themselves as liberated from any need to serve higher analytic functions ... The questions themselves, meanwhile, tended to differ from the norm only by being more absurd and featuring performances of folksiness."

See more stories tagged with: technology, election 2008, ipolitics

Jessica Clark is the editor-at-large at In These Times.

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