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August 21, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Blogs, Podcasts And More On The Trail
Politics and technology are inextricably linked in the information age. Candidates have ties to the tech and telecom industries and raise money from those sectors. Tech issues bubble to the surface. New tools help political parties and candidates raise money and rally voters.
This year, National Journal's Technology Daily connected all of the campaign dots for our readers in a special series that we published over the past two weeks. Some of those stories will be of interest to bloggers, so I will be republishing them here over the next few days. The first story is below.
Medium Versus Message: Candidates Sample New Tools
by Heather Greenfield and David Herrera
A candidate vying for Maryland's open Senate seat began a video advertisement by tossing a pebble in a pond, likening the ripples to sending a traditional politician to Washington. A moment later, he has jumped in the pond himself -- suit and all -- and said instead that his election would make a "real splash" in Washington.
"That has really appealed to young people," said American University professor Allan Lichtman, a Democrat running for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md. "How that will play out in how many votes it turns out, we don't know. We can be running under the radar because it runs under the radar."
Lichtman credited his college-aged interns with keeping him abreast of the newest media trends and opportunities in politics. He claims to be one of the first candidates to have a profile on the MySpace social network thanks to them.
He is among the candidates to seize upon new media like Web logs, audio "podcasts" and online video as ways to reach voters. A Technology Daily survey of such media in key House and Senate races found that nearly all candidates have Web sites, but the offerings on them vary in terms of how well each uses different communications tools.
"The Web site is more than just a brochure to carry the basic message for the campaign," said Mindy Finn, director of new media and political technology for the re-election campaign of Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. "It's more an interactive online headquarters where every element of the campaign [is there]."
As of May, 70 percent of Senate campaigns said they offered videos online, according to a study by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University. "Web video is becoming the must-have medium of 2006," IPDI Director Carol Darr said.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, featured a traditional video with childhood photos, showing where she came from and where she would like to lead. Three vulnerable Republican senators -- Conrad Burns of Montana, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Mike DeWine of Ohio -- all posted their television ads online as well.
Both Sen. George Allen, R-Va., and Democratic challenger James Webb posted video of their recent debate. Webb also linked to a YouTube video of his March appearance on the "Colbert Report," a Comedy Central spoof on news and public affairs.
A handful of campaign Web sites feature more unique content. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo, posted his TV ads but recorded special commentaries at the end in which he discussed the bills mentioned in the ad -- much like a director's cut, he said.
Observers of the evolving use of video say the candidate ads tend to be "bland," but that should not be surprising. "I don't expect the campaigns to put out edgy stuff that people would send to their friends," said Julie Barko Germany, IPDI's deputy director.
Instead, the amateur postings have both the humor and the viewers. For example, two independently produced YouTube videos featuring President Bush kissing Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., after the State of the Union address had nearly 5,000 viewings each.
Darr said one study showed that having video offerings near online donation buttons slightly increased the size of each campaign contribution, though not the overall number of them.
Nearly all the Senate campaigns, 97 percent, are using online fundraising, the IPDI study said. IPDI also found occasionally updated blogs at 63 percent of Senate campaigns. But podcasts and text-messaging are still media of the future, with 21 percent of Senate campaigns using podcasts and 5 percent saying they will use or plan to use text-messaging.
High cost and few opportunities to sway undecided voters have slowed text-messaging growth, said Zack Exley, a media consultant who was the online communications director for the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "It's really the dumbest thing in the world," Exley said.
Too often, he said, people get so excited about new media that the goals of a campaign -- gaining volunteers, funding and ultimately winning votes -- are forgotten. "They're not approaching it from a practical angle," Exley said.
Similarly, podcasting remains mostly for campaign supporters. "That's not a medium that's going to sway votes," Exley said. He noted that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., may boost loyalty among his tens of thousands of podcast subscribers, but the audio segments are not likely to raise funds because supporters usually are not near their credit cards or computers when listening.
But New Politics Institute Director Paul Leyden said that with 50 million blogs and video production getting cheaper, new media is becoming critical to reaching voters as other opportunities shrink. Leyden said that by 2008, one-third of Americans will have video recorders and will use them to skip TV ads.
He predicted that more candidates will switch to Internet and even videogame ads in the future.
Candidates are vying to stay abreast of the changes as consultants help them develop effective new media campaigns. Some predict that the newer, cheaper media could bring further democracy to the political process.
Darr said consumers of new media appreciate the more personal connection to politicians and expect the communication to be less formal and more direct. But Exley said the message is still more important than a flashy medium.
Posted by Danny | 05:56 PM
