A Little Help From My Friends

In New New Media Dr. Levinson says that the Internet, and the use of new new media, was essential to the success of the Obama campaign. With the 2012 election quickly approaching, it will be interesting to see how each of the candidates learn from the 2008 campaigns, and use new new media in original ways. Much like Dr. Levinson's experience of using mybarackobama.com to interact with Obama's backers and contribute support to the campaign, the continuing trend is to use the enthusiasm of fans and to enlist supporters as tools to help drive the campaign forward.

Many companies use new media and social media to attract interested people, and use their participation to spread messages by word of mouth. It happens all the time--"viral marketing" seems to be a big buzz word. Campaign managers or marketing firms put some kind of information, video, or image "out there," hoping it will get discovered. The fans do the rest of the work by actively sharing with friends, providing feedback, and building excitement. On Facebook, 19.5 million people "like" Obama, and regularly post thousands of comments on wall posts, effectively sharing the information with entire network of friends. On the other side of the spectrum, Sarah Palin has only mustered up around 3 million likes. While that number of likes is significantly less than Obama's, Palin's fans still offer their support and feedback, which creates a unified group of enthusiastic caribou hunters. Upon writing this post, a discussion was taking place among fans hoping for Sarah Palin's successful Presidential candidacy, and the question of whether or not Obama has a valid American birth certificate. Fan Jason Baldwin exclaimed, "PLEASE RUN! WE NEED YOU!"

I am curious to see how future candidates will use new media in different ways. Will they favor YouTube or Twitter over Facebook, or will something completely new lead the way? I think that Facebook likes are advantageous because when someone likes something, it is posted to the news feed for 400-600 other people to see. This gets people thinking about the information. As demonstrated by videos like Rebecca Black's "Friday," (which is now up to 120 million views) nothing spreads as quickly as a YouTube video. I don't think Obama's use of YouTube has been successful. His videos rarely feature more than a talking head or statistics. For example, I have embedded the most recent video from Obama's channel (posted April 25th).

If I am on YouTube, this is NOT the type of video I willingly watch. That type of video is better suited for an old medium like television. The YouTube comments do allow for discussion to take place in a pubic forum and people can post video responses, which is typical of the new media, however, the videos themselves are not tailored to the new medium of YouTube. If a new candidate can create a campaign using the potential of new media to the fullest, it will be interesting to see if it is successful.

Talk Radio: Bringing New Media to Old Media

I listen to 1050 ESPN radio a lot--for at least a couple of hours each day. I prefer listening to ESPN radio over watching shows like SportsCenter because there's more in-depth discussion, you get to know the hosts more, and of course, because of the people that call in and comment. Listeners are given the opportunity to call in and offer their take on the discussion topic, and either make a fool of themselves or make a good point. The downside to calling in is that you often have to wait for an hour+ and calling from the car is discouraged.

ESPN streams all of the shows on the 1050 website so that anyone in front of a computer can tune in. In case you miss a show you really want to hear, they are all made available as podcasts to download. For a while now, shows have also welcomed emails from listeners. Anyone can easily shoot an email to the host so the message can be read on air, in place of phone calls. More recently, hosts have started to use Twitter as a way of communicating with listeners.

In my first blog post I mentioned the game "Late Night Hash Tags" on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and how great it is to contribute to and participate in network television. 1050's use of Twitter is even better than this because of the sheer number of people that get to participate in each show. Ryan Ruocco and Robin Lundberg probably feature the most extensive use of Twitter in their show, frequently citing stories originating on athlete's Twitter accounts, telling listeners to tweet about certain topics, and even having debates over who is the best "tweeter." Brandon Tierney of The McDonald and Tierney Show has a presence on Twitter and also reads tweets from listeners. Mac and Tierney read "Trending Topics," which is an outline of the topics they will cover, such as Carmelo Anthony coming to the Knicks.

There are segments when show hosts do not accept any calls and instead only talk about different topics. They introduce the story, give their argument, and why it is good or bad. Listeners can't call in at these times, but can still send messages through email, Twitter, or even Facebook group pages. Hosts frequently read their incoming messages as they speak on the air, and respond to comments as they work into their discussion. New media allows listeners to constantly keep in tough with the host, and contribute to the show.

I really like the use of Twitter in so many of the 1050 radio shows, and how it encourages listeners to participate. Radio used to be primarily an old medium. You could listen to it, enjoy it, and then turn it off. Calling in was one way to contribute to talk radio, and still is. Now through, Twitter shows us how an old medium can be made new.