Facebook and ABC target young voters for upcoming US presidential election
By Triston McIntyre
America’s youth are an untapped source of political strength; what better way to muster the young troops than to hit them at their source? Facebook and ABC have teamed up to harness the potent young adult voting demographic for the upcoming presidential elections.
The new partnership, according to the New York Times, will allow Facebook users to “electronically follow ABC reporters, view reports and video and participate in polls and debates, all within a new “U.S. Politics” category.”
On January 5th, New Hampshire will host both Democratic and Republican presidential candidate debates; Facebook and ABC have publicly announced their intentions to sponsor the event. By doing so, they hope to spark debate on Facebook before and after the debates leading up to the presidential primary elections.
Though no money will be exchanged between the two companies, the cream of the crop will no doubt go to ABC. From a business standpoint, ABC stands to gain significantly more than Facebook does, in that it will (if the idea even flies) establish itself as a viable source of news with America’s youth, and will be the first media group to closely connect to the elusive youth market. Facebook will still garner the same traffic and users; the site has a much better framework for discussion and debate than YouTube, another site that has been trying to gain a foothold in the political realm as a viable “voice of the public.”
This joint venture might actually have a chance; Facebook is unquestionably the most popular social site, at least for college students, and many groups have already been formed in support of candidates like Barack Obama and Stephen Colbert. The phenomina that is Facebook might be the first to really motivate America’s youth to become active in politics. Raise your glasses to Facebook, and throw in a golf clap for ABC for riding Facebook’s coattails to success.
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November 26th, 2007
I’ve heard this in every election since I was eligible to vote in my first election in 1976. Colleges are targeted, people come to events for free music, food or whatever, then register. They do not turnout in large numbers for the elections. Remember the Dean Machine harnessing the internet, riding technology and the youth of America into the White House? That’s all you heard from the talking heads until it was necessary to actually go to vote. Some candidate tries to tap it every election, spends time at campuses and talks about the changing of the guard and a new day dawning etc…I doubt this will change until internet voting is an option.