Comments on: Elections and MySpace http://www.tendocom.com/blog/2007/elections-and-myspace/ Tagline here Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:30:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: matt oreilly http://www.tendocom.com/blog/2007/elections-and-myspace/#comment-6499 matt oreilly Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:16:14 +0000 http://tendocom.com/blog/?p=36#comment-6499 I checked the Fred Thompson page and it looks like he reads your blog because he finally signed in! I’m glad he took notice, too, because what presidential candidate doesn’t need to keep himself appraised of the latest artwork submitted to his site from <i>glitter-graphics.com</i>? While I think it's a little farcical to think these guys are reading their pages on the campaign trail, of course that isn't the point. MySpace political pages exemplify the placebo effect of interactive politics: it doesn't matter if the candidate reads any of the postings or even knows the page exists, only that there is a platform for supporters to feel connected to the campaign. In that sense, a candidate’s MySpace page is a prerequisite to any modern campaign because that feeling of inclusion - of being one of 20,000 or so “friends,” give or take - solidifies the relationship between the supporter and the campaign. That may mean a great deal to some of these candidates when primary season gets in full swing. I checked the Fred Thompson page and it looks like he reads your blog because he finally signed in! I’m glad he took notice, too, because what presidential candidate doesn’t need to keep himself appraised of the latest artwork submitted to his site from glitter-graphics.com?

While I think it’s a little farcical to think these guys are reading their pages on the campaign trail, of course that isn’t the point. MySpace political pages exemplify the placebo effect of interactive politics: it doesn’t matter if the candidate reads any of the postings or even knows the page exists, only that there is a platform for supporters to feel connected to the campaign. In that sense, a candidate’s MySpace page is a prerequisite to any modern campaign because that feeling of inclusion - of being one of 20,000 or so “friends,” give or take - solidifies the relationship between the supporter and the campaign. That may mean a great deal to some of these candidates when primary season gets in full swing.

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