Kisses are planted on the foreheads of infants, the hands of stern fathers are shaken and staged photographs of candidates at blue-collar barbecues are taken as part of the traditional campaign trail for the presidency of the United States. But as the 2008 election approaches, candidates on both sides of the aisle must embrace new technologies to maximize their campaign’s success.
James Garand, political science professor, said candidates are looking to technological developments for new campaign strategies.
“At the beginning of every campaign, particularly in recent years, candidates and the political consultants who advise them do not want to be in the position where they have not been at the forefront of the technology,” Garand said.
This year one such obstacle is the rising popularity of voter-to-candidate communication via the Internet. The CNN-YouTube Democratic Party debate, which aired on July 23, allowed people to video record themselves asking candidates questions. CNN and YouTube.com officials selected nearly 70 questions to be viewed and answered by the eight Democratic contenders who participated in the debate. The Republican candidate’s installment is scheduled to air Sept. 17.
Garand said the CNN-YouTube debate format poses problems candidates will need to overcome if they wish to hold the nation’s executive office.
“This is a new application of the technology,” Garand said. “This opens up a whole set of unpredictable aspects. The possibility of questions and comments being non-traditional becomes much greater.”
On Aug. 23, MTV and MySpace announced their partnership for a series of conversations with presidential candidates to take place on the Internet via a real-time video stream, according to MTV.com. The candidates will receive questions via instant messages, text messages and e-mails from viewers across the nation. Viewers will then approve or disapprove of the candidate’s answer that will be displayed in real-time polling results. These candidate interactions will take place from September to December, feature 11 dialogues and last about one hour each. They will be broadcast on MTV.com and MySpaceTV.com.
Garand said these formats may cause some candidates to be weary of participating in such debates.
“The YouTube format permits questions coming from regular people, and the possibility of new issues coming up is substantial, which is of course one of the reasons candidates get nervous,” Garand said. “It’s one thing if I’m a candidate and I know members of the new media are going to ask me questions one through 10, but it’s a little bit more difficult for me to prepare if I can also get questions 11 through 500.”
According to Reuters, Nielsen Media Research shows the Democratic installment of the debates had the highest ratings in the 18 to 34 demographic of any debate broadcast on a cable news network. The 407,000 viewers between ages 18 and 34 broke the previous record in that demographic of 368,000 people viewing the June 3 Manchester, New Hampshire Democratic debate. The New Hampshire debate had a higher total number of viewers, 2.8 million, compared to 2.6 million who watched the CNN-YouTube debate. In the 25 to 54 demographic, only 890,000 viewers watched the CNN-YouTube debate while 1.1 million watched CNN’s New Hampshire debate.
“We know young people are the least likely to participate in the electoral process and the least likely to vote,” Garand said. “In one sense, this is reaching one group of citizens who are usually low-participation [voters].”
Robert Hogan, associate political science professor, said the content of the CNN-YouTube debate may have drawn the younger crowd. “The YouTube debate was comical,” Hogan said. “Part of the reason people watched was the same reason people watch the Super Bowl. It’s not so much the game but the commercials. And in this case it’s what sort of nuance way people are going to use to ask questions.”
Hogan said the humorous questions are a double-edged sword.
“If it brings people to the electoral process then it’s a good thing,” Hogan said. “But in another respect there are serious issues that require serious attention. They were talking about big issues, and it’s like there is a comic release – that seems a little inappropriate.”
Hogan said the non-traditional aspects of the debates may cause candidates such as Republican front-runner Mitt Romney to speak out against participating in the next CNN-YouTube debate – in which only two Republican candidates, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Texas Rep. Ron Paul have committed to participate.
Hogan said he is afraid the change of debate forum will result in voters basing their choices on less relevant qualities.
“People aren’t interested in the details of a 15-point health care plan,” Hogan said. “They like the political theater, and this brings [it] to a much higher degree than we’ve seen in the past. Perhaps this elevates or advantages candidates who simply have a talk-show personality. And those qualities don’t necessarily mean that the candidate matches the values of the majority of voters.”
Garand said the user-friendly format of the CNN-YouTube debates opens the democratic process to more people. He said technology broadens participation and is viewed as a democratization of the process.
Most students agreed the interactive forum help to pique their interest for this election.
Katee Carlisle, biology junior, said she liked the new debate format, and it helped get people involved in the political process.
“I think it’s a good thing because anyone can access YouTube,” Carlisle said. “You get a wider range of people and different backgrounds.”
Gregory Alford, business management freshman, said he liked the idea of the CNN-YouTube debate and would consider looking into submitting a video question for the next one.
Garand said candidates will continue using cutting-edge technology to gain the upper hand in elections.
“Candidates will try to use available technology as best they can,” Garand said. “And whatever that new technology is in 2012 you can rest assured that candidates will use it to try to reach voters that are traditionally not being reached. They will take advantage of the technologies as we develop them.”
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]