Campaign Volunteers, Internet "Politicians" – Impossible. by Rena Silverman
May 6th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
The Democratic nature of the Internet–that anyone can post–is precisely what makes its effects so hard to predict.
Two examples from the current presidential campaign, both related to the democratic candidate Barack Obama, show how Internet action can present a candidate with unexpected benefits and unexpected problems.
In one case a man allegedly acting independently, created a video posted on youtube.com that linked Hillary Clinton Big Brother in 1984. It ended with the tag line barackobama.com. The video which used images from an anti-Microsoft ad that Apple Computer had sponsored s earlier received millions of views and was in effect a gift to the Obama campaign and a blow to the Hillary campaign.
In another case a young vol built up a community on myspace.com, that eventually attracted 160,000 “friends” for the candidate. But in April 2007, when the volunteer and official campaign had a falling out over whether the volunteer would be compensated, the messy controversy became a negative story for the Obama campaign.
in both instances the fact that the volunteer was not a paid employee but a skilled and dedicated online activist–a “netizen”–made the volunteer impossible to control. Campaigns are learning that they must deal very carefully with expert-free agents who can both help & hurt their candidates.
Rena Silverman
