Back in March MySpace launched the Impact Channel, a political community dedicated to the 2008 presidential election. Murdok spoke to MySpace about its role in the 2008 presidential election.
MySpace’s Impact On Politics
A MySpace spokesperson said that while the last election was somewhat of a digital election that its nothing like the 2008 election. Candidates are running personal, sophisticated campaigns and its not an option to ignore the MySpace generation.
MySpace says its goal with the Impact Channel is to help people become engaged and stay that way throughout the upcoming election and get people to turn out to vote. MySpace also pointed out that visitors to the Impact Channel could register to vote, search for volunteer opportunities and donate to a candidate that they support.
MySpace thinks it’s a positive step that social networks are becoming involved with politics and that this is the first year that candidates can take full advantage of the Internet as a medium to reach voters. The public also has more access to the candidates and can find information about their platforms and political views.
With one in six Americans on MySpace it thinks that the Impact Channel has the potential to reach millions of eligible voters and encourage them to participate in the 2008 election. MySpace says the Impact Channel is designed to help democratize the political process by making information and resources accessible as possible.
MySpace says it created the Impact Channel as a response to the interests of its users and does not view it as over saturation but a way to help users make informed decisions about the political candidates.
The social networking site says that 85 percent of its users are of voting age and more than 600,000 have “friended” a presidential candidate on the site. MySpace noted that the next president of the United States will be a MySpace member.
