Less than a week after the launch of MySpace News, Reuters reports on a planned political show, “Independent,” for the social news site.
The goal for the show is to engage young adults in politics. “Independent” is slated to “air” on MySpace News next year, after MySpace’s presidential primaries.
Fortunately, this news doesn’t end there. The producer is Mark Burnett, aka the father of reality TV. What does that mean for “Independent”? From what I’ve pieced together, viewers will vote on the best campaigners—not the candidates themselves, but MySpacers who upload videos about their campaign efforts on behalf of one of the candidates, but I’m not sure. Deduce for yourself:
MySpace users and TV viewers will select from a pool of candidates who have uploaded audition videos to the site.
MySpace users who support specific candidates are encouraged to publicize or campaign for the candidate by creating online videos and by employing other online marketing tactics. . . .
Each week, Internet and TV viewers will vote on new missions that players must accomplish. The missions are related to issues raised by the MySpace community.
They can range from how to take action on issues such as whether a new Wal-Mart outlet should be welcomed to a small local town to whether a new factory or housing development could threaten the ecology of the local creek. . . .
One winner will earn $1 million to spend on launching a new political party, donating to a political cause or entering the U.S. presidential race.
(Reminder to potential contestants contemplating entering this contest to get the $1M for your own campaign: to be President of the United States, you have to be 35. Says so in the Constitution. Also, you must have been born in the US and lived in the US for the last 14 years.)
They’re still looking for a TV network for the television component. Yeah, MySpace is owned by News Corp, which also owns FOX broadcasting, which has more than a dozen cable and broadcast television channels, including FOX, where Burnett’s two latest creations run. I guess they’re holding out for a “real” broadcast network.
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