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Authors, sign in!This past weekend, many activists from around the state of Kansas gathered in Wichita to attend the Democracy for America Campaign Academy. At the two day campaign training we learned about many aspects of running a campaign. There were sessions on everything from canvassing to budgeting to GOTV efforts; needless to say this weekend was extremely valuable to us all. This weekend we also saw an unexpected flex of the power of social networking. As many of you may know, on Saturday Kansas State Rep. Raj Goyle (D) made the announcement that he intends to run for U.S. Congress in 2010, in House District KS-04. This announcement was to be released the next day in the paper. As Rep. Goyle announced, there were multiple people at the training who immediately sent the exciting news out on Twitter (I am proud to say I was the 3rd person to tweet it). As a result of all of our tweets and all the people retweeting what we said, multiple media sources picked up the story and released it only hours after the announcement was made to us.
Read more about Rep. Goyle''s annoucement in P.J. Pohly's post.
What we saw this weekend is not an isolated incident of social networking changing the way we communicate and the way information travels in our society. The true power of social networking sites like Twitter was shown when Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN in the race to 1 million followers; Ashton won. His point was to show that any person can be just as powerful as one of the biggest news networks out there.
Social networking is changing the way our world works and thinks. It enables us to communicate quicker, outreach to people we would never be able to before, and it gives a voice to people who, without blogs, would not be able to advocate for their issue or write about their experience (i.e. with out Everyday Citizen you would not be reading anything I write).
I believe that social networking has a huge number of benefits, especially when used in the political world. Now politicians can respond to events or stories personally without having to count on a reporter to paint the picture they want, or to publicize an event without having to worry about it being covered. Sites like Twitter and Facebook allow candidates to connect with their constituents and people all around the world on a daily basis. These sites also allow people to get to know their candidate better and for the candidate to be more transparent.
Social networking has become huge part of our society, a testament to that is the live blogging coverage happening now at the Sotomayor confirmation hearing. What used to be a room full of reporters who would write down everything then a day later publish it so that everyone could read it, has become a room full of bloggers giving us the run down as it happens. Social networking will only continue to play an important role in our society and continue to grow and change the power of media as we know it.
I encourage everyone to join Twitter and experience it for themselves. I especially encourage politicians to join Twitter and be apart of the media change that is happening now.
Published July 13, 2009 by Colin Curtis |
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| Tags:
Campaign Strategy
Grassroots Organizing
Media
Netroots
Online Organizing
Political Organizing
Politics
Social Networking
Web 2.0
Comments (5)
Thanks Pam!
Posted by Colin Curtis
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July 13, 2009 7:08 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 19:08
Great post, Colin. Social networking is an exciting new world, especially for 40 something and older people like myself. I heard that Iranian dissidents were able to get past Iranian censors through Facebook and twitter to voice their discontent with the Presidential elections. Everyday Citizen has a great Facebook site and I think they have a twitter site as well.
Posted by Angelo Lopez
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July 13, 2009 7:09 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 19:09
I think this is awesome - so true and so easily accessible for anyone. More people should really get on this and start tweeting!
Posted by Erin Doughty
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July 13, 2009 7:29 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 19:29
Great article, Colin! I agree with you that social networking sites are drastically changing (maybe challenging is a better word) our current media sources. I get frustrated when some report that younger generations do not have any interest in reading the newspaper or being up to date on current affairs. I believe those who say that are missing the bigger picture – in many respects, social networking sites are the way that our generations keep current on many local and global affairs.
Posted by JMMihelic
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July 13, 2009 7:56 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 19:56
Great post Colin!
I happen to agree with you wholeheartedly. One thing that many discount, is that this is technology that many of us carry around with us all day/every day. When something happens, whether it's a wreck to avoid or a political campaign announcement - that information gets out in real time.
On the political front, I think it's very important that Democrats in general stay far ahead of the Republicans in early adoption of technology. I mentioned this at the DFA training this weekend... As Democrats, are we just interested in catching up to the Republican machine? Or do we want to build a bigger, better machine? If bigger and better is our aim then we must be willing to embrace anything and everything that can get our message out.
Posted by Nicki
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July 13, 2009 8:03 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 20:03