Obama Campaign Masters Digital Media While McCain Efforts are "Old and Clunky" - TheShellyPalmerReport

Back in 1960 the skills required to become President of the United States changed forever That was the year that John F Kennedy debated Richard M Nixon on national network television for the first time When reminiscing about Kennedy39s win pundits love to cite that he was tanned good looking had great hair and had his makeup professionally applied while Mr Nixon appeared pale had a nervous demeanor and sweaty brow They say that Nixon won on the radio but Kennedy won on TV 1960 ushered in the era of the Network politician For better or for worse after the 1960 debate not only did every politician have to have video skills they had to have expert onesToday aside from video Senators Obama and McCain are going to face off across several digital consumer touchpoints including the web short form video the blogosphere timeshifted television social networks SMS ringtones mobile applications even wikis 2008 will usher in the era of the Networked politician For better or for worse not only will every politician need to have advanced media skills they are going to need expert onesI know it39s early days for the national race but just for fun let39s have a look at how the candidates are handling the transition from Network to Networked campaigningJohnMcCaincom is a very conservative website pardon the pun It feels old and clunky To find some online video you must click quotNews ampamp Mediaquot then click quotMultimediaquot and when you finally get to the page you find the bliptv player a page full of single line descriptions and links to videos and branded links to YouTube and Veoh There is no quotmultimediaquot on the page just short form video The presentation is fairly disjointed Actually it looks like video is simply bolted on to the site and there is no context of any kind There are no best practices about the implementation or the messaging Anyone who is quotin the culturequot would view this part of the site as a hodgepodge of disparate content and know it was not for them On the other hand anyone not quotin the culturequot would immediately be put off by the complexity One wonders who this part of the website is forAt BarackObamacom you are greeted by a best practices embedded video of Senator Obama welcoming you to his site The link to his media area clearly defines Barack TV which opens a well stocked Brightcove video player a flickrbased photo page a download page complete with everything a websavvy digital native might want to download including buddy icons and a mobile page with Barack ringtones and SMS alerts subscription opportunitiesIf this is the first Networked campaign Senator McCain is looking like a digital tourist and Senator Obama is looking like a man who knows and respects the conventions of digital life in the 21st CenturyOne might argue that Senator McCain39s base is not really the quotonline crowdquot For example John has 53381 MySpace friends and 136793 Facebook friends Barack has 386341 MySpace friends and 894666 people have friended him on Facebook Barack twitters httptwittercombarackobama following 37151 followers 36101 updates 129 John does notSenator Obama has video channels on a multitude of social networking sites like Facebook MySpace YouTube flickr digg twitter eventful linked in blackplanet faithbase eons glee mi genti asian ave dnc partybuilder and mybatanga In fact Barack even has his own social network site httpmybarackobamacom Senator McCain amp8230 not so muchMcCain39s largest YouTube count is 1846797 for a video called quotJohn McCain39s YouTube Problem Just Became A Nightmarequotamp160amp160Senator McCain39s presence on YouTube is mostly spoofs and negative user videos about him His biggest YouTube moment was when a supporter was filmed asking quotHow do we beat the bitchquot On the other side Obama has an insane online video following with offerings like Obama Girl and william39s quotYes We Canquot video with over 8 million views Not to put too fine a point on it Obama raised more than 200 million from more than 13 million people most of it online announced his candidacy via a web video so did hilldog and his campaign used wiki39s to organize campaign managersI think it39s fair to say that Senator Obama is the clear leader in the transition from Network to Networked candidacy The big question is quotWill it matterquotLike I said it39s early days in the first broadband presidential race Will the reach of network television still be the deciding factor or will advanced media39s ability to cater to a fragmented base of singleissue voters and niche constituencies win the day My guess is that it will be a sophisticated combination of both The winner of this particular election will have demonstrated one way or the other the value of their particular brand of message management However it unfolds from a media perspective it is sure to be the most interesting campaign in historyShelly Palmer is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2006 Focal Press Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences NY the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards He is the ViceChairman of the National Academy of Media Arts ampamp Sciences an organization dedicated to education and leadership in the areas of technology media and entertainment Palmer also oversees the Advanced Media Technology Emmyamp174 Awards which honors outstanding achievements in the science and technology of advanced media You can read Shellyamp8217s blog here Shelly can be reached at shellypalmernetCheck out the Shelly Palmer Report archive

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Obama Campaign Masters Digital Media While McCain Efforts are "Old and Clunky" - TheShellyPalmerReport

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Obama Campaign Masters Digital Media While McCain Efforts are "Old and Clunky" - TheShellyPalmerReport

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