Tag: politics

Political World: Hope vs. Reality in Campaign 08 (WeMedia)

From the WeMedia site:

Political World | Hype vs. Reality in Campaign 08
It’s supposed to be the YouTube-MySpace-power-to-the-people campaign. So why are online political junkies so frustrated with what they’ve seen so far?

Session Chair: Brian Reich, author, Media Rules!

LIVEBLOG

12:04 a.m.

Schatz: You have a lot more out there in terms of media and it’s harder for candidates to switch off. More people are asking questions and sometimes the candidates slip up and actually answer the question.

Washburn: The Register saw that people were using traditional means to learn about the campaigns, such as watching a debate on TV or going to an event to meet candidates face-to-face.

Wojtkowiak (12:11 a.m.): Mentioned Will.i.am video on YouTube and the influence of such social media.

Della Volpe (12:18 p.m.): “I think the real innovation is connecting the online with the offline.”

Schatz (12:24 p.m.): I think we see a lot more innovation this time because of the number of candidates. Examples include Dodd, though it didn’t translate to votes. Also Ron Paul, whose supporters are very Web savvy and have helped him raise millions of dollars.

She noted how campaigns are limited in their outlook because they only last the life of the campaign cycle.

Geanuracos: Thinks we’ll more innovation going forward.

Reich (12:28 a.m.):

Wojtkowiak: It’s important to keep the conversation going and keep the audience involved by letting them as questions.

Washburn: She’s interesting to see what we’ve learned from this cycle. Also, how to create stories around smaller races–keep things local.

Geanuracos: Stop thinking about people as someone to talk to in the moment and then forget about them. Your campaign never stops.

Della Volpe: What are you going to do to continue the involvement?

Miller: More openness, transparency will build more trust and allay concerns of trust and special interest role. Public sees information as an antidote to corruption.

Schatz: Techniques to build communities will happen a lot more on the local level.

Silberman: Move from treating voters like fans to let them have value roles in campaigns, i.e. have jobs not just donors.

Reich: We should do that in policy as well.

Dave Barry for president! (Yes, of the United States)

Dave is back and running again! He had been on the sidelines for a little while, covering the New Hampshire primaries and doing a presidential Q&A online, but now he’s in the thick of it for real.

Check out the campaign video and be sure stop over at Dave’s blog.

Dave Barry ’08
“It’s Time We Demanded Less”

UPDATE: Another video related to Dave’s run:

NYT: Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for blasphemy

I’d fallen behind with reading the New York Times in my Google Reader, but just ran across this disturbing item:

 

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan court in northern Afghanistan sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for distributing an article from the Internet that was considered an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, the judge in charge of the court said Wednesday.

The student, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, 23, who also works for a local newspaper, was charged with insulting Muhammad by calling the prophet “a killer and adulterer,” the judge, Shamsurahman Muhmand, said in a telephone interview.

 

The articles were written by his brother, the story says. Furthermore:

The case is the third time that clerics have called for death for a blasphemer in the six years since the removal of the Taliban leadership and reflects the deep conservatism that prevails even under the more liberal government of President Hamid Karzai.

Kambakhsh has the right to petition the decision to the and supreme courts, the article says.

Weigh in: What’s your take on this situation?

Update, Jan. 31 at 2:37 A.M.: CNN has a follow-up story:

Afghan lawmakers back reporter’s death sentence – CNN.com

VIDEO: Romney and AP reporter butt heads

This blog isn’t about politics, but the video below features a journalist, the AP’s Glen Johnson, with a laptop covering a Mitt Romney event, so I’d say it’s fair game for posting here:

Thanks to Romanesko for the initial post.

UPDATE, Jan. 19 at 8:30 P.M.: A compilation of reactions from Poynter‘s Kelly McBride:

Calling out the Candidate

Weigh in: What’s your reaction to this video? Who do you side with? Why?