DNC & RNC Chairmen Reflect on the Internet & Election

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Moments ago, I tuned into C-SPAN to hear a live taping from the National Press Club as Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan reflected on the 2008 election results.

Stepping to the podium to answer the question whether the internet and the media should be viewed differently, Donkey chairman Dean nodded his head and said, “Yes.”

“The internet is a community,” said Dean, defining it as an “extraordinary invention” and “an incredible tool” that can raise awareness and organize people. “It is a group of people who connect with each other. It has a different function than the media.”

Dean said bloggers are the faces of the internet as “citizens who say what they want..in an unfiltered way.”

Duncan, the chief elephant, congratulated the DNC for their use of social networking in the election, singling out the Democrats’ use of Facebook.

“This is the future of politics,” said Duncan, suggesting the internet enabled citizens to “take action” and campaign staff to “track voters.”

Duncan said the RNC raised $15 million through online “banner advertising and word searches,” adding John McCain’s online fundraising increased the total to $40 million.

Looking forward to the 2012 election campaign, Dean looked back to his presidential campaign in 2004 and the failure of his Dean TV. “I didn’t predict YouTube. It became a huge innovation.”

Dean is confident engineers in Silicon Valley are designing the next big thing, whatever it will be used for, describing it today as something “in rudimentary form.”

As for Duncan, who said he uses a Kindle, the future of elections will include “more text messaging” and a “market penetration to smaller audiences.”

My take?

Neither man mentioned “social media” or even “the web.” It was “the internet,” perhaps singling out their age or the average Baby Boomer (and up) ages in the National Press Club audience.

I’m curious on the click-through rates for the banner ads that Duncan referred to, for I’ve heard from industry experts that well-educated people don’t click on banners.

I also disagree with Dean that the internet and the media should be viewed differently, echoed in a comment I left this morning on Christopher S. Penn’s blog about the blur between bloggers and newspaper reporters.

What do you think? Do the DNC and RNC chairmen have it right? Or are they missing anything?

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Tagged as: newmedia

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