DNC Diary: will.i.am Rocks the HuffPost Media Panel

We kicked off our panel discussion on the impact the new media have had on the '08 race by giving the 450-strong crowd of guests a quick pop quiz on Michelle Obama's favorite show: The Brady Bunch. True or false: Marsha was a Muslim?

The actual panel started by recognizing that such a panel could not have existed in 2004. For starters, HuffPost didn't exist. Much more significantly, neither did YouTube, which was represented by founder Chad Hurley. YouTube has become such an integral part of our daily life -- and of our political life -- it's hard to remember that Chad Hurley and Steve Chen didn't throw the switch until February 2005.

And there is no way panelist will.i.am's "Yes We Can" remix would've become the mega-hit in 2004 that it became in 2008.

As Charlie Rose summed it up, the theme of the panel was convergence, with Katharine Weymouth (the new publisher of the Washington Post) and George Stephanopoulos agreeing with Chad Hurley, Fred Armisen, Marc Gerson and me that the old debate pitting print vs. online is obsolete.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, representing elected officials, marveled at the way new media has completely changed the way candidates raise money -- with the money raised online for congressional races increasing exponentially.

And then there was will.i.am's unique way of sizing up the changes in the media landscape, which rocked the house.

He dubbed the way information is passed along in the new media "batonable": someone puts out a piece of content; the person who sees it then picks up the baton and runs with it, then passes the baton on to their friends, who then pass the baton on to their friends. In that way, the information is disseminated in its original, unadulterated form -- as opposed to the traditional media process where those passing it along often do it through their own filters.

He also made the distinction between the way people consume traditional media -- sitting on the couch -- and the way people take in new media as if galloping on a horse... riding along the Internet countryside like online Paul Reveres.

Then there was his prediction that in the future new media would allow people to develop a collective, intuitive consciousness. It will be like a school of fish, he said. You won't hear anything, you'll just see the air bubbles... and a whole group will suddenly decide to turn at the same time.

And when Katherine Weymouth suggested we need to come up with different terms than Old Media and New Media, will had a great suggestion: let's call them the media of yesterday and the media of tomorrow.

Somebody should give this guy a couple hundred million dollars to start a media messaging company. Maybe Chad.

• • • • • • • Matt Gerson, Arianna, will.i.am

Photos by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com

For more Huffington Post coverage from the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[patrioticdem]

Hello ! ! ! ! I just heard it again today, Palin people stating she is the Commander in Chief of Alaska's National Guard. Is that is a qualification for being one step away from the presidency ? This too shall pass, just a media frenzy now, but wait untill the real questions are asked. I can't wait to vote for Obama and Biden. More of the same vote Mccain.
Keith Oberman and Jon Stewart please get on this lady and John Mccain. My wife thinks this is an insult to women everwhere. Please, not just any woman, one that is qualified and experienced. I almost had an apoplexy when I heard the news. I welcome feedback.

[tedeger]

It is a little early to give this advice, but I'm going to do it frequently. If your precinct is one of the "No Excuse" precincts that allow you to vote several days early, DO IT! At least that way, you won't get crowded out as any number of people did in 2004. I don't say that the criminals who intend to steal the election won't try, even if you DO vote early, but at least they're not going to find it so easy to "Lose" your vote.

[gabrielle-08]

This is the most ridiculous choice!
As a woman, of course I want a woman in the White House or as V.P. I was a Hillary supporter, going over to McCain. But now. ..as of Friday... no way.! His judgment is so off. I've lost total respect for him. He's being a politican. Not using sound judgment.
When I think of the President, I want someone qualified to be President . Think about it..a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Hillary was that, Joe Biden is that. They have tenure.
As a woman I am offended and I feel I'm being manipulated. It's so calculating by the McCain camp. It's like here's a woman for you gals. (It's not going to fly) It insults our intelligence. It's not just any woman we want, it's a qualified woman that we want to be next in line for the Presidency if something should happen.BTW this will get what McCain wants, the "Red Neck" votes. I lived in Alaska, my husband worked for an Oil company, . Small towns in Alaska are more "Hill Billy" and "Red Neck than here in the South. It's that whole NRA, Race car, conservative, Country music transplants from the south working for Oil companies and contractors.

I've been to Wasilla. I unfortunately had to drive through there when I was up in Alaska. The Big news there is the new Tasty Freeze.
Sorry McCain, you lost me. You can keep Mrs. Klondike. I'm back with Obama.

[JR49]

All we need to do is protect Internet and media of future from Republican bias who wish they could control Internet as well as they control MSM and old media.

[jeanrenoir]

Great posts, Arianna. But we are all counting on you now to be part of the women's brains trust in the Democratic Party which figures out a way to make Palin an embarrassment for McCain, thus sealing his defeat, while somehow NOT playing into the hands of the strategy since Reagan of nominating an obvious ignoramus who is popular with the mob BECAUSE he's an ignoramus "like us." The liberal elites then pound the nominee with outrage and mockery, the mob which likes her gets furious and personally insulted, and they all elect the ignoramus with a great since of triumph in November. If Palin is allowed to play this scenario out for McCain, not only will their victory guarantee the defeat of Roe, Palin herself will be a female Reagan hero to the American mob, and she will absolutely destroy Hillary in '12. Palin will present herself successfully as the REAL Annie Oakley, the REAL fighter for the little people she herself comes from, while Hillary will easily be gutted as a Wellesley phony who just pretended to fight for the masses, when in reality she's a liberal who wants to defeat everything the masses stand for. So Palin is now the true Armageddon figure for feminism itself. If she's not destroyed , with McCain, this year, feminism will face its worst nightmare with the end of Roe and Hillary's annihilation by a woman in '12. Better NOT let this happen.

[sueno]

For all the bloggers out there-
YES, indeed we are the future.
Very much like old media, yet
with a collective and more honest twist.

[dadw5boys]

The Oil Companys want PALIN out of Alaska because she taxes Oil Companies to help the Citizens of Alaska.
Now every Governor has to answer why their state won't taxes businesses to help their citizens !!!!!!

GO PALIN!!!!!

PALIN / ROM PAUL 2008

[colette]

This post on Will.I.Am reminds me of something important. There are MILLIONS of young people involved in this Obama campaign who couldn't care less about Bill Clinton's hurt feelings, and don't see HIllary Clinton as the only woman who is ever going to have a shot at being president.

Yes, go out and try to convert those conservative rural gun-toting Democrats to vote in their best interests. But the media is just about totally ignoring YOuth Power -- the unabashed enthusiasm for Obama that has got him where he is at this point. Just as my generation felt overlooked in 1968, these young folk are trying to make their voices heard and votes felt in a convention and media world dominated by their elders.

The media is mired in past intramural political grudges and battles. They are focusing so tightly on the Clinton psychodrama, they're overlooking the millions of new votes Obama and company are bringing into the fold -- vand oters who are charged up and unambiguous in their support. Pollsters are virtually ignoring them too. I just hope they become a stealth weapon that puts Obama over the top.....

[BardEric]

"But the media is just about totally ignoring YOuth Power"

Because traditionally, the youth demographic is one of the most unreliable voting blocks. They get fired up early in the campaign, but rarely show up at the voting booth in November in the numbers that reflect their promise. Hopefully, that is about to change this year, but the media isn't going to give the youth vote the benefit of the doubt until they are proven wrong..But to be objective, I think more has been made of younger voters in this election, than has been the case since the Clintons first ran in back in '92..Interesting irony there...

[december30]

I just hope they become a stealth weapon that puts Obama over the top.....

Your comment is right on time. I hope the young people become a stealth weapon . . . to. Thank you for recognizing.

[Mia319]

Let's all call John MacCain McBush. One word, two syllables, entire story. Feed this to the fish and watch the bubbles.

Thank you, will.i.am

[NicoloM]

HuffPost's Pick

Engage information processing, with the emphasis on "engaged".

It reflects the difference between spectators and players. We were consumers, we are now participants. This is important because of the implication for democracy, and the contributions of the vast power of untapped intellect, which old technology would not accomodate. We have the ability through these wonderful technologies to be engaged. That is the difference between new and old.

It is significant now because it reflects the core difference of the two candidates. Take for instance tire guages. Obama is saying we all need to do something be active in conserving, McCain scoffs, we need someone else to drill more oil so we don't have to change anything we do, because in his perspective we are passive consumers.
For many years the authoritarin power structures and institutions limited our involvement-- if you wanted to be active in politics you had to pay your dues to the party system, if you wanted to voice your opinion you had to pay your dues in broadcasting. Suddenly, we can all express our opinion or get involved in analyzing and discussing information. Our passive acceptance of corruption, croynism, and incompetence is becoming indefensible as our capacity to engage increases.

Michelle Obama's reference to Dr. King is the essence of the engaged difference--
"We have an obligation to fight for a world as it should be"

[Furby]

Engaging with blinders on is not productive.

[jubal8]

Engaging with focus, on the other hand, increases productivity.

Honoring NicoloM's comment with a HuffPost Pick is a great way to bring focus to relevent commentary, and the ability to bubble-sort HPPicks to the top is a welcome tool when the prospect of wading through many pages becomes too daunting. In keeping with NicoloM's message, would it be possible to allow readers to sort on comments that have been flagged Favorite, bringing the most-voted-for comments to the top? Then we would benefit from more easily seeing the shared values of all the readers, in addition to the messages represented by the HuffPo's Picks.

[DarkStar]

Media of yesterday and the media of tomorrow?
Sounds a lot like The Honeymooners episode where Norton and Ralph do a live commerical as "chef of the past" and "chef of the future."
I like "media of the past" and "media of the future" better, but... "Can it core a apple?"

[Furby]

Only real difference I have noticed between old and new media is that the new media hasn't YET come up with ways to fully control content. They will, they already do, at least as much as they can considering the deluge of input they're dealing with. What really has to change is the reader's ability to decipher, that's an educational challenge, not a medium challenge. The raw material is information. Media is its dissemination. What's being put out there is what matters, not how it's being put out there. Bad information is bad whether it's on paper or on a screen.

[DirkVA]

Dorothy Sayers, in an old essay called *The Lost Tools of Learning" anticipated this problem. What we need for dealing with such deluges of information are the old trivium of Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric -- or, at least the first two, which were respectively designed to help us *understand* and *evaluate* what we read.

You're right that it's an issue of basic education. If the torrent of information on the Web (with all the dangers involved) wake us up to that, it will be one more service that new media will have done the global community.

http://RogerEvansOnline.com

[Furby]

Very good link DirkVA, pretty much says it all. Thank you.

[enilorac]

meanwhile, while all that hot air is being blown out at the DNC by everyone and Ariana talking about the site and how we all need to breathe, de-stress etc., who is minding the Huffpo store???? the site
your pages look just great, we loved your front page coverage of Day 1 and Day 2(really captured the intensity of the speakers, issues and non issues)
keep up the good work, brava!
you are on top, because whomever is minding the store does it superlatively
we are grateful
you have impact
thank you

[Okieborn]

Arrianna,
You looked "GREAT" !!!
You Ms Huffinton I give "GREAT THANKS" !!!!
CNN and Fox are not NEWS Stations GARBAGE !!!!

[Semper]

The beauty of all of this is, we are a very creative place and people start opening up to show you what they really know. Just don't pass up this opportunity to see the rest. Vote for Obama to release the intellect which is held by his constituency. This President will inspire us to greater engagement. And we will all get back to doing what we like to do, that is leading the way, showing the style and greatness we tend to hide.