HuffPost's DNC Panel: Game Change -- How the New Media Are Impacting the '08 Race

As predicted, tech advances -- and the new media they have made possible -- have had a game-changing effect on the political world.

From the way campaigns connect to supporters, to the way those campaigns are covered, to the way voters decide who to vote for, 2008 has delivered the first truly 21st century presidential race.

To explore this brave new world of broadband politics and political coverage, HuffPost is hosting a discussion this Tuesday during the Democratic National Convention at The Brown Palace, Denver's historic 116-year-old hotel.

We've invited panelists from all sides of the equation.

The new media will be repped by YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Will.i.am, whose "Yes We Can" video remix was a mega-online hit, and me. We've seen the impact viral videos have had on campaigns - both negative (from "Macaca" to sniper-free landings in Bosnia to "God Damn, America" to John McCain's flummoxed Viagra reaction) and positive (Obama's 37-minute speech on race has been viewed over 4.7 million times).

According to Pew, nearly a quarter of Americans say they have seen something about the '08 race -- a speech, an interview, a commercial, a debate -- in an online video. That number jumps to over 41 percent among voters under 30.

This has had a profound effect on the way and the speed with which campaigns get their messages out. Although tens of millions of dollars are still being spent on traditional TV ad buys by the campaigns, many of the TV ads we've seen so far in the general election have been backed by very small buys -- the campaigns know that the ads will whip around the web without having to spend a dime.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth will weigh in on how traditional media outlets have been affected by the changing media landscape. Has it changed the way they approach the '08 race? Do they see new media outlets as the enemy or their future -- or both? Weymouth's Post has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into its digital operations and has seen itself transformed from a largely local paper with a print circulation of around 650,000 to an international paper attracting millions of online readers. And ABC is breaking more and more of its news online. We saw how upset John Edwards was when his attempt to control his confession by giving it to Nightline -- so it would run late on Friday, during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games -- was subverted by the story being posted online, and breaking like wildfire. Did he really expect it to happen any other way? It's still hard for many politicians to adjust to the new 24/7 news cycle.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Chair of the Democratic Caucus, will offer his take on the repercussions the new media are having on Congressional candidates. And since nothing succeeds like success, you can be sure campaigns everywhere are adopting the Obama approach. As Peter Daou, Hillary Clinton's Internet director, puts it, "Theirs is an operation that everyone will be studying for campaigns to come."

Obama's online operation incorporates everything from viral videos to texting-as-a-grassroots-organizing-tool to social networking sites to its online fundraising juggernaut. The Washington Post's Jose Antonio Vargas offers chapter and verse on "Triple O: Obama's online operation." Among the choice nuggets: Obama's YouTube channel currently has over 1,100 videos, and MyBO (Obama's social networking site) has more than a million members, who have held about 80,000 offline events. And, of course, there is the $200 million Obama has raised online.

Also joining the panel is Barack Obama. Okay, it's not really Barack Obama... but the next best thing: Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen, who will talk about the role that satire has played in shaping the race. After 33 years SNL was more relevant than ever this primary season. And although it originates on a very traditional media source, its political sketches were given a huge boost -- and played endlessly -- online.

Rounding out the panel is Matt Gerson, senior vice president of public policy and government relations for Universal Music Group. UMG is co-sponsoring the luncheon, and Gerson will bring a business perspective to the discussion. Thanks also to event co-sponsor Political IQ, an exciting new video website launching soon.

Charlie Rose will moderate and weave it all together.

So stay tuned for highlights and video of the event.

Related:

HuffPost's Oasis: The Place to Unplug and Recharge at the DNC

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

Comments

[internetguru]

What do you all think? Does this all mean that Obama will be the first Broadband President?

btw, there's a related contest to win cash prizes for talking about the way broadband can/has changed your life. Find it here:

http://apt.org/BB-changed-my-life/

[Yasir]

Beauractic democratic practics need not be good tactics.

[omahkohkiaayo]

The "new" media ain't new. There have always been "gadflys" on the self-imposed and imposed margins decrying the established order and its rulers. Today, on This Week, George Will (the one who got into media and celebrity via being Reagan's briefer in 1980 for the debates with Carter, with confidential briefing books clearly purloined from the Carter campaign) noted candidly:

The question we settle each election is not whether elites shall rule, but which elites shall rule."

The "New Media" represents new venues, channels and modalities of communication but communication of what, to whom and how can/will it all be used? Just as there is myriad crap pushed by both the MSM and non-MSM, and just as some of the non-MSM in appearance are really MSM with a slicker act or mask, there is myriad substance the MSM will never touch because of interests and imperatives the non-MSM and non-comerical media do not have. Huffington Post is one venue where some taboo issues are discussed and from various taboo perspectives that the MSM dare not touch (remember, Access brings Scoops, which bring Exposure, which brings Celebrity, which brings even more Access; Access in the MSM is dependent upon NOT asking taboo questions on taboo subjects and knowing what is or is not taboo withou having to be told--self­-censorshp­).

What good is having "the truth" if we are too smug, co-opted, lazy, self-absorbed or cowardly to do anything with it?

[QueenTiye]

Do we have a date, time and place to stay tuned to? Is this going to be on Charlie Rose's show? When?

QT

[ChetParker]

Clearly - we are - Going Forward
Can somebody please let the media and their talk-show guests know that we are sick to death of hearing these two words - "going forward." It's a catch phrase that has spread much like the word Clearly did not too long ago. Every statement had to begin with, "Clearly, Tom... Clearly, Chris..." etc. It came to serve as a warning that the words which would follow were going to be bullshit.
Now, Going Forward, is being abused in the same manner. I don't really think anyone is truly interested in Going Backwards ... but everyone seems obligated to either begin or end every bullshit statement with those words. STOP IT.
Thank you very much. Clearly I expect to see some positive movement on this issue, going forward.

[certainot]

internet is still fairly democratic and open but like the corporatized TV and print it can't create an alternate reality like the GOP talk radio monopoly can. people choose to go to web sites and read and view, maybe more than once. it can and does influence the corporate traditional media but it should not be seen as an equalizer or the liberal counterpart to the talk radio monopoly that feeds and reinforces right wing internet activity as well as a big part of the traditional TV and print that still dominates what voters get. no other medium offers the roves anywhere near the same level of opportunity to hit a big segment of the population with coordinated uncontested repetition. hundreds of GOP talk radio stations are still the loudest megaphones in our communities and regularly allow a single uninformed loudmouth reading GOP and chamber of commerce talking points to undo the work of thousands of volunteer citizens.

[Scooter2]

Mr certainot the GOP talk shows are so popular because they tend to give both sides of the
subject they are talking about, and the loudmouths that you say are uninformed are usually
informed only you don't know it because you are the one that is uninformed. The Dem talk
shows are so one sided no one wants to listen to them. The Dems have ABC, NBC, CBS,
and most of the major newspapers spreading their lies, so that should more than balance
out the news.

[certainot]

the liberal media myth is clearly a myth. just because limbaugh told you the media is liberal and once in a while it reports truth that threatens to burst your bubble doesn't make it liberal. compare the way edwards fooling around was covered and how mccain's fooling around was covered, with a lobbyist (you probably didn't hear about that). i suspect you know much more about some guy named rezco than you do about a guy named keating.

it is clear the GOP, with essential help from the talk radio monopoly, have much more control over what is and what isn't acceptable in the MSM. what molehills become mountains and what mountains disappear.

your guys limbaugh and hannity have been wrong about everything important- bush, iraq, the economy, global warming, and on and on but they just got 1/2BIL$. that's even big for hollywood, where you get paid for making things up- no one will ever make that kind of money for telling the truth.

just because they say the media is liberal doesn't make it so. they must be confusing hollywood with washington. journalists and reporters don't decide what goes into the news- their republican bosses do and that's why we're in this bush disaster. i just hope you didn't believe limbaugh's advice to keep buying 10mpg gas hogs the last ten years. too many fools did.

[DHFabian]

Who will represent not just the comparativ­ely-fortun­ate Great American Middle Class (who will promptly be forgotten right around Nov. 3), but the far larger section of the population, the working AND unemployed/utterly disenfranchised poor? Right.

[Guitarsandmore]

Returning from my Pismo Beach vacation I noticed there are no radio stations carrying air america, Thom Hartmann or any of the folks I usually listen to in Ventura County. Rush Limpunit was all over the networks. We must act to spread the joy to the rest of America abd counter act the Rush lunacy.

Internet access in hotels is spotty at best. At the Sandcastle (on the beach) there were some rooms equipped with internet access but only if you had a lap top and only if it would accept their special PCMCIA card. Left me out. Best Western Shelter Cove had internet access but I had no power chord that day or ethernet cable.

West Beach Inn at Santa Barbara had no access but it just didn't matter at that point.

Oh well, vacations are just for fun anyway!

[DHFabian]

"Vacation"? What's that? A west coast thing?

[rgblue]

The big media owners are taking progressive talk radio off of the waves all over the country, just in time for the last blitz before the election.

They're taking it off up here in Rochester, NY after labor day. Many of us have emailed the various progressive talk show hosts, and except for bill Press they are totally silent. My guess is they're not free to talk about it.

Hey, everybody, WAKE UP! We need a lot of help here. The corporate fascists are silencing progressive talk and slamming more puke-inducing hate down our throats. No need to wonder why most of the population is so dumbed down.

We are losing this battle, it's un-American and we need people with a voice and some influence to stop ignoring it and start screaming.

[NoFactsJustTruth]

I would love to visit HuffPost's Oasis and also attend The Brown Palace discussion, they're seemingly the kind of happenings where unexpected people appear and the TRUTH is NOT something whispered. It's likely amazing what a fly on the wall can sometimes learn.

It promises to be an extraordinary week, Arianna, one in which the "...Obama approach" will become EVERYONE'S topic.

Have a great time while in Colorado, Lady A.

[pithy]

You ought to read some of our comments (like mine, natch!) as a jumping off point for the panelists - and why not somebody from PBS or C-Span - places you can still get ACTUAL news, not endlesslessly repeated trivial junk like the lapel pin brouhaha.

Please have your panelists discuss the herd mentality - it hardly matters anymore which channel you watch, since they are all repeating exactly the same thing, with no depth, just blah-blah. Whereas, I can find all different subjects covered on various websites.

I'd also like to see discussion of how these media groups come up with "experts" - what I mostly see are representatives of think-tanks that all have a partisan stance and are not necessarily devoted to facts - like the Heritage Foundation.

And finally, let's have some real introspection from your panelists about how celebrity and notoriety affect their "reporting." Watching David Gregory dance with Karl Rove at the Press Club dinner made me sick to my stomach - as did watching Pamela Anderson parade in with other Hollywood types at the next event.

[elephantwaylon]

Saw you on Planet Green last night, you were great! Good to 'get to know you.'

[johnnyboy69]

what about the keating 5.he's a criminal and no one is hammering him for it.come on.

[johnnyboy69]

i guess the media thinks the keating 5 is old news but guess what its not.people my age and younger dont know what happened and john mccain is out there questioning obamas judgement and his relationship with tony rezko.come on,thats not even in the same league.its up to the huffington post to start the scrutiny cause no one else is willing to hurt john mccains feelings or so it seems.i'm tired of the biased news reporting and we cannot afford to let these guys get away with it.help please.

[Opsimath44]

Duo Restaurant. You have to have at least one meal at Duo. Upscale but casual. Trust me.

[walley2]

I agree with DUO But also Try Mels on 6th ave

[ld]

Please keep two things in mind when assessing the relative influence of groups of media denizens:

In this discussion it's hard to know who and how much internet sources are affecting, especially whether you are reaching a broad base off voters. It's like asking whether Limbagh's (sp? ) high ratings reflect Limbagh changing anyone's mind. Your 4.7 million number above likely reflects people who support Obama anyhow - who else would listen to even part of a 37-minute speech? Also, there is no way to tell if this is 4.7 million watchers or 470,000 watchers ten times.

Most people I know still rely on the mainstream media, so Brian Williams et al and AP writers still have the most influence AND THEY STILL FRAME ISSUES, EVENTS, AND LANGUAGE FROM A CONSERVATIVE AGENDA'S POINT OF VIEW. That's who they are and what they do.

I myself read HUFFPO because I find that its writers rely on facts and make logical assertions, so I just love you for your efforts.