Plugged-in Candidates

PLUGGED-IN CANDIDATES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Following the trail blazed by Howard Dean in 2003, at least five of the nine would-be Democratic nominees are incorporating MySpace, Facebook and other social networks into their campaigns. In fact, many are taking a shotgun approach to the Internet, posting links to an array of sites in the hope of spreading buzz about their candidacy to the far corners of the World Wide Web, if not the world itself. The nine Republicans in the race are taking a more buttoned-down approach. Their sites include no links to social networks, viral video outlets or other sites outside the candidate's control. Instead, they focus on the meat-and-potatoes of campaigning — raising money and manpower. That's not surprising, given the GOP's knack for campaign discipline. When candidates embrace sites such as MySpace and YouTube, they sacrifice some discipline and control in exchange for energy, creativity and a network to distribute their message for free. The obvious risk is that someone in the loose-knit confederation will do something that embarrasses the candidate. Still, in the era of YouTube and cellphone video, candidates have less control over their image and message than ever before. Over the next year and a half, we'll see whether the Internet's social tools can make a candidate as well as it can break one.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-ed-websites29jan29,...
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