As all presidential campaigns, Hillary has been very well coached on making sure she has a presence on all the different media outlets available to her. I am positive that she herself has never been on flickr in her life (or any of these other sites), but her campaign makes sure she is there.
I carefully read through much of her website (and viewed the videos), and I was very happy to see that she actually discusses current topics as well as her viewpoints and plans on those sites. When I was in high school, 20 some years ago, we were also asked to contact the campaign headquarters of different candidates, to find information on their viewpoints because the teacher wanted us students to debate each other as if we were the candidates. My memory of it was how difficult it really was to find out a solid opinion or plan from the candidate. There were lots of lofty statements like "I'm for better government ", "no one wants to pay more taxes" and things like that. But from the look of it now, a student could go to Hillary's website and download her 10 point plan for government reform, her former proposal on universal healthcare (with some quotes about how she wants to do it now), her position on Iraq and a timeline for withdrawal of troops, etc. It seems that with enough time, the students could adequately prepare for a similar debate to what we did in high school, only this time, the students might have something to say!
As I commented to Brian in an email, I don't think that their "presence" on Facebook nor on Myspace is in anyway educational nor informative. First of all, to search them on Facebook, for example, you are only searching for that name amongst YOUR NETWORK of friends, not the entire internet. It is information that someone wrote ABOUT them, not by them. Second of all, you might find a group of kids that have created a "group" like "Spanish Teachers for Hillary", but not any information directly from the Hillary campaign. Lastly, it seems to me that both Facebook and Myspace are simply a blog amongst your friends, and from what I've seen, it is incredibly lame at that. If I see one more "I love you Hil" type comment, I'm going to log out permanently. A discussion group or a blog site should be more informative and more "meaty", in my opinion. Why voice your opinion if it is the same as the first 20,000 people that responded?
The candidates must be present on all these different sites, and it has been interesting to see how they have done that. I think this is only the beginning much more to come.
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Comparing 2008 and 1988 in terms of access to candidate information is a great way to think about this task. In 1988, it was more difficult to get information. You could read newspapers, watch Big 3 and PBS news, write for info, wait for mail from the candidate, and listen to the radio. In 1992, Bill Clinton said that he had a plan to fix the economy. You had to call a telephone number and the plan would be sent by mail. Times have changed. Good example of Hillary's 10 point plan. On a meta-level I want you to adapt course tasks to fit your needs and interests. I want you to be a part of the development of these tasks.
I agree with Maggie about how many candidates want to have a presence in all new media but are still working on how to take advantage of each medium.
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