New Media Is the Future at Every Turn

(Danville, California)

 

    They are hungry, and they are hunting us down at every twist and turn in this campaign. No, I am not talking about the voracious appetites of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich. I 'm talking about the "New Media!"

 

    Last night I received an email from Barack Obama's campaign. The promise: If I sign up for an email alert or a text message alert, then I will be among the first to be notified by text when he picks his VP running mate. Supposedly, I and a few of his closest thousands of friends will be the first to know, even before the mainstream media. Of course this "exclusive" to my cell phone should last all of ten seconds, because every reporter in the nation is being invited to sign up.

 

    If you want to sign up, just dial 62262 from your cell phone and text the message: "VP." (Standard text rates apply.)

 

    Sure, it's a clever gimmick; but it is generating buzz. It was all over CNN today; and when I spoke to the Danville Rotary Club today, people were asking about it. So while the big, "old media" dinosaurs keep eating dandelions next to the freeway, the "new media" race cars are speeding past, down the freeway. The future is now, on the Internet, and the Obama campaign has been way out in front of everyone else. UC Berkeley has launched the Center for New Media, and millions in donations are pouring in from people like my friend Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist (www.craigslist.org). I took a graduate course there last summer, and it was VERY eye-opening. The old world of newspapers, radio and TV will either have to adapt or fade away.

 

    Speaking of new media, the "all new" Mark Curtis political blog is coming your way soon, just in time for the political conventions. Watch for updates at www.MarkCurtisMedia.blogspot.com.

 

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