The 23 July 2007 Democratic Presidential Debate in South Carolina was sponsored by CNN and YouTube; it featured questions from regular citizens and YouTube-like ads from the candidates.
The "debate" (more like a quiz show, according to US Liberals Guide Deborah White) was a marriage (well, at least a first date) of new technology and (relatively) old media (CNN is, after all, a cable company, not a terrestrial broadcaster).
Although questions were generated by "you" (Time's person of the year), the question selection was trusted not to the wisdom of crowds but to CNN. Almost 3,000 were submitted; 38 were chosen.
In addition, candidates were given the opportunity to showcase a 30-second "YouTube" style commercial, ads featured here.
It's too soon to draw parallels between this cable-web hybrid and the transition from radio-to-television that doomed Nixon's confrontation with Kennedy in 1960. But it was a departure (how much?) from "politics as usual."
The "debate" (more like a quiz show, according to US Liberals Guide Deborah White) was a marriage (well, at least a first date) of new technology and (relatively) old media (CNN is, after all, a cable company, not a terrestrial broadcaster).
Although questions were generated by "you" (Time's person of the year), the question selection was trusted not to the wisdom of crowds but to CNN. Almost 3,000 were submitted; 38 were chosen.
In addition, candidates were given the opportunity to showcase a 30-second "YouTube" style commercial, ads featured here.
It's too soon to draw parallels between this cable-web hybrid and the transition from radio-to-television that doomed Nixon's confrontation with Kennedy in 1960. But it was a departure (how much?) from "politics as usual."
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