The Presidential Victor Will Be Tweeted
It's not really "news" that Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and the like have been embraced by politicians, journalists, and political junkies alike. Last night's GOP Presidential debate was live-tweeted, and discussed on just about every social media network in real-time. Bloggers on politics are rapidly increasing their influence to the point where it isn't insane to consider the possibility of their eclipsing traditional journalists in the not-so-distant future.
Print and broadcast journalists aren't the only sacred cows in danger of losing ground with the populace as a direct result of the rise of social media and blogging in politics. The days of old-style political consulting are facing extinction as well. Gone are the times when political advisers of all breeds can say without fear of failure "this is the way we do this because it's the way it always worked."
Commentaries abound about the rise of the populist movement in right-wing politics - aka the Tea Party - but that is only half the story. Thanks to Ariana Huffington's experiment in citizen journalism, there's a left-wing version of that movement, and it's alive and well on networks like Twitter. A simple search for the #p2 hashtag will yield thousands of comments from the movers and shakers of the left's populist movement. Again, not really news, although perennially useful information for anyone wanting to keep tabs on politics on social networks.
What is news is what appears to be happening based on the buzz on Twitter during and after the first GOP Presidential Debate for the 2012 election. Before pollsters from any of the campaigns had a chance to do it, there was an immediate response from the people on the supposed winner - based on most indications, hands down it was Herman Cain, for anyone that wants to be in the know. Another interesting point was the observation that the Fox Luntz Focus Group was apparently paying attention to a particular blogger, Robert Stacy McCain.
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