US National Government and Facebook

I have to respectfully disagree with my colleague's article, the US National Government and Facebook. Although the intention of facebook is social networking, wherever there is social activity likely politics will come into discussion at some point or another. Although you may not be interested in discussing politics on facebook (I'm not always wanting too either), certainly many people are. My memory may be off slightly, but last time I checked there was over 85,000 members in a McCain support group I was asked to join. My school even has its own political discussion group on facebook.

On to my main point, you made a reasoned statement in saying politics is a place for TV news channels, etc. However you have overlooked a few things. People are increasingly turning to the internet as a source of entertainment, communication, information, etc. The more traditional forms of newspapers and television are being more overlooked by the increasingly tech savvy population. Advertisers have caught on, and are pouring more and more money into internet advertising because it becoming the best way to reach people.

We must also remember television networks and newspapers are businesses, and compete for viewer attention. While it would likely serve the public interest best to keep them informed about the nation's issues, it is not the best interest of a business. Especially in today's less educated political population, the more sensationalist eye grabbing stories are best in holding the short modern attention span. In actuality, boring detailed legislative plans to fix a national issue may be the quickest way to get a viewer to change the channel. The result is as you see, stories about a candidate's personal life rather than political philosophy.

In short, the internet currently is the best way to raise awareness for just about anything. The other traditional forms are simply not reaching our younger tech savvy population effectively. These traditional forms are losing appeal and several of them have even established footholds in the internet. (Such as a new's networks website)