MySpace Nation

Today's Washington Post examines how digital campaigning through social networking sites is building buzz, particularly for Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. "Young Voters Find a Voice on Facebook" reports that there are over 500 Obama-related sites on MySpace and that campaign organizers have been using the sites to improve turnouts at rallies, especially those geared toward college campuses. It's a slightly different strategy from Howard Dean's use of Meetup.com in the last presidential campaign that fosters more polymorphous expressions of political identity. The article also notes that Hillary Clinton has as many sites on Facebook as Obama, but that these sites list far fewer members; furthermore many of these sites are actually sponsored by opponents of the former First Lady in her bid for Commander in Chief.