e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Getting Ready for the CNN/YouTube Debate

July 23rd, 2007

Here at e.politics world headquarters, I tell ya things are HOPPIN’! We are PLUMB FIRED UP! Tonight’s the REVOLUTIONARY, GONNA CHANGE EVERYTHING presidential debate, sponsored by CNN and YouTube — with questions submitted by YOU, the great unwashed masses….

Okay, okay, it’s another presidential debate, basically in a town hall format, but with questions submitted by video rather than in person. A game-changer? When you think of it as a town hall, probably not. And as has been widely discussed, CNN is still vetting the questions, so there’s always a chance that we’ll end up with the same Washington-consensus questions that dominate the regular debates. But Jeff Jarvis quotes debate moderator Anderson Cooper as saying about the questioners: “These are people that are very passionate about this topic. I want to make sure that this debate honors them, and honors the time they took to make these questions.” So perhaps we’ll get some good questions and some video presentations that really take advantage of the medium — responding to Jeff’s piece, Troy Scheider says that the debates, “while still far from perfect, are an encouraging sign folks are trying — and that we’ll find that new sweet spot eventually.”

The e.politics “team” (me and the cat) will miss the live broadcast — I’ll be at a previously scheduled dinner and she’ll be napping — but my colleague David Newland will be watching from the safety of his new home, Los Angeles. He’s been a web video producer at National Geographic as well as a screenwriter and an all-around video guru, and he’ll be evaluating the video questions from a film-guy’s point of view. I’ll catch the rebroadcast at 11 and take in the whole spectacle from an online communications perspective. Together we shall be an unstoppable force. If you’re looking for more, besides Jeff and Troy’s pieces, Josh Levy’s Daily Digest at techPresident has links to some good preview articles.

– cpd