I am a relentless complainer.

I’m supposed to blog every third day for this assignment. I’m either too picky about what to write about, not easily inspired, or very preoccupied/lazy.

Regardless, today, I was inspired. Today in JMC 110 (The History and Principles of Journalism), the professor asked how many students would be voting in their first presidential election in 2008. Virtually all 300ish students raised their hands. This makes sense, as it is an entirely freshman class, but it made me realize just how impactful young voters can be. Primaries aside, anyone who celebrated their 18th birthday between Nov. 3, 2004 and Nov. 4, 2008 will vote for president for the first time. Maybe I’m being conceited, but this seems like a pretty sizable number of voters. Presidential candidates tend to ignore the 18-24 demographic; we are age group with the lowest voter turnout and the lowest evidence of political efficacy (anyone who spent at least three days in any AP Government class could tell you that). However, people out there are beginning to think those statistics will change after this election; 75% of young adults are registered to vote for the 2008 election, 42% said they would “definitely” participate in a primary or caucus vote, and 92% were “almost certain” that they would vote in the 2008 election. (link)

So what I want to know is, why aren’t more candidates campaigning toward youth? As a young adult who mostly keeps a pretty good tab on current events, including the activities of 2008 prospectives, I’ve noticed a definite divide in campaign tactics. Basically, I will read about a candidate, mostly only John McCain, in the objective portion of the Arizona Republic quite infrequently. The editorial section will typically have a story or letter relating to the 2008 election daily or almost daily, where Mrs. Clinton is the subject quite often. What I watch on TV or listen to on the radio talks of the election about as often as the paper. But today, just for grins, I googled a few of the candidate, just to see how each candidate was utilizing the internet. John McCain – 993,000, Rudy Giuliani – 359,000, Mitt Romney – 467,000, Hilary Clinton – 2,010,000, Barack Obama – 587,000 and not surprisingly, Ron Paul – 4,610,000. Granted, counting the hits each candidate gets may not be the most accurate judgment of their internet campaigning; I think it proves my point though.

Over the past ten or twenty years, and currently; the journalism world has seen a decline in print journalism, an increase in broadcast journalism and a massive increase in the online news realm. With internet on the rise, one would think that other candidates would be taking advantage of such a direct media tool that caters, most exclusively, to the younger demographic. Sure, there are “internet candidates” (Ron Paul – 2008, Howard Dean – 2004), but candidates need to realize that the internet is the new tool for a common-day grassroots movement. Ron Paul has a MySpace (a really awesome one actually) and a Facebook account. Barack Obaba has over 500 groups on Facebook, including one with 377,881 members. There are young adults in America that have political efficacy and will actually go out to vote because they want to, not because “That black guy running for president is sooo hot.” (I won’t disclose the author of that quote, I don’t know the girl. I heard it while sitting outside Einstiens on campus. ASU certainly has the best and brightest.) With my luck, by the time presidential candidates pay attention to youth in their campaigns, I’ll be old and they’ll be ignoring me again.

See, I’m not making this stuff up.
A Washington Post Article
I only partially agree with this article, I think it is out of date, and thus, sort of invalidated.