The New Media Dilemma

I recently threw a couple of snarky posts up recently about how the media is "in the bag" for Barak Obama. However after reading this piece by Michael Barone, I realized that there is a little more depth to the issue than just whether the "dead tree" media is in the bag for any one person or another...

For Obama's candidacy is a generational phenomenon. His greatest support comes from black voters and from voters under 30, the Millennial generation born after 1980, first named by William Strauss and Neal Howe...The Wright sermons have probably not been a problem for Obama with black voters -- they have heard this kind of thing before. And while it may be off-putting, it will not prompt them to reconsider their votes or diminish their enthusiasm.
Millennials are another matter. In a brilliantly well-timed new book, "Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics," Democratic Party veteran Morley Winograd and media researcher Michael Hais explain how this generation, with the highest percentages of blacks, Latinos and Asians in American history, doesn't care much for racial divisions and relies for news and advice on networks of friends and peers.
A newspaper story on Obama's pastor is not going to affect their view of him -- they don't read newspapers except when a friend emails a link to a newspaper Website. A YouTube video is another thing.
The Wright videos -- angry when Obama is soothing, racially divisive when Obama is inclusive, anti-American when Obama proclaims a new generation's version of patriotism -- are something else.

This does bring up the debate (again) of the impact of old versus new media. While Boomers like myself and Gen Xers are using the new media more and more, the new media is a media that is geared specifically toward Millenials. However, before all of you candidates jump on to the new media bandwagon, remember the lesson of Howard Dean! You can not count on millenials to remain motivated enough to get to the polls on election day. However, that is not to say that they won't come out if properly motivated, as we saw with Congressman Ron Paul's candidacy. Congressman Paul figured out how to get Millenials, Boomers and Gen X'ers excited about him and excited about being part of the process by reminding them that their voices are very important. A smart candidate (or party) will figure out how to use that to their advantage.

This election will be won by the candidate (or party) who can best figure out how to best utilize both the old and new media in a way that truly spans the generations. The new media is here to stay and the old media is too entrenched to ever really go away and I for one, would not want it any other way. After all, who would bloggers have to complain about if the old media ever completely went away?