Pollies impact Myspace

Myspace, a place for friends. A place now also for politicians. Following an American model, we can now get to know our leaders a little more intimately through the Impact channel on Myspace Australia. Political parties have been given access to set up Myspace profiles for their members, allowing voters to view their blogs, videos, photo slide shows, music clips, lists of 'favourites' and even star signs. Oh lordy, give me strength.

The media anthropologist in me applauds the move. It's the very embodiment of the web 2.0 movement, connecting ourselves to our leaders and visa versa, like never before.

But of course the sceptic in me is a tad more cynical. Can we be expecting Kevin Rudd to be logging on to his computer, adding friends to his profile every half hour? I don't think so. The whole political machine has to be managing the process, and the lack of authenticity kinda makes my skin crawl. But then, at least he has a profile.

A recent article in The Age reported that the Liberal party were a little weary of the whole Myspace thing and had given it a wide berth. And it's little wonder...

Joe Hockey vs. Julia Gillard
At the time of writing 560 vs. 1640 friends.

In this article, MySpace general manager Rebekah Horne said the purpose of the channel was to humanise the politicians and help them engage directly with voters who may feel alienated from the political process, such as young people.

This is a difficult line to walk. Joe Hockey's music clip of 'What I l like about you' playing on his Myspace page is NOT cool. The 'young' people won't think it's cool, just self gratifying. And a 'farewell' video from when he left his post at Human Services. Are you kidding me? Less self promotion, more policy thanks Joe. But then he did list 'Jerry Springer' as one of the people he'd like to meet. Enough said.

And whoever set up Julia Gillard's page needs to get the screen resolution right - I had to keep scrolling across to get the whole page. This is almost as annoying as the 'Howard's asleep' video ad on her page.

People, didn't you watch The West Wing?! Well, according to Senator Andrew Barlett's profile he did, and coincendently he's been a blogger since 2004. Nice work with the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song.

Ah well, good fodder for the political cartoonists I'm sure. And from Myspace's perspective, what a success. Surely Facebook must be kicking themselves.

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