Politicians target students through Facebook groups

A Pitt student logged into Facebook and found an invitation from a group that supports 2008… A Pitt student logged into Facebook and found an invitation from a group that supports 2008 presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Naomi Rosen felt the pressure: join the group or reject the invitation.

“I wasn’t ready for a definitive stance,” Rosen said. “You make a clear statement to everyone you’re friends with when you join a group.”

If she said yes, her choice would be added to all of her friends’ news feeds on the homepage of Facebook; the feed lists every action a user’s friends have committed on the Web site. Her friends could also view all of the groups she is a member of.

Either way, they’d learn that she would be supporting Barack Obama if she accepted the invitation.

She declined to join.

Hype has already begun for the 2008 presidential election, and candidates from John McCain to Hillary Clinton have created profiles on social networking Web sites like Myspace and Facebook, the latter of which is primarily used by college students.

Supporters of presidential hopefuls have also taken steps to inform people on the networks by creating Facebook groups like “Barack Obama for President in 2008.”

Those who use the Web sites are also forming something – opinions – not only about the actual candidates, but also about the effectiveness of this new campaign technique.

“Social networks like Facebook are where young people network and get to know each other,” said Henry Kraemer, college media liaison for Students for Barack Obama, which is the organization that created the previously mentioned Facebook group.

“I would contend that your typical college student checks his Facebook at least once a day,” Kraemer said. “When we can combine that connectedness with political involvement and the excitement people feel for Senator Obama, we can make an enormous impact at the polls.”

To date, the group has been successful in informing people about Obama, the current Illinois senator.

It has almost 64,000 members, while the largest group in support of Hillary Clinton, another leading Democrat, has about 3,800, according to Kraemer.

Kraemer believes that the use of social networking to campaign will be successful at bringing more youth to the polls as well.

“The Internet is bringing information to millions of people who might otherwise never see it. For one, groups like Students for Barack Obama can show young people that politicians do exist who care about their needs,” Kraemer said. “Just like anybody else, young people want to be respected.

“So, we’re going to get some respect this election by turning out in record numbers and showing America that we matter just as much as anybody else,” Kraemer said.

Some, however, are more suspicious about the success that social networks like Facebook will have in the future election.

“I doubt that the use of a social networking site in and of itself will be the key factor in increasing involvement,” said Brian Butler, an associate professor of business administration in Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business, who has expertise in politics.

“The technology is a platform for communication and organizing. It may facilitate involvement at some level, but in the end, its impact will depend on what is done with it.”

Butler thinks the campaigning has shifted to social networks for a variety of reasons.

He said that it is an extension of the use of the Internet for campaigning purposes that has been happening for the past decade. In the previous presidential race, Howard Dean and others used the Internet for grassroots mobilization.

He also said that the “natural fit between the way political campaigns are run and the way social networking sites work” by focusing on individual people and relationships has probably been a factor in the shift as well.

John Edwards, another Democrat hopeful, has really made the experience personal for his supporters. His team writes on his supporters’ walls; a wall is a list of comments left by friends, and the wall is visible on a person’s profile for everyone to read.

People who visit Republican contender Mitt Romney’s profile can find a photograph of his grimacing face with his brown eyes looking off to the side. The shot feels candid and intimate.

Students, who are also potential voters, may read that some of his favorite music artists include Roy Orbison and Brooks and Dunn, and perhaps will connect with him by sharing similar tastes in music.

These relatable details may make him more appealing to people.

Still, students doubt the legitimacy of the information provided on the social networks.

“I’m going to get my information from somewhere other than Facebook,” Pierce Pollock said. “I go on there to find out about drunken interactions, not about the latest political information.”

James Ostendorf, who plans on voting in 2008, spends time on the Web site networking, but he does not feel the need to network with the presidential hopefuls and doesn’t believe that others do, either.

“I think that the vast majority of people aren’t going to look at someone’s groups, so it’s not a great political advertisement,” Ostendorf said.

He warned that students should be skeptical when reading the candidates’ profiles and groups, because the information given is often skewed to make a candidate look good.

Not all of the information may be biased, though.

Students are asking each other questions that deal with important issues including each hopeful’s war plans.

“Many people are getting informed about Senator Obama and the rest of the candidates,” Kraemer said. “We have, at the very least, one impassioned debate a day on our wall.”

Rosen, who spends about eight hours a week on Facebook, said that she feels like she never gets the truth, either.

“I feel like any group or profile you look at focuses on the good of a candidate, and it’s all fluff,” Rosen said. “You never have a clear picture.”

While Ostendorf said he feels that seeing presidential hopefuls on Facebook will sway no one, Rosen believes a sort of pressure is attached with this new political use of social networks.

“You will see your friends in certain groups, and it will be like peer pressure to support a certain candidate,” Rosen said.