Web transforms White House race

By Jamie Coomarasamy
BBC News, Washington

The decision by several leading candidates to announce their US presidential intentions via the internet has already marked this out as the first real web-based race for the White House.

An anonymous advert attacking Hillary Clinton circulated quickly

However, it was a viral advert that quickly made the rounds on video-sharing website YouTube which showed the possibilities and the pitfalls this poses for the campaigns.

The infamous "Hillary 1984" advert - a parody of an old Apple computer commercial, made in support of a rival, Barack Obama - portrayed Senator Clinton as an Orwellian, Big Sister figure

Its anonymous creator used technology to give her words sinister, controlling tones.

The advert was clever, slick, watchable and tapped into a visceral concern about the former First Lady's character.

The story that surrounded it was also a product of the rise of new media.

It was a homemade attack advert, conceived and distributed anonymously via YouTube, whose creator - Philip De Vellis - was eventually discovered by a liberal blog, The Huffington Post.

'Open world'

Jeff Jarvis, a media professor at the City University of New York, blogs at Prezvid.com, a site monitoring candidates' use of video on the web.

He said: "The Hillary ad was made by an anonymous political operative. That is a bit troubling, but - hey - it's the open world now and anyone can get their message to the world.

Campaign websites have grown more sophisticated over the years

"You can make commercials. I can make commercials. We can all get our message out in ways we couldn't before. And I genuinely celebrate that in a democracy."

It is a democracy that is changing the way it presents itself.

Andrew Rasiej set up the website techpresident.com to monitor how the presidential candidates are using the web.

"Most political campaigns create a message and then expect the traditional media to distribute that message. They hope it doesn't get skewed too much," he said.

"Now, though, voters are either collecting the message on their own and reinterpreting it or distributing it on behalf of the campaigns. Or producing their own message in reaction to the campaigns. It's a very different environment."

Web-savvy wit

Senator John McCain is one of the candidates who has discovered just how different it is.

I think we're encouraging people to speak about real issues; issues that are nearer and dearer to the hearts of people Blogger Mike Davidson

Like several others, the Republican hopeful has created his own page on the social networking site MySpace.

And, while he has adopted a more liberal stance on issues ranging from abortion to immigration, it was a surprise to read that he had changed opinion about gay marriage and was now in favour "especially if it is between two passionate females".

It was a surprise to him as well. The page had been altered by blogger Mike Davidson, who was irate that the McCain campaign had used his MySpace template without giving him credit.

That was a vivid example of the difficulty candidates will have in controlling their message on the internet and - according to Mr Davidson - an example of the web-savvy wit they might do well to display.

"If you want your presence to be spread virally, you need to have a fun message, a message that you want to pass on to your friends and family," he said.

"I think we're encouraging people to speak about real issues; issues that are nearer and dearer to the hearts of people."

Citizen politics

And that is one criticism US web watchers make of all the campaigns - even those such as Barack Obama's and John Edwards's which seem, especially in fund-raising terms, successfully to be tapping into the web's energy: at the moment, they seem to be lacking the element of genuine interactivity.

Joe Biden has urged voters to send him questions via his website

Prezvid.com's Jeff Jarvis is one of those who makes the comparison with UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron's webcameron blog.

It has been much lampooned, for its images of Mr Cameron at home, fighting for air time with his children.

But Mr Jarvis sees it is as a genuine forum for citizen politics, one that gives members of the public a chance to question a political leader on the issues of the day.

Mr Jarvis has been encouraging voters to send in questions to America's presidential contenders via the internet and acknowledges that some of the candidates - such as Democratic Senator Joe Biden - have been taking steps to elicit them as well.

Yet he acknowledges that while the net has growing influence, turning a 24-hour news cycle into a 15-minute one, not every candidate will benefit from it to the same degree.

"On his web site, John McCain asked people to send in questions via YouTube," he said. "But the last time I looked, no-one had."