It is less than ten months until Election Day in the United States, but the presidential campaign season has already seen two historic firsts, including the emergence of the first plausible African American presidential candidate and the first female front-runner. This is also the first national political campaign in which interactive social networking websites such as MySpace, with its 110 million Internet users — are playing a significant, perhaps crucial, role in youth voter education and participation.
现在距离美国大选日还有不到10个月，不过总统选季已然创造了两个历史之最，其中包括，出现了第一位有当选可能的美国黑人总统竞选人和第一位名列前茅的女性竞选人。另外，这次竞选期间，象拥有1亿1千万用户的MYSPACE这样的互动社会网络的网站，在青年选民教育和参与方面正在发挥重要关键性的作用。这一点也开创了美国大选的历史先河。
The jaunty music that MySpace and MTV users hear at the beginning of the Presidential Dialog programs, a series of interactive candidate/MySpace user forums being broadcast over the Internet and on MTV throughout this presidential election season, belies the seriousness of its purpose.
Almost anyone with an Internet connection can register into MySpace for free and get what amounts to a personal and customizable webpage within the MySpace domain. From this platform, users can exchange information about themselves and their interests in a variety of formats with other MySpace users of their choosing. These fellow users are called "friends." With most of its user-members between the ages of 18 of 35, Myspace.com is one of the Internet's most dynamic and powerful social and political networks.
MYSPACE的运作程序是这样的：凡是能上网的人都可以免费注册加入MYSPACE， 并获得一个网页。用户可以在这个平台上通过各种形式同自己选择的MYSPACE其他用户交流个人信息和志趣，彼此称对方为网友。MYSPACE网站用户的年龄在18岁到35岁之间，是互联网上最具活力、影响力最大的社会和政治网络系统。
This year, all the major presidential candidates have created their own MySpace pages and have added thousands of "friends" with whom they can share information about themselves and their policy positions. MySpace users can then learn about particular candidates, and comment or express support on their own MySpace pages. By making their personal verdicts on the candidates public, users can influence the virtual "community of friends" who view their pages.
今年，主要总统竞选人都创造了他们各自的MYSPACE网页，结交了可以分享信息和政策立场的成千上万的网友。MYSPACE用户能够了解特定的候选人，并且在他们自己的网页上发表看法，或者支持候选人。通过将个人看法公诸于众，MYSPACE的用户还可以影响造访他们网页的网友。
"There is different software they can download to show how they are following a candidate, and what their candidate is doing and why they are excited about them," says MySpace political director Lee Brenner, who helped engineer the program. "They can post bulletins and email their friends without having to leave MySpace."
MYSPACE的政治协调人布伦纳说：“他们可以用不同的软件追踪某位候选人的选情，介绍候选人的动态，说明自己会喜欢这位候选人的原因。用户不用离开MYSPACE就还可以上传信息，发电子邮件给朋友。”
This setup also helps candidates reach more young and undecided voters with the sort of personalized referrals that are gold in political campaigns. When, for example, a person is "friends" with Hillary Clinton, and other people are also "friends" with that person, Clinton gets a MySpace "link" to those other people.
MYSPACE的这种设置通过个人推荐在政治选举中最宝贵的方式，帮助候选人接近更多年青或是举棋不定的选民。例如，如果某个人是希拉里.克林顿的朋友，希拉里就可以通过MYSPACE的网络连接同此人的其他朋友取得联系。
But MySpace also enables an even more intimate connection between candidates and voters through series of interactive forums being broadcast over the Internet and on MTV throughout this presidential election season.
不过，MYSPACE还能在候选人和选民之间建立起更加亲密的关系。
Unlike typical forums or debates, when candidates take questions from experienced political reporters and pundits, questions in the MySpace/MTV forums are emailed in during the forums by MySpace users.
The format also allows audience members to give candidates near-instant feedback about the candidates' answers. A viewer simply clicks on a button on the relevant MySpace page. The cumulative results are then tallied and shown to the candidate.
这个论坛还能让听众几乎在第一时间内对候选人的回答作出反馈。观众只需按MYSPACE网页上的相关按键即可。综合结果经统计后可以展示给候选人。
Prior to the Iowa Caucus one user asked Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama a question about the war in Iraq. "We then asked the users that were watching him give his answer how he was answering," recounts Brenner. "We were then able to give him feedback within in a couple of minutes saying 'Senator Obama, 60 percent of the people that were watching liked your answer. But there were 40 percent who think you need to add a little bit more.'" The moderator was then able to elicit a clarified response, thus deepening the dialog between the audience and the candidate.
布伦纳继续说：“例如，我们向参议员奥巴马提出了一个有关伊拉克的问题。然后让用户对奥巴马的回答作出评价。我们能在几分钟内将反馈结果转达给奥巴马，告诉他，6成观众喜欢你的回答。不过，4成观众认为你还需要增加一些内容。我们还能就此再次同奥巴马交换意见，从而使观众和候选人间的对话收到更好的效果。”
The benefits of this interaction run two ways. MySpace users are better informed about where candidates stand on particular issues, and they feel they have a candidate's ear. And candidates can use the feedback they receive to tailor their pitch to young voters whose support will be crucial in the state primaries and later, in the general election. It may be more than coincidence that Senator Obama, who participated in a MySpace/MTV forum in Iowa, clinched the primary there, and Senator McCain won New Hampshire following his virtual town meeting with MySpace/MTV users.
这种互动的好处是双向的。MYSPACE的用户能更多地了解候选人在某个问题上的立场，用户感到候选人确实是在倾听他们的意见。候选人则可以利用反馈，进一步调整向年青选民发出的竞选号召。年轻选民的支持在州一级初选以及日后大选中是至关重要的。在爱奥华州参加MYSPACE论坛的参议员奥巴马赢得了那里的选举，麦凯恩参议员在参加了同MYSPACE用户举行的一次虚拟市政厅会议后赢得了新罕布什尔，这两个例子可能并非巧合。
"The Internet levels the playing field for everyone," adds Brenner, "and I think it absolutely played a role in the election process thus far."
Brenner also believes that the interactivity MySpace has introduced in its forums is trickling out to old, more traditional mainstream media forums and debates.
For example, when CNN partnered with the YouTube video sharing website, users were asked to upload questions to candidates in the form of homemade videos. In Brenner's view, that method was not as interactive as the MySpace/MTV project, "but the ability to create interaction between MySpace users and voters and candidates is what voters are looking for."
This social networking technology has important uses besides electoral politics. MySpace also has a huge potential for activists about issues ranging from international development and community building, to environmentalism and human rights.
对于活动人士而言，MYSPACE在国际发展、社区建设、环境理念以及人权等方面的作用也非常巨大。
Who knows? With trends like this, the Age of the Internet could usher in an era of unprecedented citizen enlightenment. And who knows where that could lead?
谁知道这种网络技术还会有什么其他作用呢？有了这样的发展趋势，互联网时代将有可能迎来公民空前觉醒时期的到来。又有谁能说清，这种趋势到底会带来什么新的发展呢！ |