Just read an article from Techmeme that was posted in the New York Times today about how politicians running for their party’s nomination are heading to Mountain View, California to reach out to the people of Google to spread their message about why they should vote for them in the presidential primary.
The article talks about the symbolic gesture that politicians are paying attention to this software and search engine giant and how it’s similar to the exploits that politicians did in previous elections by visiting the General Motors plants and shmoozing with the workers. How is this symbolic? Well as the New York Times article states, “the visits gave the candidate the chance for a photo opportunity at the most technologically advanced edge of the economy, “signaling identification with the future,â€� said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.
With all this focus on the different issues plaguing our world today, it is incredible and quite refreshing that politicians who will lead us in the next decade or so are at least showing those in the tech industry some “respect” and understand that it is the wave of the future and will help improve a lot of our lives. With technology emerging as a crucial media for selecting the next president a la YouTube presidential debate, you start to see a lot more candidates make use of the technology availed to them – blogging, Twitter, YouTube, social media, online advertising, etc.
With Google getting this much attention from the presidential candidates, will Yahoo and Microsoft step up and help participate in this dialog?
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