[November 08, 2008]

U.S. Poll Confirms World Truly a Global Village

Nairobi, Nov 08, 2008 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
At the height of the US presidential election campaigns, a neighbour in Nairobi made a routine call to his relatives in the village.

To his surprise, an old man asked him to pass the villagers' condolences to Sen Barack Obama, for they had just learnt that the Democratic party candidate had lost his grandmother. The issue may sound simplistic, but in many ways, the American election confirmed Canadian futurist Marshall MacLuhan's global village phenomenon.

The US was voting and so was the whole world. From the electronic voting machines to the new media, the poll was fought and won on technology.

The internet, TV, radio and newspapers took over our sitting rooms and we were bombarded with updates on the polls. News is about what happened, but the election was about what was about to happen.

Everywhere the talk was "opinion polls", "projections", "swing states", "predictions" and a number of other terms that confirm human beings' desperate probe into the future. And technology is definitely an accomplice to this conspiracy to foretell things and tell them to the whole world as they happen.

TV, riding on powerful satellite and complex global fibre optic cable networks, is the king medium in this new game. Millions of people all over the world gathered around the big screens to watch the unfolding events in real time.

Cameras would show Republican candidate John MacCain conceding defeat in Phoenix, Arizona, and then cut to Obama's victory speech from Chicago before swinging effortlessly halfway round the world to globalise the celebrations and prayers at Kenya's Kogelo village where the president-elect has roots.

This hot medium tried very much to satisfy viewers' thirst. Because digital technology has become so versatile consumers now crave something more than the traditional "breaking news", which is no longer good enough. And why not, technology can surely afford more, or so we seem to believe?

TV's unrivalled power ensured that the whole world was involved almost with the same depth of experience. This is a befitting gesture and honour to Obama who himself is a man whose history is the very embodiment of the global village concept.

Although TV has been a major source of election news, studies show that the number of people using the internet is growing rapidly.

BBC online says the number of users seeking election information in the cyberspace increased from 10 per cent in the 2004 election to 33 per cent this year, while those using TV and newspapers seem to be constant.

There were many online sites and blogs. It is said that a quarter of US voters received election news online and that one in five internet users is looking for such information daily.

The internet made the world small. The blog, Voices Without Votes, put together views of several other blogs worldwide. There were Rock the Boat, Blogstephanie.com, Daily Kos, RedState and thousands other sites, all driven by the young.

A research organisation that looks at user behaviour online, Pew Internet and American Life Project, says TV has lost significant ground to the internet among 18-29-year-olds.

The internet is becoming a powerful tool for shaping public opinion. It is said Obama had a database of 3 million voters whom he interacted with. They helped him with the campaign and even with the fundraising.

A younger Obama knew where his audience hangs out and how to reach them. For example, Rock the Boat says its mission is to engage and build the political power of young people to achieve progressive change in Kenya.

It uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election. The web blog, http://blog.rockthevote.com/ says it is giving "young people the tools to identify, learn about and take action on the issues that affect their lives".

Many other social networking sites such as YouTube and MySpace gave users the chance to post video clips, mostly of opponents caught off guard, saying or doing something nasty.

Republican Senator George Allen's macaca racial slur was posted on Youtube, which boasts 20 million visitors a month.

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