MySpace, the world’s most popular social network, and MTV, the leading global youth brand, along with The Associated Press, today announced Senator Barack Obama and Representative Ron Paul will join Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Mike Huckabee for “Closing Arguments: A Presidential Super Dialogue.” The event will offer candidates a final opportunity to actively engage the highly-coveted youth voting bloc just before Super Tuesday, when more than 20 states will hold their primaries and caucuses. “Closing Arguments” is the next installment of MySpace and MTV’s ground-breaking Presidential Dialogue Series (www.myspace.com/election2008) and will take place live Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 6 PM ET on-air, online, radio and mobile. The event will offer audiences an unprecedented number of options to tune-in and pose their candid, unfiltered questions to front running candidates. The Associated Press will distribute a live feed and on-demand highlights of the Dialogue to the 1,800 media sites in its Online Video Network, nearly 600 of which are local TV, newspaper or radio sites in states with Super Tuesday primaries. Senator John McCain and Governor Mitt Romney have also been invited to participate in the event.
With the presidential candidate field narrowing after the Florida primaries, “Super Dialogue” participants will vie to earn the support of young voters expected to turn out in record numbers on Super Tuesday. Each candidate will have the floor for roughly 15-20 minutes, individually addressing questions posed by online viewers via MySpaceIM, ChooseOrLose.com and from the live college-aged audience in MTV’s Times Square Studio in New York. Young voters have shown an exceptionally high turnout at this year’s primaries and caucuses to date, tripling their presence in Iowa and South Carolina, and doubling in New Hampshire vs. four years ago. WashingtonPost.com political reporter Chris Cillizza, MTV News Correspondents Gideon Yago and Sway Calloway, and Associated Press political writer Philip Elliott will moderate the Dialogue.
“Closing Arguments” will be the most publicly accessible and interactive presidential candidate event in history, with a record number of ways for people to watch and participate:
– Broadcast live on MTV, MTV2, and MTV Tr3s, with highlights on college network mtvU
– Streamed live online via MySpace (www.myspace.com/election2008) and MTV’s www.ChooseOrLose.com
– Distributed live to the Associated Press Online Video Network, encompassing more than 1,800 media sites with an aggregate reach of 61 million unique visitors – and nearly 600 local media outlets in Super Tuesday states
– Streamed live on mobile devices via MTV Mobile
– Broadcast live on radio via XM Satellite Radio, MTV, and AP Radio
– Translated into Spanish and broadcast on ImpreMedia’s LaVibra (www.lavibra.com.candidatos)
– Shown on MTV 44 1/2, MTV’s hi-definition screen in Times Square
– Live studio audience participating at MTV’s Times Square studio
A revolutionary polling tool, powered by Flektor (www.flektor.com), will enable viewers watching online to indicate their approval or disapproval of candidates’ responses throughout the course of the event and help guide the direction of the forum. A “popular vote” function will allow viewers to compare their opinions against those of the entire viewing community.
Previous MySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogues have featured former Senator John Edwards at the University of New Hampshire, Senator Barack Obama at Coe College in Iowa, and Senator John McCain at Southern New Hampshire University, individually engaging with students at each event and addressing unfiltered questions posed by both online viewers and the live audience.
The Presidential Dialogue series is a key component of the MySpace Impact Channel (http://impact.myspace.com) and MTV’s “Choose or Lose” (www.ChooseorLose.com). “Choose or Lose” is MTV’s Emmy-Award winning campaign to engage, inform and empower young voters on the political issues that matter to them most. First launched in 1992, the campaign has helped fuel several of the largest youth voter turnouts in US history, including in 2004, when it helped inspire nearly 22 million 18-30 year olds to register and vote. The Impact channel is MySpace’s new hub for social and civic engagement, designed to empower MySpace users to make a difference in the world and to allow politicians, non-profits, and civic organizations to connect with MySpace’s global audience. The Impact Channel houses the official MySpace pages for all of the major party Presidential candidates, as well as tools to enable voter registration, fundraising, and volunteering. On January 1 and 2, 2008 the Impact Channel hosted the first in nation presidential primary with more than 150,000 MySpace users voicing their choice for the nation’s highest office.
