Digg Needs a Ron Paul Category
Since it is, after all, politics season, in the interest of fair coverage, I turn now to the other darling of the Internet long shot presidential candidate, Republican-but-really-a-libertarian Ron Paul. Despite polling under 2% in traditional polls, Ron Paul has won every major Internet poll. His supporters have dominated the Internet- they may not be the most numerous, but they sure scream the loudest. Ron Paul has a monstrous amount of blog mentions, dwarfing even Barack Obama on some days, and dominates all other “Web 2.0″ social media sites. And did I mention that he has the most YouTube subscribers in what may be becoming a surprisingly YouTube-centric election.
For example, look at the popularity of Ron Paul on Digg. As of this post, in the past seven days, there have been 23 front-page stories about Ron Paul on Digg, from a total of 619 stories, meaning that 3.7% of all stories on Digg are about Ron Paul. During the same 7-day period, the entire “Sports” category had only 20 front-page stories. Isn’t it fair to say that “News About Ron Paul” should join “Technology” and “World and Business” as its own category? It sure would reduce the clutter. Those who complain about too many Ron Paul stories could simply mark that category invisible, and Ron Paul supporters could be sure that they would never miss a Ron Paul story again.
As Free Market News remarks, “The Ron Paul phenomenon is ultimately the result of the Internet.” Some allege that Ron Paul’s popularity is entirely fraudulent with Ron Paul supporters creating spam blogs and fake Digg accounts. I don’t believe this to be the case, because if it was so easy to game all social media to promote a particular product or political candidate, everyone would be doing it, and you would see as many Hillary Clinton Digg stories. Ron Paul, like Mike Gravel, has become an internet phenomenon because he resonates with the young pissed-off-at-the-government crowd, and that crowd happens to control tech news sites like Digg as well as be much more prolific bloggers. This does not necessarily translate into real-world success, no matter how lucrative the demographic of your fan base. Unlike Apple, which is happy to control 10% of the market thanks in some part to blog publicity, a political candidate cannot succeed without majority market share. Regardless, Digg,reddit,YouTube, and others are elevating his profile in the mainstream media as well, and the power of the Web 2.0 crowd cannot be completely dismissed.
Ron Paul has without a doubt become a new internet meme- as a commenter on reddit astutely remarked, “Ron Paul is the new 09F9…” . To all of those complaining about the deluge of Ron Paul fandom online, don’t worry- the current fascination with Ron Paul, like all fads, will pass. And to his supporters- you can only hope that the meme lasts for another year and a half. Of course memes, like fads, always go full circle, so we may yet see a “retro” Ron Paul revival in our lifetime. At the very least, candidates like Mike Gravel and Ron Paul, who would have been completely ignored even a decade ago, now have many fans and fansites.
Others:
Ron Paul beats Digg’s Bury Brigade, keeps rising online, Digg is disrupting the political machine, and Ron Paul is the libertarian web phenomenon.
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The internet is truly transforming politics…while I don’t support Paul he has started a conversation, & that’s healthy. As a Rebulican, this the first time since I’ve been able to vote that I no idea who to vote for…I think the Dems have this one in the bag…
Good analysis and comment. http://www.paullevinson.net/archives/advice_to_the_networks_about_y.phtml
Thanks Paul. I think traditional/mainstream media is still not ready to recognize the full power of new media like blogs and social networks…2008 may be the first election in which they make a significant difference.
[…] Since it is, after all, politics season, in the interest of fair coverage, I turn now to the other darling of the Internet long shot presidential candidate, Republican-but-really-a-libertarian Ron Paul. Despite polling under 2% in traditional polls, Ron Paul has won every major Internet poll. His supporters have dominated the Internet- they may not be the most numerous, but they sure scream the loudest. Ron Paul has a monstrous amount of blog mentions, dwarfing even Barack Obama on some days, and dominates all other “Web 2.0″ social media sites. And did I mention that he has the most YouTube subscribers in what may be becoming a surprisingly YouTube-centric election. (more…) […]
The problem with wikipedia…
Image by Neomeme. Original article
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Good points. It’s incorrect to discuss memes and fads as though they are the same thing. Fads are a class of meme that come and go, but good memes (not good like righteous, but good like well-engineered for natural selection) survive for thousands of years. Some meme-types like “Us versus Them” last for a very long time. I would scarcely say Ron Paul is a fad, since the internet’s effect on politics is that we are increasingly more self-conscious people, politicians will begin to realize that what we can all agree on is freedom, whatever that may mean to you. I’d buy RP’s brand of freedom above anyone else’s–it sounds more time-tested to stick with the constitution and reconsider the 16th amendment.
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Многие азартные игроки, как за рубежом, так и у нас в стране, привлекали и привлекают математический аппарат (в частности, теорию вероятности) в попытке создать выигрышную стратегию для числовых лотерей, к которым относятся Спортлото и популярная во всем мире лотерея Кено. Большинство из них основывается на многоуровневом анализе большой выборки результатов предыдущих тиражей, как например предлагает делать Георг Гоулдман