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NARR 1:
It's called Facebook-dot-com is a social networking website with abn estimated 10 million young members.
These sites offer a way for friends to keep in touch. Now, they're entering the world of politics.
AX:
I'd say it's completely new.
NARR 2:
Kathleen Barr works for Young Voter Strategies, a non-profit that aims to attract young voters to the polls.
AX 1:
5:57 In 2004, the blogosphere was the new technological phenomenon. In 2006, the online social networking is the new phenomenon that's changing politics as we know it.
NARR 2:
This election season, Facebook has partnered with the outreach group Rock the Vote to register young voters.
Together, they've signed up 3 thousand so far.
Users like Staten Island native Rachel Figueroa can see who their friends support through a feature called "Newsfeed".
Newsfeed alerts them whenever someone in their network decides to back a candidate.
AX 2:
5:51 People are going to look at that and say "so and so supports Howie Hawkins. I wonder who that is." They go and look at that site and then make a more informed decision on who they're going to vote for.
NARR 3:
Facebook says 1600 candidates for Congress and Governorships across the country have profiles up on their site.
Through these profile pages, members can post messages on a candidate's, a virtual message board called a wall.
New York Senate candidate Hillary Clinton's wall has drawn nearly 2-thousand posts.
But they haven't all been messages of support.
Some come from the campaign of her Green Party opponent, Howie Hawkins.
AX 3:
3:46 Howie doesn't write it. He knows I'm doing it.
NARR 4:
That's Michael Kwan… a 22 year old unpaid intern who, with Hawkins blessing, writes on the candidate's behalf.
Kwan—as Hawkin's proxy—routinely posts on Clinton's wall criticizing her support for the Iraq war and her refusal to debate Hawkins.
Facebook provides third-party candidates with a way to spread their message and Kwan says it works.
AX 4:
:30 A lot of college students have been using Facebook to request materials like posters and stickers and to ask questions about Howie's campaign, his platform, and to ask if Howie can speak on their campus.
NARR 5:
But the strategy has backfired in the eyes of a 20 year old student at SUNY Potsdam, near the Canadian border.
Brian Franco says the tone of the messages … and the fact that they're posted by an intern.. have turned him off to a candidate who would have otherwise considered.
AX 5:
3:22 Seeing Howie Hawkins having an intern doing that kind of thing really just made me not want to vote for him. It just didn't seem like something a professional candidate should be doing.
NARR 6:
Still, Franco says Facebook can be useful.
AX 6:
I think if candidates are using it in a strategic manner, I think it's an excellent tool for college age students.
NARR 7:
Nobody knows the impact social networking sites like Facebook will have.
But a recent survey by Harvard's Institute of Politics shows that 32 percent of voters between the ages of 19 and 24 are expected to vote in 2006… a larger chunk than in any midterm election in 24 years.
SOC:
Lily Jamali, Columbia Radio News.