American Idol politics? This from an e-mail exchange I had today...
Not me: So I just had a random thought. I am serious about this, by the way. You hear about how on American Idol gets about 70,000,000 votes. In the pres election, there were 122,293,332 total votes cast (this is popular vote), but a smaller percentage of that was the "youth vote." In fact, I bet that a smaller number than 70,000,000 votes were cast by youth. But you clearly cannot say that "youth do not like to vote" because they flock to American Idol. I guess what I am wondering how the youth vote movement could take all of this "American Idol voting excitment" and channel it into a real increase in the youth vote block. What do you think?
Me: Well, you can vote multiple times in American Idol, which obviously massively skews the numbers. Seeing as the show draws about 10-20 million viewers, I would say that is a better judge of how many people may have voted. Either way though, it is an interesting question. And I think political groups like the Bus are already doing a lot to emulate American Idol's strengths (competition, entertainment, gossip, controversy, choice, etc). The problem in many cases is that unless you cover up the serious topics, politics is much less conducive to casual voting than a music show--the opportunity cost of voting responsibly is much higher, and is also harder to disguise as not being a form of work.
Other point is the age difference: idol targets people who are obsessed with singers and entertainment, including a huge bloc of under-18s. That same bloc exists in politics, but is in the mid-20s because of the difference in subject matter and higher knowledge requirements.
One of the biggest things, though, that makes it hard for American Idol-type enthusiasm to transfer? The lack of choice in politics. If American idol broke into pre-competition battles between the Democratic rock singers, and then between the R&B Republicans, viewership would plummet because half the viewers would have no interest at any given time. Then, if only the best rock singer and best R&B singer competed over and over again, don't you think people would get tired? The key to American Idol, beyond the music and entertainment, is the format of elimination. If politics was more gradual in its selection process, and not party-dominated, then Idol would serve to provide a more impartible model. As it is, many of those who don't vote do so because their favorite singer never even got a chance to compete.
Any thoughts on either view?
Not me: So I just had a random thought. I am serious about this, by the way. You hear about how on American Idol gets about 70,000,000 votes. In the pres election, there were 122,293,332 total votes cast (this is popular vote), but a smaller percentage of that was the "youth vote." In fact, I bet that a smaller number than 70,000,000 votes were cast by youth. But you clearly cannot say that "youth do not like to vote" because they flock to American Idol. I guess what I am wondering how the youth vote movement could take all of this "American Idol voting excitment" and channel it into a real increase in the youth vote block. What do you think?
Me: Well, you can vote multiple times in American Idol, which obviously massively skews the numbers. Seeing as the show draws about 10-20 million viewers, I would say that is a better judge of how many people may have voted. Either way though, it is an interesting question. And I think political groups like the Bus are already doing a lot to emulate American Idol's strengths (competition, entertainment, gossip, controversy, choice, etc). The problem in many cases is that unless you cover up the serious topics, politics is much less conducive to casual voting than a music show--the opportunity cost of voting responsibly is much higher, and is also harder to disguise as not being a form of work.
Other point is the age difference: idol targets people who are obsessed with singers and entertainment, including a huge bloc of under-18s. That same bloc exists in politics, but is in the mid-20s because of the difference in subject matter and higher knowledge requirements.
One of the biggest things, though, that makes it hard for American Idol-type enthusiasm to transfer? The lack of choice in politics. If American idol broke into pre-competition battles between the Democratic rock singers, and then between the R&B Republicans, viewership would plummet because half the viewers would have no interest at any given time. Then, if only the best rock singer and best R&B singer competed over and over again, don't you think people would get tired? The key to American Idol, beyond the music and entertainment, is the format of elimination. If politics was more gradual in its selection process, and not party-dominated, then Idol would serve to provide a more impartible model. As it is, many of those who don't vote do so because their favorite singer never even got a chance to compete.
Any thoughts on either view?
posted by The Oracles @ 10:29 PM
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