In 2007 I moved to Seattle, WA and found a tech savvy community in the Pacific Northwest. I found myself in the office of the Director of the MCDM Hanson Hosein and we began talking about the program, my background in journalism, and a documentary I was producing on my great uncle, the late musician Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter.
After the meeting I was convinced and ready to sign up! The only thing I didn’t ask him was what sort of jobs most graduates seek once they are “finished” with the program. At this time in 2008 there was only one person who seemed to get a decent job by using digital media and social media marketing and that was President Barack Obama who Hosein titled as being the “first digital President” in an earlier post.

Every class I took in the MCDM program helped me to prepare for my next unforeseen big move to South Africa. Our move was swift and took place during both the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. When I arrived here in Johannesburg I found digital media everywhere and moving at a rapid pace. One thing that I have witnessed is how SMS messaging is everywhere and even playing a role in civic engagement. The second week we were in the country we drove over a pothole and not long afterward the car began to slow down. The deceivingly rain-filled pothole had caused a flat tire and I had to change the tire. Days later I read in the local newspaper The Star (yes print media is still relevant) that a new initiative called LEAD SA started by local radio stations and print media to help develop pride in South African sports teams and encourage “good Samaritan” efforts has now fixed over 4,000 potholes across the Johannesburg area.  This is how it works here in South Africa:

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Image from "This" Magazine

If this past summer’s controversial presidential election in Iran was any indication, Twitter has fast become a major platform for political discussion and grassroots organization on the global stage.  Social media, particularly the micro-blogging service Twitter, flexed its muscles during the opposition protests of the Iranian election results, and, at least for a month or two, it seemed that a global on-line conversation about democracy in Iran might actually help change the political climate of that country.  While it appears that the government of Iran eventually succeeded in squelching the unrest and cracking down on protests, it has become pretty clear that the nation of Iran will never be the same – and Twitter is partially to thank for that.  Considering the case of Facebook use in Iran, once you’ve got a taste of that sort of social freedom, it’s difficult to turn back. Read more…

Media consultants in Africa are adding one more element to the awareness campaign about AIDS…text messaging. In a recent Newsweek article titled “R U Positive?” it’s noted that “the country has the highest incidence of HIV-positive citizens of anywhere in the world. In some areas, 40 percent of people are infected. But despite those numbers, and despite the campaigns, only about 2 percent of South Africans have ever even been tested.” Read more…

In an op-ed in the NYTimes this week, political analyst and consultant Garrett M. Graff talks about why Barack Obama plans to announce his vice presidential choice via a text message.

What’s not clear from the article is if the text will go only to cellphone numbers in the campaign database or if it will also be broadcast via Twitter. However, the Twitter announcement makes it look like this is an “insider first” strategy … in other words, a way to secure cellphone numbers for future broadcast messages:

Announcing the VP candidate sometime between now & the Convention by txt msg & email. Text VP to 62262 or visit http://my.barackobama.com/vp

I chose the email option!

Graff notes demographics (one third of people aged 18-29 do not have landlines) and the “intimacy” of the cellphone communication as reasons this strategy is something more than a gimmick. [Cellphones are, by their nature, more personal than landlines -- ie, the phone is linked to a person, not a physical location.]

Moreover, a study of the use of text messages in the 2006 election “found that text message reminders to new voters increased an individual’s likelihood of voting by 4.2 percentage points.” In that off-year cycle, turnout among 18-29 year olds increased by 3% (nearly 2 million votes), “nearly twice the increase of voters of all ages.”

Post originally appeared at WiredPen