Yet Obama motivated 20 million young voters, many of them from traditionally non-voting segments of society, to register, to queue in lines and to cast a vote for 'change we can believe in'. I have no doubt that the man himself and his visionary manifesto accounts for much of this. But Obama's campaign worked in fascinatingly different ways across the generations.
One US newspaper describes the way his message reached the young like this,
20-year-old student Craig Ewer considered Obama "the YouTube candidate."This viral, socially-networked communication is unlike the 'old' broadcast and print media. Its messages are replicated and shared. It's a form of communication which owes more to the word on the street and the chat over the garden fence than to the studio or editing office. And the method is naturally-selective. Unconvincing and implausible messages peter out and die. Only the catchiest, stickiest, most relevant messages that speak convincingly reproduce.
"His campaign had a massive infiltration of all the most popular social networks that young people are attuned to these days," said Ewer of Norfolk, Mass.
Young voters said the Obama campaign's skill at using Facebook, e-mail and text messaging made it easy for them to connect. University of Hartford sophomore Darren Duncan, a Pennsylvania native who voted by absentee ballot, received several text messages on Election Day morning, plus a cellphone call from an Obama staffer during his Spanish class.
There's a connection here with our recent exploration of 'grace in context' through the sharing of stories at St Paul's. I've been struck by the way that these thankful celebrations of grace have been repeated. They've been compellingly, lovingly and reverently shared. It's been a little experiment in viral communication. It's also the way that the gospel was first rumoured into the hearts of men and women. The capacity of such gossipped good news to move a church into adventurous mission has been striking - as striking as that which led a new generation to vote.
Older generations are familiar with a local church which aped the power of the media in a different age. The parish magazine imitated the printed newspaper. But now I suspect that few under the age of forty ever read a parish magazine. If we're to be more viral, more social, in our communication, we're going to need to scatter far more tiny seeds and hope some stick and take root. And that's not unbiblical is it?
