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Meebo to power election chat and user debates at Comedy Central’s Indecision2008.com

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Communications platform provider Meebo announced that Comedy Central will integrate Meebo Rooms, embedded chat rooms, into Indecision2008.com to host live user commentary during election and post-election television coverage. Comedy Central will promote Meebo on-air during Election Day, November 4, to direct all amateur pundits to Indecision2008.com so they can weigh in with their opinions.

Comedy Central’s Indecision2008.com web site will have extensive coverage of Election Day. Postings will take place all day by the site’s bloggers who will report the latest news on the presidential election as well as the hot races in the House and Senate. The site will also host a Live Chat, powered by Meebo, during the day and throughout the “Indecision 2008: America’s Choice” special, enabling users to connect and discuss the election with other fans. There will also be a Live Blogging Event from 7:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m. ET with comedian Patton Oswalt. In addition, throughout the day, the site will launch exclusive interviews with “The Daily Show” correspondents recollecting their favorite moments covering the campaign over the past year as well as a “Swing State Seminar” with exclusive video series hosted by comedian Kurt Braunohler that outlines the key issues in the most hotly-contested battleground states.

Originally posted on October 30, 2008 @ 10:18 am

The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com to offer comprehensive election day package

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The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com will be offering a comprehensive package for the 2008 elections, including in-depth political news and analysis from the paper’s award-winning political team and groundbreaking news aggregation and video technology.

The Post’s political team will go behind Tuesday night’s results in the races for the White House, Congress and the nation’s statehouses, providing in-depth reporting and analysis on where the country stands after Election 2008. Our correspondents, anchored by veteran political reporter Dan Balz, will report from Washington and around the nation on the history-making contest between Barack Obama and John McCain and tell us where the victor will lead the country beginning in January.

“washingtonpost.com will bring together The Post’s unbeatable political reporting with the innovations we’ve made throughout the year to create a suite of features and products that allow people to customize their election night experience,” said Jim Brady, Executive Editor, washingtonpost.com. “Whether it’s through live video coverage, an interactive election map, or a mobile phone, we will provide the source for users get national and state-by-state election coverage in the format that works for them.”

Originally posted on October 30, 2008 @ 4:28 am

US Presidential conversation goes global with LiveJournal

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The coming presidential elections in the US is not only important for Americans. The election also has significant repercussions outside of the US. With this, LiveJournal announced a uniquely global community, US Election 2008, dedicated to the discussion of the Presidential campaign.

The community is for journalists from newspapers outside of the US to gather the views and opinions of Americans regarding the pending Presidential election. The community is intended to facilitate wide-ranging public discussion of important political issues, including reactions of people in the U.S. and abroad to the issues faced by the U.S. Presidential candidates. Participating newspapers include The Independent from the United Kingdom, Gazeta.ru from Russia, and Mint from India. New topics are presented by journalists posting questions or articles for review in this community. Participants then respond to those questions and their views, when necessary, are translated into the language of the publication to represent the views of those living within the United States.

During the October 7 (9:00 pm EDT) ”Town Hall” style Presidential debate in Nashville, community moderators will follow the debate on the US Election 2008 community, seeding questions to the community in real time. The conversation will directly follow the twists and turns of the debate, creating a virtual Town Hall to mirror the debate.

Originally posted on October 6, 2008 @ 10:54 am

Impremedia, MySpace present live streaming of presidential debates for Hispanic audiences

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ImpreMedia, the Hispanic news and information company in the US, and MySpace is teaming up to offer Spanish-language coverage of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates. ImpreMedia’s online portal, impre.com, will host live feeds of the Debates and provide simultaneous translation of the debates into Spanish, making the Debates accessible for the first time in Spanish to Spanish-preferred Hispanic voters.

The Spanish-language live coverage is also accessible on MyDebates.org, a new website that hosts interactive tools for viewers to virally engage in the political process, including a personalized issue scorecard, polling, reportable national statistics, and live web streaming.

ImpreMedia’s online portal, impre.com, will host live feeds of the Debates and provide simultaneous translation into Spanish, making the Debates accessible to Spanish-preferred Hispanic voters.

Registration of Hispanic voters has grown 50% over the past ten years, according to the 2008 Pew Hispanic Survey, with some 18.2 million Hispanic voters now comprising 9% of the overall US electorate.

Originally posted on September 26, 2008 @ 12:59 pm

MySpace, Commission on Presidential Debates launch interactive toolset for MyDebates.org

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MySpace and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced the launch of its toolset for MyDebates.org, a new website that will house interactive tools for viewers to virally engage in the political process, including a personalized issue scorecard, polling, reportable national statistics, live web streaming and much more.

MyDebates.org is part of a landmark partnership between MySpace and the CPD for the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debate series. The partnership marks the first time that the CPD has paired with an Internet property to include online functionality into the event series and traditional debate format.
 
When visiting MyDebates.org, users will be prompted to take an “Issues Quiz” that will assess their stance on 14 issues, including the economy, national security, the environment, same-sex marriage, education and healthcare. Once they’ve taken the quiz, users can see how their values line up with the candidates and view a state-by-state breakdown of how other Americans feel on the issues. Users will also have the option of downloading a personalized application which can be embedded anywhere on the web, for example on a blog, social networking site like MySpace, or another website. The application will provide a summary of the user’s stance on the issues, on-demand playback functionality and issue-based tracking, allowing users to track a candidate’s stance on issues they care about throughout the debate series.
 
The general election debates, a series that includes three separate presidential debates and one debate featuring the candidates running for vice president, will kick off on September 26 with a broadcast on all the major national television networks. Each historic television event captures more than 60 million worldwide viewers and will now include an entirely new audience online able to watch each debate via live web stream.

Originally posted on September 18, 2008 @ 10:13 am