I raised questions yesterday about why Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez was bypassing the traditional media and announcing that he’s formed an exploratory committee for a potential 2010 gubernatorial run via Facebook.
The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash does a great job today of piecing together what Sanchez’s brief Facebook note resulted in, despite the fact that there was no accompanying effort to reach the traditional media. Check it out:
“Sanchez or his campaign over the weekend posted a 13-word status update on his page on the popular social networking site announcing the committee, and the word was out.
“Albuquerque radio reporter Peter St. Cyr noticed the post, and put in on his blog, then on his Twitter page.
“Blogger Matthew Reichbach promptly retweeted — that is, he posted a Twitter update referencing St. Cyr’s tweet — on his own Twitter page. Other blogs followed suit.
“Welcome to the 2010 campaign.”
Reichbach, a colleague of mine at the New Mexico Independent and the state’s expert on social networking, has a new posting up on his blog that captures what’s going on:
“New Mexico is slowly catching up to other states in this regard. Ultra-conservative Florida Republican Marco Rubio announced on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Univision.
“Now-President Barack Obama famously announced (or tried to anyway) his Vice Presidential candidate with this Twitter message:
“‘Announcing Senator Joe Biden as our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on http://BarackObama.com.’”
In the newest instance, Sanchez completely bypassed the traditional media and still got the word out. That’s indicative of how the traditional media has lost some of the influence it once had. It’s no longer the filter through which everyone has to go to reach people.
The traditional media still plays a critical role. Many people know about Sanchez’s exploratory committee because they read about it in The New Mexican or another newspaper. But, rather than trying to convince the traditional media to write about his potential gubernatorial run, Sanchez has the media clamoring to write about his Facebook stunt.
It’s just another example of how the Internet is changing our lives by turning the societal structure we once considered reality on its head.
So this seems an opportune time to bring up my own social networking pages. You can follow me on Twitter @haussamen, and find my Facebook page here.