The Youth Vote & the Mainstream Media

So… we've been in the media quite a bit lately, and by "we", I mean young Canadians who intend on turning up to the polls (or at least are thinking about it). First there was the coverage of the vote mobs, and then the "Facebook ejection", and now people are actually listening seriously to what we have to say! I know!

I have to admit, every time I see something about young voters in the mainstream media I get really excited. Like you know when you're watching an American tv show and they mention Canada and you get really, inexplicably excited? And you know you probably shouldn't be so excited, because Canada is the world's second-largest country, and a member of the G8, and otherwise important, and also right to the north of the US and one of its biggest trading partners, so you know they're aware of us, even if they're 25 thousand times more likely to mention a European country. Or Mexico.

I feel like this is probably a sign of alienation. When I get this excited to see my social group acknowledged by mainstream media.

Maclean's explains that while the youth voter turnout is, in fact, declining, it isn't declining as quickly as the overall voter turnout or the turnout of voters in their 40s and 50s. This is reassuring, as I kind of hate being blamed for everything that's wrong in this country's democratic process. They also point out that the election of 38-year-old Naheed Nenshi as mayor of Calgary suggests Good Things for the political engagement of youth.

Then there's Decision Canada on Web 2.0 campaigns and ordinary Canadians getting involved on Youtube. Okay, maybe this isn't strictly a youth issue, but it is something I'm involved in (i.e. this blog, my Twitter, and my YouTube channel. (Also: this link has a few of the key viral videos of the campaign--the Harper/Emperor Palpatine speech, the promotional video for shitharperdid.com, Stephen Harper as a creepy Facebook creeper, and the Our Country Conservative/Tea Party ad.) This article ponders why and to what end most of the social media attacks have been on Harper:

Greg Elmer, a Canadian Internet politics researcher, said the disproportionate number of anti-Conservative successes is likely a reflection of Harper's continued health in the polls, and the creative community's historical lack of support for his policies.

But even if YouTube has become a virtual whipping post for the Conservative leader, Elmer noted that it may not have the effect desired by those leading his flagellation.

"To be attacked online can sometimes be a good thing, in the sense that you're getting more attention," said Elmer, a professor of new media at Ryerson University.

"And there's a lot of foul language in some of the (anti-Harper) videos, which some voters might find that offensive. It might, in fact, reinforce their support for a party with more traditional conservative values."

Interesting. Although I don't think that the demographic these videos are aimed at will mind the language. Also, "the creative community's lack of support for his policies" or "his policies' lack of support for the creative community"? Chicken-and-egg.

And then there's this reflection on advance poll vote mobs, which operate on the idea that if you mobilize people with the vote mob and then send them to the polls right away, they'll probably be more likely to actually give up the twenty minutes of their day. According to one of the organizers at the University of Ottawa:

Hill said he thinks youth are not apathetic, but rather alienated. He said politicians overlook issues that youths care about, such as the environment, student debt, and post-secondary education.

"The idea is that if we want to see real change on Parliament Hill and if we want youth to see politics that is reflective of their values, then we need to engage them politically," Hill said.

And the first step of engaging youth in politics is getting them to vote, he added.

"It's the beginning of the process of engagement. And ideally, once you get people voting, especially if the person they voted for wins, they'll want to see if they follow through with their promises."

YES. Thank you. I love it when people affirm my opinions in public forums.

Finally, Steve Paikin had a special edition of The Agenda on Thursday about youth vote and political engagement, with six commentators all under the age of 30. It was wonderful to see. It's a bit long, over 45 minutes, so if you don't have the time/patience, I was a nice person and took point-form notes about the most interesting things they said.

• This election comes on the heels of the prorogation of parliament and the G20, both cases where youth were active and engaged (if only on Facebook) but their voices were not heard.
• There is no legal way to display political disaffection (ie spoiling your ballot is illegal), so young people might be abstaining from voting instead.
• The media is unfriendly to political leaders who say anything too radical or different--this may drive down voter turnout and youth interest, since young people tend to be the most highly ideological. Also leads to homogenization of political parties.
• Young people who feel informed feel a duty to vote, while people who are less informed feel like voting would be irresponsible since they don't know enough to make an informed vote, and so abstain. Also, more differentiation between parties and candidates increases the sense of duty with regards to voting.
• A lot of youth don't like Harper (in reference to shitharperdid.com) but the election is being fought over budget issues and things that might be better settled by a referendum.
• Youth are less likely than older adults to believe that politicians will keep their election promises, so they're less likely to be swayed by election promises.
• Campaigns to try to increase youth voter turnout are usually not run by youth, and usually run by people who couldn't imagine not voting, so they're not usually very persuasive.
• Parties end up patronizing young people by treating them as a homogenous group or assuming they don't care about any issues that don't directly affect them (education, youth employment, etc.).
• Is a 1.5% change in the corporate tax rate a big enough difference to actually get people motivated to vote?

Anyway, I really liked that show, and I think that it could have gone on for longer. Everyone there clearly had so much more to say. It's kind of sad to think that young people get one 48-minute segment on TVO to express their opinions, and other than that we have to highjack the attention of mainstream media with vote mobs in order to be heard.

Personally, I think that a lot of young people these days care passionately about things, but those things aren't necessarily electoral politics. I know so many amazing young people who are involved in philanthropy and volunteer work, or going to build schools and houses with Habitat for Humanity and so many other organizations. And yes, I do know a group of people who are passionately dedicated to electoral and parliamentary politics. You may have noticed I'm one of them. I'm originally from the National Capital Region, where federal politics were easy to enter into since pretty much everybody's parents worked for the federal government when I was in high school, and Parliament dominated the front page of the newspaper (except for when the Sens were on a winning streak). I find myself regularly surrounded by other people, like myself, who follow political news obsessively and attend all-candidates meetings and treat Election Day like it's a giant party. Young people who dream about forming their own political parties when they're in high school--better political parties than the ones we have, ones that go back to the old values of MPs who represent their constituents, first and foremost, rather than their party. Young people who run for mayor even though they know they'll never win. So yeah. I think, that given that young people already care passionately about things, and some already care passionately about our government, mobilization of the youth vote isn't an impossible task.

I like that they said that young people don't vote because they're not informed about the issues, because that reaffirms what I'm trying to do here. And you want to know why your vote matters? Okay, I shall tell you why your vote matters: