Speaking of fickle trends, someone recently pointed out an article about how the virtual worlds in online roleplaying games are reaping real world profits for some of their slightly more shrewd players. Even recording artists are holding concerts here, and fashion designers are selling virtual versions of their garments. Now, as politicians begin to embrace the blogsophere, I begin to wonder how long it will be before a candidate steps onto a soapbox in one of these in-game worlds to give a speech. With a growing user base at least as devoted as the bloggers, do these online worlds have the potential to become venues in the political sphere?
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Pretty soon, we’ll have virtual PR people pitching virtual reporters in the virtual world. Check out Reuters’ announcement this week that they are opening a virtual bureau in Second Life, the massively popular virtual world app. PR people and political campaign press people will someday test their communications on virtual reporters. Who knows, maybe a Virtual US congress and virtual White House press corps are on the horizon.
Vitual PR is already here. There are several bloggers hired by the major political parties to monitor blogs and comment appropriately for their team. Many people are moving away from Fox and CNN because their analysis is weak and a good blog gives more depth and insight.
Gentlemen,
I am afraid that I have to agree more with JamesBruni’s comments than wchaney’s when it comes to virtual PR. I am well aware that there are pro-bloggers working for the major political parties already.
However, what I meant in my post was that I think we will see a shift away from the blogs and more towards a virtual political world, something like the virtual bureaus in Second Life mentioned by JamesBruni.
How much will these differ from the kind of cyber-political action we are seeing in the blogosphere?