REDMOND, Wash. — August 23, 2012 —
In the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, young people emerged as a force
to be reckoned with. They canvassed neighborhoods, worked phone banks
and, on Election Day itself, streamed to the polls in numbers eclipsed
only by the 1972 election. But in 2012 it appears young people may be
less engaged in the political process, even though the issues at the
forefront — jobs, education, student loan debt — are ones that affect
them directly.
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Election 2012 on Xbox LIVE
August 23, 2012
Election
2012 on Xbox LIVE, an immersive and interactive experience highlighted
by a content-rich elections “hub,” will feature live broadcasts of the
presidential debates and the "Conversations with the Next Generation"
forums as well as voter registration info and in-depth data on the
candidates.
Charles
Hauser has heard all this firsthand. A student at Johnson C. Smith
University in Charlotte, N.C., he admits he doesn't think his peers are
as involved politically as they could be. "I have heard some young
people say they don't feel their votes count," he says. "I also feel it
is harder to be actively involved when there is so much turmoil
economically."
But
Hauser and other students like him want to change that, and they've
found a strong ally in Microsoft, which is bringing its technological
expertise to bear in a wide-ranging effort to promote dialog and
participation in the 2012 U.S. election process, including a special
effort to encourage young people to make their voices heard.
Microsoft's
efforts will take several forms, including "Conversations with the Next
Generation," live town hall events featuring youth panels at the
Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and the Democratic
National Convention in Charlotte. These events will bring together top
leaders from politics, media, business and social policy for a
discussion of issues important to students and young workers.
The two events have been developed in partnership with The Atlantic and National Journal,
and will be moderated by key news figures such as NBC News
correspondents Chuck Todd and Chelsea Clinton. Both events will be
broadcast on Xbox LIVE. The
forum will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 29, and the Charlotte event will
be held on Wednesday, Sept. 5. Both will run from to 4:30 p.m. ET.
Getting Young People Involved
Hauser,
who will be a panelist at the "Conversations with the Next Generation"
event in Charlotte, says such events "are very important in getting
young people involved. Events like this make young people feel as though
they are being heard and being paid attention to. Young people feel as
though no one cares how they truly feel about serious issues. Also, with
technology being so integrated in society and social activities, young
people take interest in events that involve high-tech leaders like
Microsoft."
Brad Smith: Young People’s Pivotal Role
August 23, 2012
Brad
Smith, Microsoft executive vice president and general counsel: "I
personally think that just as young people played a pivotal role in the
2008 election they could play a pivotal role in this election.”
Lisa
Stickan, chairwoman of the Young Republican National Federation, will
be a panelist at the "Conversations with the Next Generation" forum at
the Republican Convention in Tampa. "We're going to be talking about the
issues that impact young voters," Stickan says.
"It's
an important conversation to have," she adds. "There's a lot of talk
about the youth vote. Typically there's a perception that younger people
don't care and don't want to vote. We've seen that disproved in the
past. It's important that we address those issues and give our voices a
place at the table."
Stickan
says technology is critical in reaching young voters in particular.
"The way people communicate changes from generation to generation," she
says. "You have to go where people are in order to get the message to
them."
Elizabeth Baker Keffer, vice president of The Atlantic and president of Atlantic LIVE, says The Atlantic
was happy to once again partner with Microsoft in presenting the town
hall-style forums. The two companies held similar events focusing on
jobs and education during the past year.
"We've
really been in sync in Microsoft in terms of thinking about the major
issues facing the country, and the importance of gathering thoughtful
dialog on these issues," Keffer says. "As the conventions approached we
thought this would be a perfect opportunity to recreate the town hall
forums, focusing on young people and the issues important to them — jobs
and education. If you're a student or a recent graduate, we want to
know how you are feeling about things like job prospects, and which
political parties you are thinking about. That's the concept here."
Keffer
says such efforts are important in an election year when "there's
strong interest but, since the economy hasn't recovered very well,
there's also a little bit of skepticism or even cynicism. That's why we
thought it was important to engage youth in a dialog, since they're such
a crucial part of the conversation."
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An Ongoing Effort to Engage the Next Generation
Microsoft's
election efforts are part of a broader, ongoing effort to make
technology accessible and useful to young people. Earlier this month
Tampa hosted “Back to School With Microsoft,”
in which more than 500 teachers were trained as part of an effort to
modernize in-classroom teaching with Microsoft technologies, boost
students’ technology skills, and emphasize the value of science,
technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning in preparation for
21st century careers.
Brad Smith,
Microsoft executive vice president and general counsel, says such
efforts are important in focusing attention on what Microsoft and other
partners call the "opportunity divide" that young people now face in the
and around the world.
Polling and Real-Time Interactivity on Election 2012 on Xbox LIVE
August 22, 2012
A
series of polls seeking Xbox users' opinions of various aspects of the
elections will be available on Election 2012 on Xbox LIVE. Additionally,
users will be able to rate the performances of the candidates during
the presidential debates in real-time, and instantly see how other Xbox
users are voting.
"As
we look at the issues it's clear that there's a gap between those
students who have access to training and education and those who do
not," he says. "And there's a very large and expanding gap between the
jobs the country is creating and the skills people need to fill them."
Smith
notes that by the end of 2013 the United States will add another
million high-paying tech-related jobs, but companies will have trouble
filling those positions because fewer than 15 percent of college
students are getting degrees that prepare them for tech-industry
careers. "We need to build a broader awareness of this problem, and
these conventions and other events provide a very important opportunity
to do that," he says.
Getting
young people politically engaged is crucial, Smith says. "I personally
think that just as young people played a pivotal role in the 2008
election they could play a pivotal role in this election. Young people
are defining where the economy and technology are going, and yet at the
same time the next generation faces stronger economic challenges than
they have in many decades."
After
all, Smith asks, "What company in the world connects with young people
the most? It's clearly Microsoft, whether it's through our software,
Xbox, services like Skype, or the things we've been doing over the last
decade through our community affairs efforts and philanthropic work.
We've had programs in place for awhile and we're now reinventing and
expanding this work to focus on the opportunity divide that youth are
facing."
Smith
notes that the Microsoft “Partners in Learning” program has reached more
than 200 million students and 10 million teachers in the past decade.
"On a global basis, and locally with programs like the one in Tampa,
we're building very strong partnerships in working with students.”
Smith
says Microsoft is "focused on making a positive impact in solving this
problem by training more young people and equipping them with the skills
they need to get jobs."
He
stresses that the upcoming election forums are not isolated events but
rather "build on work we've been doing for a long time." And he adds,
Microsoft employees will be encouraged to get involved as well, in a
variety of ways. "We're building a foundation for further work we're
going to do, and there will be opportunities for employees to contribute
to this."
But he
adds that Microsoft can't do it alone. "We're focused on contributing
to solutions that go beyond our own activities. This will require work
from lots of different industries, individuals and philanthropies. We
will need a strong public-private partnership to make the lasting
changes that the country needs."
Why is this so important, particularly to young people? As Hauser puts it, "Our futures are at stake in these elections."
Unprecedented Interactivity for Millions of Xbox LIVE Users
Microsoft
will also be offering Election 2012 on Xbox LIVE, an immersive and
interactive experience highlighted by a content-rich elections “hub”
that will feature:
- Live broadcasts of the presidential debates and the "Conversations with the Next Generation" forums
- Information on how users can register to vote
- In-depth data on the candidates and their stands on the issues
- A series of polls seeking Xbox users' opinions of various aspects of the elections
- Full coverage of the balloting results on election night
And
in what promises to be one of the most exciting features of Election
2012 on Xbox LIVE, users will be able to rate the performances of the
candidates during the presidential debates in real-time, and instantly
see how other Xbox users are voting.
Our futures are at stake in these elections.
Charles Hauser, student at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.
"As
the candidates debate you'll be able to give a thumbs-up or
thumbs-down," says Jose Pinero, senior director of public relations for
Xbox Entertainment. "We see this as a great opportunity to deliver an
interactive TV experience. If we marry the desire of consumers to watch
important news events and bring the interactivity we have with Xbox,
this will be the first truly interactive live television experience."
Pinero notes that until now, such real-time polling had only been done on a very limited scale, with small focus groups.
"We're
taking this onto a massive scale," he says. "We can have hundreds of
thousands of people, maybe millions, providing feedback from the comfort
of their own homes. That's never been done before. I truly believe this
is the future of television."
Pinero
adds: "Xbox LIVE has about 40 million members around the world. We have
a great audience, an engaged community. We want to make sure that we
help that community to enjoy not only entertainment but something that's
so important as the elections."
Pinero
says a recent survey of Xbox users who are also registered voters found
that about 40 percent were still undecided about who to vote for in the
presidential elections.
"We're
calling this audience the ‘Xbox Swing Voter’," he says. "They will
decide in the next couple of months how they'll vote, and it will be
interesting to see how they move as events move forward. I think that
both political parties will be interested in seeing how that group
tracks."
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