UPDATE: A few bloggers and readers found my earlier headline, Pro-Life groups take over CBC Facebook experiment, to be misleading. While the top wishes are indeed pro-life, it was probably a bit much for me to use the phrase “take over.” So I’ve adjusted the headline. (Those of you from the S&M community who find my use of the term “dominate” to be offensively anti-kink, please feel free to flame.)
A funny thing happened on the way to experimenting with citizen participation via the Internet…
The CBC recently set up a Facebook group called The Great Canadian Wish List. The idea was that you could create a wish (like “solve world hunger” etc.) or add your name to existing wishes. The top wishes would be broadcast on CBC on Canada Day.
It’s not that it’s not working, just that instead of generic feel-good wishes, the Facebook group’s top wishes are dominated by political causes usually associated with Christian conservative or right-wing groups.
Among the top wishes (as “voted” by people joining the groups) are:
- Abolish abortion in Canada
- For a spiritual revival in our nation
- Restore the traditional definition of marriage
Clearly, some groups actively campaignied for votes, rather than letting the site grow organically. (I’m not saying this is bad, just interesting.) This page even walks people step-by-step through how to add themselves to the pro-life/anti-abortion (pick your wording) group. Some interesting comments at this blog.
CBC reporter Mike Wise was one of the architects of the Facebook idea. In an interview with InsideCBC.com, Wise said he thought the experiment was a success specifically because of the way people used the site. He said he plans to interview the people behind the top wishes, no matter what the topics end up being. “This was an experiment to see how social networks could work to bring out story ideas, and it’s done that.”
“Would people be saying there was a ‘takeover’ if David Suzuki had gone out and asked people to do this? We purposely set out to see what would happen with an unmoderated group,” he said. “Personally, I think this has been a huge success.”
In a related note, this blog’s Seven Wonders of the CBC contest appears to be the target of a takeover attempt as well by fans of CBC Radio 3. 
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You need look no further than the Greatest Canadian contest, in which support for Tommy Douglas was rallied by the NDP. Unfortunately, any high profile, nation-wide contest like this is going to get hijacked by special interest groups. This group just happens to be less palatable to most Canadians than the choice of Mr. Douglas.
I think this is really interesting.
Unlike many web polls where you can vote repeatedly and/or anonymously, this one requires you to put your name on the list.
Your mention of David Suzuki and his politics it right on the money. He’s taken over the place with full participation of the mother corp.
“Unlike many web polls where you can vote repeatedly and/or anonymously, this one requires you to put your name on the list.”
But there is no need for that name to be real. Try doing a search for “anonymous.” I got 39 names including “Anonymously Anonym” and “Tee-Tee AnonymousZ.” (Maybe they know the slew of “Joe Schmoe”s.)
I don’t put a lot of stock in these kind of social barometers for the same reason that Darren mentioned: they are easily hijacked. Frankly, I consider it to be a waste of time.
Is there any evidence that it actually is pro-life groups behind this? I personally voted for this because I think it’s right; I’m not apart of any groups promoting the issue that I know of.
Mike: Which place has Mr. Suzuki taken over, exactly?
If it is a right-leaning viewpoint then it is a “takeover” but if it is left-leaning then it is “democratic expression” or some such thing. What silly punter chooses the biased wording of the headlines in this place?
While I’m a little skeptical if there’s a pro-life “group” behind this. (it seems to be a grassroots effort). Notably absent in the CBC analysis is the fact that the #2 wish is for Canada to remain pro-choice. By the logic presented in the above blog has not pro-choice/pro-abortion (pick your wording) groups also hijacked the wishlist site. There are pro-choice blogs actively recruting non-Canadians to flood the site to boost the numbers. Yet there’s nary a mention of this in the above blog. I’ve grown to expect bias at the CBC over issues like this but it continues to leave me disappointed when I see it firsthand.
Clark:
Please cite where I used “democratic expression” or any similar headline?
I’d have called it a takeover regardless of political leaning.
I voted for this wish and I voted for it because I saw the report on the CBC news with the young man who started it. When you give national coverage to this poll didn’t you expect that members of Facebook would go to it and vote. Seems pretty democratic to me. Maybe you are just angry that Canadians are not like you actually think they are. Could it be that maybe more Canadians are pro-life than you thought. Could it also maybe mean you do not really know what a pro-life person is? I am pro-life but I do not belong to any groups. The young man who started the wish didn’t look scary or anything like that on your six o’clock news. Seemed like a nice guy so I decided I’d vote for his wish.
This scares the crap out of me. Thanks for posting it.
It was a rhetorical question that was not aimed personally at you. As a technology commentator, you don’t seem to make explicitly political statements. I have not found any reference where you lauded leftist for coopting new media.
However, it appears that during the CBC lockout in 2005 the Globe and Mail had a poll regading the relevance of the CBC and you suggested that Conservatve Party members were driving the No vote and that was a bad thing. From the different ways I have read it, you inferred that the conservatives were not part of the general public, or that the conservatives “overwhemled” the poll, although that term may have been attributed to you.
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It was not a Globe article, it was a right-wing blogger quoting a left-wing blogger, quoting you. There are some other, even less direct, references but I don’t think they serve any purpose.
The source material is obviously lost in the ether and as a general rule, double hearsay is not particularly reliable, but that is what is out there.
Again, nothing personal, but I find that the taxpayer-funded CBC has a particuar viewpoint which - intentionally or not - you appear to have expressed.
I now have a sponsored link in my Facebook news feed encouraging me to participate in The Great Canadian Wish List. I assume it’s an attempt to broaden the base of people voting. But it is still annoying. And it makes me wonder if this sponsored link was part of the plan all along, or if it went up because of the way the results were going.