MTV's Network for Advocacy

With a hearty publicity push, MTV has launched think.mtv.com, a community fostering youth advocacy. In much of the coverage of the site, it has described as a youth social network - and while it's true the site has social networking, it's overly reductive to think of it as just that. With the site, MTV hopes to create a content nexus for its target market: young people in high school or college. Co-funded by Viacom and the Case, Gates, Goldhirsh, and MCJ Amelior Foundations, think.mtv.com makes an earnest effort to connect youth networks around relevant problems and interest areas.

The site's goal is to translate interest into action; to that extent, users are expected to log in, create a profile, and engage in social media production. Users can upload audio, video, blog posts - with the explicit goal of creating a media-sharing network around an issue. The issue areas are particularly wide - Discrimination, Human Rights, War and Peace, for example - but creating a place for users to experience media and share affinity for their topic area. Users are then asked to "take action" on their issues - the type of action fairly generic as it stands (Email a representative, sign a petition), though the potential for more-innovative forms of action are there.

Stepping back, what we see is MTV trying to verticalize advocacy; through their framework, individuals can come together around many different interpretations of issues, and those eyeballs can be channeled into action. And while I'm positive on the effort, MTV will face a number of issues in keeping this property in front of users. Of course, as a media behemoth, it is quite unlikely that viewers will pass through this election season without hearing of the site; with VJ's and media and sports stars sharing content on the site, there will be interest. Perhaps that will be the seed content necessary for creating sustained interest in the site, though users might grow wary seeing a star on Cribs one day, and think.mtv.com the next. MTV will also face a direct challenge establishing itself as a place for social media content - YouTube and pre-established blogging/media sharing networks have huge distribution and reach advantages.

These criticisms aside, the underlying effort, and the execution is laudable. MTV and its partner foundations have create a timely portal for advocacy. By realizing the P. Diddy alone doesn't get out the vote, MTV is leveraging the many-to-many angle, which is sensible. There's engagement in learning about issues from a friend - this will be an interesting experiment in leveraging microcontent and small-group persuasion. To accomplish these outcomes, though, MTV must be aware of the role it plays in the larger ecosphere of social media, and foster opportunities for advocacy content to flow between networks like Facebook or Myspace's. I'm hopeful, however - I think MTV has laid the foundation for something interesting. Let's hope the youth show up.