We noted this weekend that ABC would be joint venturing with Facebook on the politics section of the site, showcasing ABC News' political coverage of the campaign. I assumed (incorrectly, it would appear) that Facebook would be the big winner in the partnership, as ABC wouldn't be getting any ad revenue for their work. As it turns out, the big losers in the deal are both of them. An overwhelming majority of Mashable! readers have pledged that they'd never use the US Politics/ABC News application on Facebook.
There are a number of potential reasons behind this. Matthew Ingram questions Caroline McCarthy of CNET's analysis. McCarthy thinks that Facebook users see “the site as a platform for social recreation, not information consumption.” [img src="http://sale-online.click/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/drunkard.JPG" caption="" credit="" alt="drunkard.JPG"]Matt paraphrased her: "In other words, they’re too busy goofing around with Super-Pokes and sharing photos of each other staggering drunk at frat parties."
Perhaps she's right. Matthew rightly points out that the user base has broadened quite a bit from its original roots as a university yearbook. The problem is with creating a tool with one philosophy to grow it into another purpose is that vestiges of the original intent will always remain.
So, to a certain extent, I'd agree with McCarthy's sentiment, but I think there might be a larger impetus here behind why this is a failing concept out of the gate: Facebook users are presumably much more media savvy than the non-'net using typical political junky. That said, when word associating Old Media and politics together, the first thing that comes to mind is the Rathergate scandal. When it comes to online political coverage, I'd wager that most internet users trust the blog of their choice as opposed to an Old Media outfit playing in the social media sandbox.