Dan Patterson

Read this. Seriously.

kopoint:

The creator of the Willie Horton ad is going all out for Mitt Romney.

Romney, unlike the remaining Republican candidates, has served no time in Washington. Yet he’s relying on a media offensive managed by operatives who have long been at the heart of Washington’s Republican attack machine. One of the leaders of this advertising war is Larry McCarthy, a veteran media consultant best known for creating the racially charged “Willie Horton ad,” which, in 1988, helped sink Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee for President.

Learn More About Larry McCarthy From The New Yorker -»

(Source: newyorker.com)

Curators = Humans

Via @joshsternberg:

Just published a piece on Digiday about how brands are stepping up their curation game and what it means for consumers of content, as well as consumers of the brand.

Brands need to be careful in not only what, but how much they curate. There can’t be articles that make the reader question why…

Piracy — and more specifically the threat of foreign sites hosting pirated material — is the primary focus of a piece of United States legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Representative Lamar Smith from Texas introduced SOPA, also known as H.R. 3261, to the United States House of Representatives on Oct. 26, 2011. According to the language in the act, its purpose is to “promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.”

When you dig into the language of the act, you’ll find that the goal is to target sites that exist on computers in countries outside the United States. Because these sites — and the people who run them — are outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law, the act aims to hinder or shut down pirate sites in an indirect way. The proposed rules set out by the act are controversial — several companies and Internet experts have objected to the material in the act and some go so far as to say it could break the Internet.

Read the Full Article

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In 2007 and 2008, during the emergence of social media, I covered the presidential campaign for the Talk Radio News Service. Tomorrow I depart for a few weeks on the road covering the 2012 campaign.

Some of my time  - particularly early in the primary process – will be spent creating content independently for the KoPoint Wire. I’ll also do some fun stuff alongside SoundCloud, Talk Radio News, and a few smaller organizations. Twitter and Google+ will be my primary status platforms, I’ll push audio reports and tour thoughts to mySoundCloud account, use Tumblr to curate campaign related social news, post photos and snapshots to Instagram, and summarize social campaign content with Storify.

The majority of my time will be spent on a bus tour with Americans Elect. Americans Elect is a non-partisan organization that aims to place an independent candidate on the ballot in all 50 states in the 2012 General Election. From their website:

THE GOAL OF AMERICANS ELECT is to nominate a presidential ticket that answers directly to voters—not the political system. American voters are tired of politics as usual. They want leaders that will put their country before their party, and American interests before special interests. Leaders who will work together to develop fresh solutions to the serious challenges facing our country. We believe a secure, online nominating process will prove that America is ready for a competitive, nonpartisan ticket.

I will be creating content for and I will be covering much of the campaign for Americans Elect, but I am not a voice for or of the organization. To this point we’ve had a great relationship and I’m fascinated with their passion for post-partisan politics. But we are independent actors and my role is to make media with and cover the campaign with Americans Elect, but not necessairly to endorse their position(s). This relationship is great as it allows them to leverage the transparency and trust equity of journalism, and allows me to have full, up-close access to an emerging movement.

I’ve long maintained that social media represents the democratization of the dissemination of information. The next few weeks are sure to be intense, but I’m incredibly excited about digging deep concurrently in to both politics and emerging media. Our team will be traveling the east coast and I’ll spend as much time on the streets talking with social media voters. I’d love to hear from you and your thoughts on the impact of social media on politics.

Take care. See you soon.

- Dan

So it looks like I’ll be on the trail for five weeks solid, give or take. Details on this TK next week, but the purpose is to integrate your ideas and questions about policy and candidates in to the reporting process. I’d love your thoughts.

Details -»