A winning smile...

By Brigid O Gorman

They’re on YouTube, they’re on Facebook, they have their own websites, they stare down at us from every lamppost on the road; so really, what more can EU election candidates do to get people’s attention?

It is super easy these days to live in a world where you never have to see or listen to the news. Most houses have more than one TV, lots of people have wireless broadband and every second person owns an iPod. It is entirely possible to live in a world where the only news you watch is on MTV and the only updates you receive are those on Facebook.

Candidates being on Facebook or YouTube is pointless if young people never become friends with them or watch their videos. Young people complain of being ill-informed about politics and that politicians never try to connect with them, but politicians can only do so much; the information is there but people have to go and find it. There is this amazing thing called Google, you might have heard of it, where you type in what you want to know and all these web pages full of relevant information come up. How many young people can honestly say they have ever tried Googling the European elections?

Talking to a young college graduate from the East constituency last week it came up that she was not on the electoral register and so would not be able to vote in the upcoming elections: “No I’m not on the register…I know it’s terrible but I’m just not really interested in politics and if I was going to vote it would probably be for that Childers woman because she looks nice in her posters.”

So perhaps candidates have been barking up the wrong tree by embracing new media in their efforts to connect with young people? The humble election poster is in fact the one thing uninterested young people cannot help seeing, unless they walk around with their eyes closed, and everyone knows young people care only about style, not substance. So if you want the vote of the uninterested voter then smile pretty for the camera, it could be the difference between capturing the elusive 'youth vote' or not.