John Edwards was the first candidate to participate in this joint venture, and most of the candidates are scheduled to take part in this experiment. In addition to presidential dialogues MTV is diving head first into Election ’08 with other ventures.

With all the success of social networking sites it was only a matter of time before MTV launched their own version. ThinkMTV.com is their political brainchild described as a cross between MySpace and YouTube. Staying true to its demographics, ThinkMTV.com is certainly aimed at younger generations. ThinkMTV.com provokes political involvement by compiling a list of contemporary issues and having various ways to connect to the topic. The topics range from discrimination, environment, drugs, religion, health, sex, war, poverty etc…   Your profile allows you to advertise what issues are important you and show support through videos, blogs, organizations, action projects and online groups. Each topic also comes with information and current news relevant to the subject to help educate and politically engage interested individuals.

This site coordinates with MTV’s ‘Choose or Lose’ campaign providing links to volunteer opportunities, campaign sites and registering to vote. What distinguishes ThinkMTV.com is they want to “reward” you for your political action. They go one step further as you participate on the site and in your community and allow you to accumulate “badges”.  With a series of different incentives the badges can potentially win you access to private events, public exposure through publications and even meetings with celebrities and other activists. ThinkMTV.com isn’t’ just this week’s newest social networking site, but a fresh way for young voters to overcome the common feelings of political ineffectiveness.