I Was at New Media & the 2008 Elections Meetup at NYU tonight and got to tweet about it and listen to Jeff Jarvis moderate a panel of distinguished speakers about the internet and elections this year.

On of the things Jeff Jarvis brought up was the Decline Of US Newspapers is Accelerating – I think this is noteworthy and am making a point of it here:

"…Figures released by the Newspaper Association of America show that the decline of newspapers is more rapid than previously thought, with total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunging 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006, the biggest drop in revenue since 1950, the year they started tracking annual revenue."

It was brought up that "Print is dead" at the Meetup tonight.  But the main point was that most journalists supported Obama because he found a way to use the internet to mobilize support and become the front runner (more or less) – and this would not have happened without the internet and one or two people he hired to make his Social Media strategy work.

I also wrote about how the 2008 Presidential Election has been likened to a Reality Show, similar to Top Chef, American Idol or Survivor, and how different that is than what we've had in the past.