|
|
WINDY CITY TIMES
|
|---|
|
|
|
Talkin' Tech: Ocasio-Cortez first in Congress to use Twitch platform to 'get out the vote'
2020-10-23
|
|
This article shared 3873 times since Fri Oct 23, 2020
|
|
In what is a first, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the Twitch streaming platform for gamers to encourage gamers to help her 'get out the vote' before the Nov. 3 elections. She played the game Among Us while talking to gamers who could also play the game during the discussion. Twitch gurus called it their third largest streaming event to date. More than 400,000 gamers participated in the event with Ocasio-Cortez, essentially making her event the largest attendance for any election rally in history.
Ocasio-Cortez (also known as AOC) began the stream by encouraging people to vote for the Democratic Party. "Of course, we are here to vote Blue, I'm here, to let you all know," she said.
AOC sent out a tweet a few hours before the event asking if anyone wanted to play with her, saying Among Us looked like "lots of fun." The Twitter world started retweeting her post; within minutes, she had tens of thousands of retweets. An hour after her initial tweet she held true to her word and started setting up the game. Later that day right before 9pm est she started her Twitch feed, with 119,000 chatting—a number that quickly grew to 439,000.
While her rally method is unheard of by most politicians, she might be the only current politician to be successful at this type of streaming rally. Most gamers agreed that it would not be genuine for anyone over 70 to participate in a rally of that nature. The stream lasted more than three hours, which would have left older politicians unable to keep up. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also joined the stream; at a spry 38 years old, fit right in with the younger crowd.
Typical Gen-Z gamers would be hard pressed to listen to anything either presidential candidate had to say, but praised AOC for being genuine and enjoying the game. Both campaigns have tried the Twitch platform before, but without having near the success that Ocasio did with this event. AOC has 9 million followers on Twitter while former President Barack Obama leads Twitter with 124 million followers. Twitter's own account has 59 million followers. |
|
|
|
This article shared 3873 times since Fri Oct 23, 2020
|
| ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
|---|
| 
|  | Chicago's WNDR Museum announces national expansion
2022-08-22
WNDR Museum—a Chicago immersive art and technology experience—announced an expansion plan to include several additional locations across the United States, with San Diego, Boston and Seattle locations scheduled to open ...
| 
| | Chicago Digital Equity Fund and Tech Desk launched
2022-08-15
GET Cities—an initiative focused on accelerating the leadership and influence of women, trans and non-binary people in tech—has partnered with Gumbo Media and DePaul University's Women in Entrepreneurship Institute to ...
| 
| | PASSAGES Information technology specialist Erik Burns dies at 45
2021-12-20
Tribune Media Service Delivery Vice President and former information technology (IT) project manager Erik Burns died Dec. 10 after a 13-month battle with stage four metastatic colon cancer. He was 45. ...
| 
| | Queer players of color explore gender, sexuality through role-playing games at NU
2021-12-08
All of the characters Akbar creates have a similar background: They are intensely asexual, visibly South Asian and around Akbar's age. Sometimes the characters dress like Akbar, too. Akbar uses these characters for Tabletop Club, a ...
| 
| | VIEWS Reporting on queers of color needs to investigate absence as much as presence
2021-11-19
Earlier this month, I pitched a Windy City Times article that sought to explore how role playing games (RPGs), such as Dungeons & Dragons, enable queer people of color (QPOC) to explore their gender and sexuality ...
| 
| | Actress Angelica Ross transfers leadership of trans talent incubator to E.C. Pizarro III
2021-11-04
In 2017, E.C. Pizarro III listened as Angelica Ross presented about TransTech Social Enterprises, an incubator to build and promote transgender talent in technology fields. He approached her afterward, volunteering to design artwork for TransTech. Now, ...
| 
| | SPORTS Blackhawks launch first NFT collection
2021-08-26
The Chicago Blackhawks announced the team's first officially licensed non-fungible token (NFT) collection composed of 12 hockey character cards and 2,000 digital tickets, all inspired by retro 8-bit gaming graphics. ...
| 
| | HHS to improve interoperability for handling data on sexual orientation, gender identity
2021-07-09
--From a press release - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today released the United States Core Data for Interoperability version 2 (USCDI v2), a standardized set of he ...
| 
| | Blue Man Group returning Aug. 18
2021-06-16
Blue Man Group will return to Chicago's Briar Street Theatre on Wed., Aug. 18. A dynamic combination of art, music, comedy and technology, Blue Man Group encourages audiences to reconnect with their inner (and outer) child ...
| 
| | ATTRACTIONS Museum provides WNDR-ful experiences for all ages
2021-06-14
WNDR Museum—an original immersive art and technology experience—is in the city's West Loop neighborhood, at 1130 W. Monroe St. The 10,000-square-foot museum is filled with interactive artworks by cutting edge ...
|
| | U.S. State Dept. reverses citizenship policy involving children
2021-05-18
The State Department will now grant U.S. citizenship to children born overseas to same-and opposite-sex U.S. couples through in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and other assisted reproductive technology, ABC News reported. The new policy comes after the ...
|
| | NBJC and Out in Tech kick off Pride with launch of Lavender Book app
2021-05-18
--From a press release - As Pride Month approaches, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) and Out in Tech are launching Lavender Book, a web based app dedicated to finding safe and inclusive spaces for members of the Queer BIPOC community ...
|
| | Trans, non-binary youth influencers launch book collection with "A Kids Book About"
2021-04-12
--From a press release - Chicago, IL - April 12, 2021 - While many teens took e-learning as an opportunity to level-up their gaming skills, a group of young people chose instead to write a collection of books about their lives. ...
|
| | Social exclusion, career limitations hinder LGBTQ STEM professionals
2021-01-17
ANN ARBOR—LGBTQ professionals' pride in their science, technology, engineering, and math work is not reciprocated, say researchers. These STEM professionals are more likely to experience career limitations, social exclusion and ...
| 
| | Talkin' Tech: Trump campaign website hacked and defaced
2020-10-28
On Oct. 27, 2020 shortly before 6 p.m. central time, Donald Trump's campaign website, www.donaldjtrump.com, was hacked. The hackers left a message claiming they had proof the Trump administration was involved the origin of the Corona Virus ...
| | |
|
|
|
|
