ABC has been consistently battling declining viewers. In its quest to reverse this trend, the media giant is turning to Facebook (News - Alert) for its evening news program. While such a partnership can help give ABC exposure to a younger crowd, the social networking site can enjoy a new feature that helps to keep its 56-million and growing user base happy and loyal.

The partnership between these two parties is based on an agreement in which ABC will provide campaign-related Web 2.0 content to Facebook’s users. Some are considering this partnership as a late arrival as CNN and YouTube (News - Alert) were the first to hold a new-meets-old media mashup debate and MySpace teamed with MTV for their ongoing candidate dialogues.

New media technologies are playing a much bigger part in US election politics than they ever have. Candidates are blogging, posting videos and using social networks like MySpace (News - Alert), Facebook, and LinkedIn, and Twittering.

Aside from access to the news reports, the ABC content will also include debate forums, online surveys and campaign trail videos. A survey tools has been designed specifically for this channel to enable Facebook users to share their thoughts about issues raised during the campaign in the site’s Pulse (News - Alert) section.

ABC plans to continue to develop its official ABC News poll results, which will be accessible on the Web site. The network’s political reporters on the campaign trail will maintain active Facebook profiles. In addition to their normal stories, these reporters will also be posting blogs and photographs directly onto Facebook.

While this is certainly unprecedented use of Web 2.0 technologies in campaign politics, it is too soon to tell if it is making a difference. Some experts remain skeptical as the most popular uses for Facebook remain fun time waters that deal with music, movies, games and annoying friends – not series applications that deliver news. 

According to David Johnson, founder of Strategic Vision, ABC is clearly trying to establish its political reporting bona fides with a new generation of viewers.

Across all network television, "ratings are down, viewership is down," Johnson was quoted in TechNewsWorld, “networks are looking to connect with a lost audience -- and the way to do this, they have come to realize, is through Web 2.0 technology and Web sites."

"For the last few election cycles," Johnson continued, "politicians have been focusing on the Internet channel" both to state their case for office and to raise funds.

Using the Web to get their message across has become very attractive for politicians who appreciate the ease of making a one-sided case. This venue gives them the opportunity to post a video without being bothered by questions from the media.

According to Ken Nicholson, chief marketing officer at Pluck, a provider of social networking tools for media operations, news agencies are clearly attracted to the increased number of viewers that these tools can bring to their own sites. There is now a very big shift in traditional media toward encouraging their audience to participate in the content. It is basically the same content that fosters audience participation.

Nicolson also noted that it is not uncommon for page views on a news Web site to go up 30 to 40 percent after these kinds of social media tools have been in place for a few months. The next logical step for news organizations is to network through such sites as Facebook.

For all the hype that surrounds these social networks and even all the buzz that candidates are predicting they can build on them, it is too soon to tell whether or not such a move will actually make a difference at the polls and for network viewing.