Tis The Season...For Person Of The Year Polls

Since it's now December (eek) the year that was 2009 is coming to a close. And you know what that means: for the next few weeks, end of the year lists and "best of" retrospectives will be filling up all of the magazines and Web sites that we love to read. In the last 24 hours, we've come across two polls seeking to name someone "Person of the Year," and looking for the public's helpful insight in order to do it. Whether the actual winner of these polls will be named Person of the Year -- or if they are just a way to draw visitors and hits -- remains to be seen. First up is I Want Media's eighth annual Media Person of the Year poll. Past winners have included Arianna Huffington, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Martha Stewart. This year's crop of ten hopefuls include AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, broadcasters Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Jay Leno and David Letterman, moguls Rupert Murdoch and Si Newhouse, Oprah Winfrey, "the Twitter guys," and Redbox, the company that rents DVDs through red kiosks at grocery stores. Our vote is with Twitter founders Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, for all the reasons that these people had at a debate last month over who should be Time magazine's Person of the Year. The 140-character social media site has really hit its stride this year, posting the first pictures of the Hudson River plane crash, allowing Iranians to send updates about post-election uprisings and becoming a resource for reporters around the world. Plus, they've got the support of Bonnie Fuller and Nick Denton, so they're as good as in. However, although Twitter's founders were supported by half the attendees of last month's Time debate, the guys are missing from Time's own poll for its Person of the Year. The ten top contenders do include some of the people discussed at the debate, like Ben Bernanke, the Iran protesters, Tim Geithner, the Somali pirates, Angela Merkel and Stanley McChrystal. Other candidates include Barack Obama, Olympia Snowe, Steve Jobs and Usain Bolt. Although the Time poll is a call for input from the public, it's not clear whether one of the ten people on the list will actually win the prize. At least, the Time editors are honest about the outcome. "Take a look at the candidates and cast your vote," the site instructs. "Though the editors reserve the right to disagree Time Person of the Year poll I Want Media Poll Previously: Will Twitter Be Time's Person Of The Year?

Fishbowl

Tis The Season...For Person Of The Year Polls

Amanda Ernst

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Amanda Ernst