The Following is a list of highlights from various sources. Check it out!
Davy, Steven (2010) “How Technology Changed American Politics in the Internet Age” for MediaShift, April 6, 2010. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/04/how-technology-changed-american-politics-in-the-internet-age096.html.
Davy discusses the first campaigns to utilize technology and new media in politics. Highlights include; in 2000 Senator John McCain online fundraising campaign raised more than $500,000 dollars in 24 hours, in 2001 the liberal community website, MyDD, was created as well as the Libertarian-learning Instapundit, in 2003 Howard Dean used YouTube videos to campaign and encouraged supporters to self-organize, in 2004 the Democratic online fundraising site, ActBlue, was created and in 2008 the democratic campaign utilized social networking and Facebook Connect was created allowing users to participate in third-party websites.
Dimock, Micheal, Dougerty, Carroll, Keeter, Scott and Kohut, Andrew (2008) “Social Networking and Online Videos Take off. Internet’s Broader Role in Campaign 2008.” In the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press: January 11, 2008.
Pew Research Center found 42% of young people ages 18 to 29 reported to learning about the Presidential campaign online, which is a relatively large difference from just 20% in 2004, and 27% of the 42% reported to receiving campaign information via social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. One-in-five Americans participate on online social networking sites. Of the 30 to 39 people active on social networking sites only 4% reported to receiving campaign information this way, a large difference from the 27% of the 18 to 29 demographic.
Gladwell, Max (2009) “10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media” (aka Rob Reed) for Mashable, May 12, 2009. http://mashable.com/2009/05/12/social-media-change-the-world.
Gladwell lists a number of sites and ideas to utilize the internet and new media frontier. In particular he discusses The White House site. The White House has a Facebook, MySpace and Twitter page and anyone (not just U.S. citizens) can follow or friend. Gladwell also discusses President Obama’s virtual town hall meeting held through the site WhiteHouse.gov where he had the ability to receive questions from 300 million constituents and participators could vote to select the questions he would answer. Gladwell’s post also addresses the ability to use Facebook to campaign and develop platforms to unify like users.
Glaser, Mark (2010) “5Across: Politics in the Age of Social Media” for MediaShift, October 29, 2010. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/10/5across-politics-in-the-age-of-social-media302.html.
Glaser says that 80% of social network participants say they are very politically active meaning politicians need to put a great deal of time and money into participating in such sites in order to achieve effective campaigning. Glaser discusses with a series of guests during the video regarding mobile apps and campaigns, authenticity on social media and policies derived from online group communication.
Gordon-Murnane, Laura (2009) “The 51st State: The State of Online: Election 2008 – It’s a Wrap” In the Searcher 17.5. November 20, 2009.
Gordon-Murnane discusses what is next for social media or new media political campaigns and exchanges. She references the Federal Web Managers Council white paper “Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government” stating that citizens should have the ability to find relevant information, understand said information easily, find the same answer regardless of which medium used to email or web and give feedback or voice concerns, ideas, etc. and in return receive answers of what the government shall do about the points voiced.
Hasen, Richard L. (2008) “Political Equality, the Internet, and Campaign Finance Regulation.” In The Forum. The Berkley Electronic Press: 2008.
Hasen says smaller donors significantly contributed to the 2008 elections season due to emerging fundraising and campaigning online making wealthy donors less important then during the 2004 election. Fundraising records were broken in 2007 when presidential candidates combined raised $552 Million for the 2008 primaries, which is at least double what was raised in 2003.
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Jansen, Bernard (2009) “Twitter Power: Tweets as Electronic Word of Mouth.” In the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology: January 1, 2009.
Bernard found that brand perceptions and buying decisions were greatly related to presence on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Bernard says that is has become necessary in this new media age to study what costumers are saying about brands via microbloging. The same idea can be applied to politics. Twitter has become a popular outlet to discuss presidential candidates and share campaign information.
Rainie, Lee and Aaron, Smith (2008) “The Internet and the 2008 Election.” In the Pew Internet and American Life Project: June 15, 2008.
Rainie and Smith found that during the 2008 Presidential campaign, 46% of Americans found political information and voiced their opinions and thoughts online via videos, social networking sites and other popular new media forums. The younger demographic were more likely to support Obama and the Democrats enabling Democrats to utilize online campaigning more so then Republicans. Rainie and Smith also found a large increase from Americans who received political news online during the 2004 presidential campaign to 2008.
Sofge, Erik (2009) “Geek the Vote 2012: What Election Tech Will Look Like 4 Years From Now” for Popular Mechanics. October 1, 2009. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/4290141.
Sofge discusses what the 2012 election will be like in regards to what was seen in the 2008 in terms of technology and new media. Sofge focused on polling, voting and campaigning. Sofge references Zoyby that suggests by 2012 nearly all polling will take place online making the polling processes easier thanks to the ability to increase sample size, create the online poll and increases in accuracy. In regards to voting, Sofge predicts that in 2012 the old paper way of voting will still be in use due to registration rules and differences among State requirements. Sofge says Obama’s online campaign was very successful and listed examples including Facebook event invitations, Micro-donations and the “vice-presidential-pick text messaging,” but then stated this may not be the best way for every candidate to conduct their campaign.
Wauters, Robin (2010) “Measuring the Value of Social Media Advertising” for TechCrunch, April 20, 2010. http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/20/social-media-advertising.
Wauters analyzes a Nielsen and Facebook study that looked at “Become A Fan” ads on Facebook. The study found that “Engagement Ad’s,” which are ads that allow users to “become a fan” of a product or service, generated a 10% ad recall increase while ads with “social context,” which not only allow users to “become a fan” but also show fellow friend users that also became a fan of this product or service, generated a 16% increase. Even more astonishing “Organic Ad Impression,” which are ads that display fellow friend users becoming a fan of a product or service in a users newsfeed, generated a 30% increase. People’s ability to see their friends “becoming fans” increased the popularity of that said company, person, etc.
