The 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign has shown how deeply American Politics has dived into a Post Internet Reality. The New York Times has the most extensive coverage in an article by Adam Nagourney.
A quick look shows the NYTimes article making these points:
“The year campaigns leveraged the
Internet in ways never imagined. The year we went to warp speed. The
year the paradigm got turned upside down and truly became bottom up
instead of top down.” Mark McKinnon quoted in NYTimes 11/04/2008
“this is a result of the way that the
Obama campaign sought to understand and harness the Internet (and
other forms of so-called new media) to organize supporters and to
reach voters who no longer rely primarily on information from
newspapers and television. The platforms included YouTube, which did
not exist in 2004, and the cellphone text
messages ...”
“Even more crucial to the way this campaign has transformed politics has been Mr. Obama’s success at using the Internet to build a huge network of contributors that permitted him to raise enough money...”
Read the entire NYTimes article here
Mitch Wagner of Information Week tells us how to follow the Election News without all the chatter found on Broadcast Media – use Twitter.
He says, “I first learned the value of using Twitter to keep up with breaking news during the Southern California fires last year. The TV news was filled with endless chatter and speculation and man-in-the-street interviews. I was interested in none of that. What I wanted to know was: Where are the fires? Are they close to our house? Twitter cut through the nonsense and provided that essential information. “
Read Mitch's blog here to get a list of Twitter News Feeds that can help you cut through the clutter.
A look at History shows that the growing power of the Internet effecting Elections has been developing without the Public taking notice.
A report by PEW/Internet in 2007 discussing the 2006 Elections makes these points:
"Some 15% of all American adults say the
internet was the place where they got most of their campaign news
during the election, up from 7% in the mid-term election of 2002. A
post-election survey shows that the 2006 race also produced a notable
class of online political activists. Some 23% of those who used the
internet for political purposes, the people we call "campaign
internet users" actually created or forwarded online original
political commentary or politically-related videos."
The complete PEW Report can be accessed here.
These trends run deeper than most people imagine. In fact, most of the world's population continues to be influenced, directed and educated by the Internet without ever being aware of its presence and growing dominance in the way they feel and think and develop cultural ideals. The use of Internet Models in this election gives us a clear indication of the power of the Internet and the Massive potential that the Internet has in moving large population segments to take actions desired by those who understand how to use that power. This is just the beginning.
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