The internet and politics

The internet played a massive and critical role in the 2008 US presidential election campaigns. Some 74% of internet users; representing 55% of the entire adult population, went online in 2008 to get involved in the political process or to get news and information about the elections as revealed by a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey.

In addition, the medium drove young internet savy voters; who were usually disinterested in such issues, to engage heavily in the political debate on social networking sites. 83% of those aged 18-24 have a social networking profile, and two-thirds of young profile owners took part in some form of political activity on these sites in 2008. This I would say is a large leap for politics, not only is the public able to remain more informed, they are able to express their opinions and engage in political issues more in depth than before.

With the internet, the public was able to follow extensively on the progression of the political elections and view rally speeches and other promotional material online, thus this medium also demands authenticity. Television could be tainted with the opinions of others and perceptions of news corporations, but being able to watch speeches in full online for example, allows the public to judge and determine everything for themselves . Such authenticity is something politicians haven’t been used to, but I think that this will revolutionize political campaigning and create a more participatory and genuine environment for the people to know and understand the workings.

President Obama used the Internet to organize his supporters in a way that would have an army of volunteers and paid organizers on the ground, in the past.

He won the presidency because he understood the necessity to engage people and use all radical tools to reach everyone. He took advantage of Youtube for free advertising. Not only was the method more cost effective; as the official stuff they created for YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours and to buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million, it is also more effective than television advertisements. Viewers could chose to watch them or receive them from a friend instead of having their television shows interrupted.

Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington Post says: “Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee,”