Internet and National Politics

The article ‘Civil Society and Cyber Society: Internet in Community Associations and Democratic Politics’ got me thinking about the Internet and politics. Does the internet really make a difference with regards to politics? I thought I would do some Google searches to find out if there really are any impacts.

The first article I can across was from the Harold Tribune 9 (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-150873970.html). The article discussed Senator Barack Obama's videotaped response to President George W. Bush's final State of the Union address and how the video elicited little attention from newspaper and television reporters when it was posted on his presidential campaign's Web site in January 2008. However, on the Internet, the poorly lighted video, showing Obama talking directly to the camera, caught fire. It quickly appeared on YouTube's most popular list and Google's most blogged list. Is there really a larger audience accessing online politics than offline politics? Or, is the difference really because of the large number of YouTube users and politics is one of the topics YouTube users search for?

The next article (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics) talks about the use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Mr. Kennedy, it was television. For Mr. Obama, it is the Internet. The article goes on to say that if it wasn’t for the internet, Obama would not be President. By using Web 2.0 tools Obama’s Champaign changed the way political supporters were organize, voter advertising was handled, defend against attacks and communication with constituents was organized. Obama used the Internet to organize his supporters in a way that would have in the past required an army of volunteers and paid organizers on the ground. Obama’s campaign took advantage of YouTube for free advertising: the campaign’s advertising created for YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours, to buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million dollars. Approximately 6.7 million people watched the 37-minute Obama speech on race on YouTube.

I always knew the Internet was a powerful tool, however, seeing all these statistics above in black and white makes you realize the real power of the Internet and other new mediums. If my memory services me correctly, I remember hearing that Obama was the first President to have and use a blackberry while in office. I believe that he also uses ‘twitter’ as a communicate method. I could never see Bush using the same technology.

A spring 2008 survey found that a record-breaking 46% of all Americans used the internet, e-mail or cell-phone text messaging to participate in the 2008 Presidential election process (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/record-percenta.html ). The survey found that the Internet is becoming an normal part of the political participation -- people use it to read the news, share their views, or to participate in a process to get others to take political action. Bloggers are having a huge impact on the course of elections. Some 47% of online adults have watched at least one type of online political video; that adds up to 35% of all adults. Overall, the survey found that just under a third of all Internet users have participated in the online political process through a variety of means.

I still watch TV to stay on top of the news; I have it on as background noise while doing other work. This is my way of staying on top of community news, politics, etc. It appears that from the statistics above I’m one of those individuals that has not used the Internet to its full potential. I also think at if our politics were as interesting as the USA, I might use the Internet to obtain information that I might otherwise miss or want to see again. Our politics are not that interesting and seeing it once on the TV or reading it in the newspaper is enough for me.

Some additional articles of interest:

Young Voters share Politics via Internethttp://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1313778/young_voters_share_politics_via_internet/

Internet Moves National Politics into 21st Centuryhttp://media.www.thetraveleronline.com/media/storage/paper688/news/2008/10/27/News/Internet.Moves.National.Politics.Into.21st.Century-3506757.shtml

Matt Bai Analyzes Internet’s Effect on National Politics
http://www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/news/2008-10-28-bai-analyzes-internet%E2%80%99s-effect-national-politics

Innovative Study Suggests Where Blogs Fit into National Politicshttp://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/105/press_release.asp

Kluver, Jankowski, Foot and Schneider , “The Internet and National Elections: A comparative study of web campaigning”, Routledge Research in Political Communication, 2007