The internet, believe it or not, has only been around for about 40 years. This seems crazy, considering the amount of internet usage in the 2008 Presidential election. Online campaigning was taken to a whole new level in this election. Both parties attempted to gain votes based on their online updates. However, I think it is pretty clear that Obama blew McCain out of the water. No pun intended, I just mean that Obama was much more successful in his attempts to reach a younger audience. This may have been due, in part, that Obama himself is younger and therefore more relatable to young adults. “Nearly a quarter of Americans (24%) say they regularly learn something about the campaign from the internet, almost double the percentage from a comparable point in the 2004 campaign (13%)” (Internet’s Broader, 2008). That’s a huge difference, which makes it clear that this campaign was doing something right!
The most frequently used sources for news were still traditional, reliable news station’s websites. CNN, FOX, and NBC were among the most commonly visited sites for campaign updates. Most people reported that they did not go online solely to seek out political information, but happened upon it while looking at other things. In my opinion, this only furthers the notion that candidates and their teams did a great job littering the internet with their information.
Resources:
http://people-press.org/report/384/
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I think the fact that people "happened" to see election related material online is exactly what Obama was hoping for. Page Ads on facebook definitely helped gain Obama's "One Million for Obama" group on facebook to surpass one million fans.
ReplyDeleteKind of like the Ken v Nixon election, some people thought Kennedy won because it was right when TV was getting big, and he looked a lot more presentable on TV, therefore he could "reach a lot more people", I feel like it was kind of affected like that in this presidency as well.
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