| << Chapter < Page | Chapter >> Page > |
When president-elect Barack
Obama admitted an addiction to his Blackberry, the signs were clear: A new generation was assuming the presidency.
Jeff Zeleny, “Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe,”
New York Times , 15 November 2008. Obama’s use of technology was a part of life, not a campaign pretense. Perhaps for this reason, he was the first candidate to fully embrace social media.
While John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, focused on traditional media to run his campaign, Obama did not. One of Obama’s campaign advisors was Chris Hughes, a cofounder of Facebook. The campaign allowed Hughes to create a powerful online presence for Obama, with sites on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and more. Podcasts and videos were available for anyone looking for information about the candidate. These efforts made it possible for information to be forwarded easily between friends and colleagues. It also allowed Obama to connect with a younger generation that was often left out of politics.
By Election Day, Obama’s skill with the web was clear: he had over two million Facebook supporters, while McCain had 600,000. Obama had 112,000 followers on Twitter, and McCain had only 4,600.
Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta, “Obama’s win means future elections must be fought online,”
Guardian , 7 November 2008.
Are there any disadvantages to a presidential candidate’s use of social media and the Internet for campaign purposes? Why or why not?
The availability of the Internet and social media has moved some control of the message back into the presidents’ and candidates’ hands. Politicians can now connect to the people directly, bypassing journalists. When Barack Obama’s minister, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was accused of making inflammatory racial sermons in 2008, Obama used YouTube to respond to charges that he shared Wright’s beliefs. The video drew more than seven million views.
Iyengar, “The Media Game.” To reach out to supporters and voters, the White House maintains a YouTube channel and a Facebook site, as did the recent Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner.
Social media, like Facebook, also placed journalism in the hands of citizens:
citizen journalism occurs when citizens use their personal recording devices and cell phones to capture events and post them on the Internet. In 2012, citizen journalists caught both presidential candidates by surprise. Mitt Romney was taped by a bartender’s personal camera saying that 47 percent of Americans would vote for President Obama because they were dependent on the government.
David Corn. 29 July 2013. “Mitt Romeny’s Incredible 47-Percent Denial,” http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/07/mitt-romney-47-percent-denial. Obama was recorded by a
Huffington Post volunteer saying that some Midwesterners “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” due to their frustration with the economy.
Ed Pilkington, “Obama Angers Midwest Voters with Guns and Religion Remark,”
Guardian , 14 April 2008. More recently, as Donald Trump was trying to close out the fall 2016 campaign, his musings about having his way with women were revealed on the infamous Billy Bush Access Hollywood tape. These statements became nightmares for the campaigns. As journalism continues to scale back and hire fewer professional writers in an effort to control costs, citizen journalism may become the new normal.
Amy Mitchell, “State of the News Media 2015,”
Pew Research Center , 29 April 2015.
Notification Switch
Would you like to follow the 'American government' conversation and receive update notifications?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|