New Media and American Politics
From Baruchnewmedia
Contents |
New Media and American Politics
Introduction
New media has a major impact on all aspects of American political life. Presidential candidates appear in "electronic town meetings"; talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy lead dedicated bands of followers; tabloids break the Monica Lewinsky scandal with alarming speed. Traditional sources of information are increasingly altered by the presence of new media.
[New Media and American Politics]
The book is broadly cast to cover talk radio and television, tabloid journalism both in print and on television, entertainment media, and computer networks. How much do the new media alter the content of American politics, and influence how issues are raised, discussed, and resolved? Who uses new media and why? What are the political orientations of new media audiences? The authors address each of these questions, but more importantly they provide a framework for further examination of the new media's overall impact on politics.
Lana 10:57, 30 October 2008 (CDT)
New Media has been used by many members of government. During the latest presidential speech to Congress, many members of the audience were logged into Twitter, a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Jon Stewart has famously scrutinized the "tweeting" during such a momentous occasion.
New Media during the 2008 Campaign Elections
Introduction
Today's election turnouts and political arena is heavily reliant on the New Media, notably the internet. Traditionally, political commentary and pundits have conveyed their political views through radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. Today in the digital world and as the old media becomes digitized, these opinions or ideology can be carried through the world wide web, accessible to everyone at a split second.
These messages can carry strong feelings and support among the population, therefore stirring political activism and grassroots support, not by going through the streets and campaigning for the candidate who they support, but by posting videos that can be viewed in the hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions. Example of such phenomenon is that Republican Candidate Congressman Ron Paul have received the most hits from his YouTube profile. If a politician is not popular among the opposing side of the political ideology, websites are formed in support or against particular politicians, which can effect public opinion and polls dramatically.
DavidFang 11:07, 30 October 2008 (CDT)
A useful resource to identify the extent to which Social Media was used in the 2008 presidential election can be found at http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/11/03/snapshot-of-presidential-candidate-social-networking-stats-nov-2-2008/
Another new area of New Media the 2008 Presidential election successfully used was text/SMS messaging. Both Obama and Clinton used text messaging to alert supports to events, milestones, and deadlines critical to their campaigns. This instantaneous communication with supporters offered the candidates a way to engage their supporters in a manner that is comfortable to them and is widely used (particularly among the historically elusive younger population that proved critical in the 2008 election).
One would join by texting a directional command to a short five-digit sequence. In Obama's case the sequence was (and continues to be as the newly found "Organizing for America" activist group) 62262, which translates to OBAMA, on the alpha correspondent to a touch tone phone's numeric buttons.
Fund-raising: Everyone remembers how effective the online fund-raising efforts of President Obama was. This phenomenon wasn't just experienced by President Obama, but also Rep. Ron Paul (on the other side of the political spectrum) who raised 6 million dollars online in one day (the highest total raised online in one day to date).
Jorge 23:25, 29 April 2010 (CDT)
Health Care Debate
One of the first major changes instituted by President Barack Obama, health care reform was a hotly debated issue in 2009 and 2010. As the President revealed his plan to the public, there was outcry on both sides of the aisle in favor (Democrats) and opposed (Republicans) along with new factionalism in the form of conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats who had reservations with the plan and ultra-conservative “Tea Party” Republicans who were against the plan in its entirety. The debate enthralled the nation as drastic changes were proposed. New media was utilized in every aspect of the debate. When the president unveiled his drastic changes the information was released via the White House’s YoutTube channel, through question and answer sessions via Twitter, as well as video chats on Facebook where people could submit their questions and the president would answer them in a video post on his Facebook page. (1) Politicians and pundits in support and opposition also used new media to aggressively exalt or decry the plan. Millions of dollars were spent by political action committees and various advocacy groups including drug manufacturers on a multitude of campaigns to help sway the American public to one side or the other. Having a majority in both houses of congress gave the President ample cover to tailor a bill to his liking and the Republican minority hit the web to let the country know how they felt.(2) In the end, the bill passed 219-212 in the House of Representatives with every Republican voting against the measure and all except for 34 of the “Blue Dog” Democrats voted for it. The use of new media (or old media for that matter) could be misconstrued as pointless in this case as for the most part; the vote was straight down party lines. The truth is however, as long as there was a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate, there was little chance of the bill not passing. The onslaught of Twitter town halls, web chats, Skype speeches, and Facebook updates was meant to gain support for (or decry) the Democrats’ position ahead of the important midterm elections of 2010 that were just months away.
New Media and the 2010 Midterm Elections
The new media blitz associated with the health care debate had major implications in the 2010 mid-term elections. The 2010 elections were one of the most widely voted upon midterm elections in modern history. This had largely to do with a combination of factors, one of which being the election was seen as a referendum on the president’s health care plan as well as coming on the heels of one of the largest recessions in the history of the United States. New media played a large role in myriad ways during this heated election. Campaigns across the nation recognized the success that President Obama had utilizing new communications mediums and made sure to include a new media strategy as one of the focal points of their campaigns. A microcosm of how much of a role new media played (or at least how much a part of people’s lives it has become) in this election can be seen in the fact that over 12 million people used the “I Voted” button on Facebook compared with only 5.4 million who used it in the 2008 election. (3) In 99 hotly contested house races, the candidate with more Facebook fans won almost two thirds of the time (3). Recognizing the resounding success President Barack Obama’s new media team enjoyed during the 2008 election, Democrats and Republicans, incumbents and challengers alike made certain that the most relevant and most cutting edge social media tools were utilized in their bids for office. These methods included Facebook fan pages, Twitter feeds, YouTube channels, Ning social networks, SMS programs, using Foursquare to check into events and rallies as well as massive fundraising appeals leading potential voters to the candidates’ own websites.
News Media
The media has been effectively using new media in many forms since the late 2000’s. Reporters and shows have twitter feeds, news sites like The New York Times live blog certain events like important debates or when President Obama visited Ground Zero after the death of Osama bin laden.(4) One of the benefits of “following” a few trusted news sources is the fact that the web is so vast and access to news articles around the planet is available to everyone, for the most part, it can be easy to become confounded with all the choices. Many people now follow a few news sources on Twitter or sign up for a daily breakdown of the top stories to be sent to their email inboxes every morning like Politco.com’s Playbook.
Opinion
New media has been a helpful tool for politicians and pundits alike. There are many forums that have sprung up around the internet where individuals (informed and not so much) can come together to talk about the issues. One such place is Politico’s “The Arena”. It is a streaming debate where politicians, academics and other newsmakers from both sides of the aisle come together to speak about issues of the day led by a group of moderators. This debate format is widely respected as some of the biggest names in the world regularly lend their time to join the Arena debate. The Web’s low cost and huge outreach potential allow essentially anyone to voice their opinions. Political pundits like Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, and Keith Olbermann to name a few are using new media to get their big voices and big opinions heard. For example, Alex Jones, a conservative pundit, has had great success in attracting audiences using Shoutspeak, a free internet radio, so much so that he is currently the highest rated show on the whole Shoutspeak network. There are over 47,000 radio stations on Shoutspeak. (5)
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
On October 10, 2010 political comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert hosted a rally on the national mall to speak of the ills of partisan rancor and raise awareness for pressing issues. CBS news reported that there were over 200,000 people in attendance at the National Mall in Washington DC. The two comedians are hosts of their own very popular late night talk shows but are prime examples of how new media is interwoven into the fabric of old media for the dissemination of opinion, in this case both political and comedic. The rally was live streamed over the internet, live tweeted, and a SMS alert was set up as well to make for a resounding success which was nominated for four Emmy awards. (6)
Tea Party
The Tea Party emerged in 2009 as a grassroots conservative political entity led by Sarah Palin. They were extremely vocal during the midterm elections and were responsible for supporting primary challengers to Republicans they deemed to moderate. They used new media to transform their movement from locally based fringe group to a nationally organized political force that threatened the establishment. According to Corben Hiar in a Mediashift article, this was accomplished by large national Tea Party movements like FreedomWorks and American Majority teaching local homespun outlets how to effectively use new media as a rallying cry. To activate for the 2010 election, the Tea Party, used a highly sophisticated interactive national map whereby Tea Party supporters can find races where an approved candidate is running and offer whatever support they can. The goal, according to freedomworks.org was to “access exclusive information on candidates in crucial races across the country View FreedomWorks endorsements, valuable voter information and more Voice your opinion along with other members by rating candidates on key issues”. (7)(8) In the end, the Tea Party was very successful for a political movement in still its infancy. Tea Party support helped win many races including the election of Mike Lee in Utah who unseated Republican Senator Bob Bennett in a primary as well as Marco Rubio in Florida who was so popular in his race for Senate that his opponent, sitting Governor Charlie Crist, had to run as an independent.
Effect on Results
A study from the E-Voter Institute (3) confirms that Republicans outspent Democrats on new media initiatives and they garnered the online followings to prove it. This gap can be seen as indicative of the results as Republicans picked up six seats in the Senate narrowing the gap so much so as to break their supermajority. In the House of Representatives, Republicans picked up 63 seats and won the majority. (5) An interesting, if anecdotal piece of information Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections had 1.4 million Facebook fans and 500,000 Twitter followers compared to Democrats’ 300,000 Facebook fans and 90,000 Twitter followers. (3) In all, while 2008 was seen as the election where new media took form as a viable and useful campaign apparatus, 2010 was the election where new media in all forms became indispensable and completely mandatory for those seeking office.
2012 Presidential Election
The 2012 presidential election will include a massive amount of new media use and will feature mobile in a way in which has not yet been utilized as well as more "refined" usage of established forms of new media according to social media strategist Anna Ruth Williams as interviewed for a Christian Science Monitor article. This is due to a the fact that smart phones and tablets have emerged from multiple manufacturers and gained significantly in popularity over the last few years when iPhones were the only option. This should translate into a flurry of mobile applications that are campaign related. Another innovation that will emerge in the 2012 elections will be geo-targeting. Location based apps will enable campaigns to know where you are and what your preferences are in order to appeal to a potential voter in the most efficient way possible. (11)
References
1. Tsukayama , Hayley. "President Obama reaches out to you...Tube."StarTribune.com. Star Tribune, 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 5 May 2011. <http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=83277797>.
2. Carr, Austin. "How Republicans Are Using Social Media to Win Mid-term Elections | Fast Company." FastCompany.com. Fast Company, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 5 May 2011. <http://www.fastcompany.com/1695195/how-republicans-are-using-social-media-for-crowdsourcing-policy-and-winning-the-mid-term-ele>.
3. Calabrese, Anthony. "Social Media's Impact on the Midterm Elections [INFOGRAPHICS]."Mashable. N.p., 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 5 May 2011. <http://mashable.com/2010/11/09/social-media-elections-infographics/>.
4. TIMES, THE NEW YORK. "Live Blog: Obama Visits New York - NYTimes.com." Metro - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com. The New York Times, 5 May 2011. Web. 5 May 2011. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/live-blog-obama-visits-new-york/
5. "Free Internet Radio - SHOUTcast Radio - Thousands of Free Online Radio Stations."SHOUTcast Homepage. SHOUTcast, n.d. Web. 6 May 2011. <http://www.shoutcast.com/>. 11. Goodale, Gloria . "New social media and the 2012 election: Waaaaay beyond Facebook 2008 - CSMonitor.com." The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/0420/New-social-media-and-the-2012-election-Waaaaay-beyond-Facebook-2008>. 6. Easley, Jason. "The Rally To Restore Sanity Causes a Mainstream Media Meltdown."PoliticusUSA. N.p., 30 Oct. 2010. Web. 6 May 2011. <http://www.politicususa.com/en/restore-sanity-media>.
7. Hiar, Corbin. "MediaShift . How the Tea Party Utilized Digital Media to Gain Power | PBS."PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. PBS, 28 Oct. 2010. Web. 7 May 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/10/how-the-tea-party-utilized-digital-media-to-gain-power301.html>.
8. "Candidates Database | FreedomWorks."FreedomWorks | Lower Taxes, Less Government, More Freedom. FreedomWorks, n.d. Web. 6 May 2011. <http://www.freedomworks.org
9. "United States House of Representatives elections, 2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 5 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2010>
10. "United States Senate elections, 2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 6 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2010>
11. Goodale, Gloria . "New social media and the 2012 election: Waaaaay beyond Facebook 2008 - CSMonitor.com." The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/0420/New-social-media-and-the-2012-election-Waaaaay-beyond-Facebook-2008>.
