The use of social media during the 2008 presidential campaign.
And let's not forget these guys (and girl):
After all, with another presidential election coming up in under two weeks, I've spent the majority of my news consumption this fall on the election. And, as Prof. Carroll-Adler pointed out in our meeting yesterday, scholarly journals will not yet have articles published about media use in this election, so I will focus on the last election. Fortunately, the 2008 election marked both a peak (at the time) and turning point in politicians' use of social media, so there will be much to explore when it comes to the topic at that specific point in time.
So now I am to figure out just what the focus and thesis of my paper will be. As I begin to research and peruse several sources for the literature review due early next month, I am getting a better idea of what the impact of social media from that election cycle. Below is a video I found online from CBC news which affirms and is in line with many of the conclusions I've made from reading both media and political journal articles.
Basically, what I'm finding is that the 2008 election was the first time many forms of social media made their debut as a part of campaigns' strategy. I'm also finding that then-candidate Barack Obama's social media presence and following was far-and-away greater than that of his opponents, both in the democratic primaries and the presidential election. I think that I want to explore the relationship between this mastery of social media and the election's outcome. To make sure the paper embodies an interdisciplinary approach, I want to examine the effect of social media through the lens of political theory on what wins elections.
This is really interesting. Now that social media has become this global phenomenon it is a great political ploy for politicians to reach the masses. It would be great to include a comparison of the 2008 elections to elections prior to the popularity of social media.
ReplyDeleteI really like the background of your website!I remember your presentation in class was very interesting. It seems as if these days the social media plays a big role in very aspect of our lives.
ReplyDeleteI like your topic. It's hard to believe that social media really only started to play a part in politics 4 years ago. I feel as if social media has been around for so much longer, but that's probably just because these days it consumes our lives. I remember your presentation and the videos you presented about a candidate acting inappropriately to a heckler and the video going viral. These days its seems as if these types of viral videos are everywhere. I wonder, now that social media is SO prevalent in our culture and viral videos are so common, if blunders such as the one I just referred to are more detrimental to a campaign now (because of the scope of social media) or less (seeing as though they are everywhere -- we are desensitized)
ReplyDelete