Summary on what I read about trends in US politics or eCampaigning 2.0 - lessons learned from the US election 2008 so far - definitly more to come - feel free to ad yours in the comments!
It is less about favoring one candidate over the other, but more on the possible impacts of online political participation on wider political processes:
high involvement: here comes everybody
"We are collectively witnessing, and simultaneously creating, a networked public sphere that continuously scours the world for interesting information and collectively bubbles the most important stuff to greater view." techPresidentend of TV age?
"The Internet has enabled the public to get to know candidates in a much fuller and more intimate way than in the old days (i.e. four years ago), when voters got to know them largely through 30-second campaign ads and quick sound bites chosen by TV news producers." Huffington Post
In driving election-year dynamics, television still reigns supreme LATimes
small donor strategy vs big money and vs public funding
"Senator Barack Obama’s announcement on Sunday of his record-shattering $150 million fund-raising total for September underscored just how much his campaign has upended standards for raising money in presidential campaigns." NYtimes
"By and far the largest impact the Internet has had on the 2008 election is the ability to fundraise,..." politicsonlinemicroblogging/twitter
Twitter may eventually have a bigger effect on the political landscape than blogging. The possibilities are limitless, and the creative applications are just starting to be realized. The second presidential debate may have been a town-hall format, but the real town hall was on Twitter’s Election 2008 page. Mark McKinnonnew strategy
"The Internet has enabled the two campaigns to combine a top-down and bottom-up form of organization unlike any ever seen in the history of American politics, said Micah Sifry, co-founder of TechPresident.com..." via SFgatesocial networking on the rise if...
The 21st century networks are less hierarchical, with ideas and energy traveling up, down and sideways among the campaign, activists, bloggers, friends and family members. via SFgatebetter mobilization
"What you find overwhelmingly is the more personal, the more effective," Green said. "The thing that tends almost invariably to work is a kind of authentic interaction between people." Quote from SFgaterising usage
A June report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that a record 46 percent of Americans had used the Internet, e-mail or cell phones to get news about the campaign or share their views with and mobilize others. via SFgateproblem: bubble/echo chamber effect
"Because you have so much detailed information on voters now, you can target what you say to communities of interest without getting people together to talk," he said. "Folks fear that we are losing a larger conversation, that we're not being deliberative." Daniel Kreiss quote by SFgate
Moreover, Julie Barko Germany, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University, said that it is very difficult to draw correlations between the number of Facebook friends or YouTube views with election results. NYtimesinstent fact checking/smear less successful
"The Internet may make it easier to disseminate character smears, but it also makes it much less likely that these smears will stick." Huffington Post
What you think? Comments highly appreciated!
