If the 2008 presidential primaries have taught us anything, it is that mainstream politics has not only embraced the Internet as a way to get a message across, but now consider it an essential part of operating a political campaign.
It wasn’t very many years ago that reaching potential voters involved “armies” of supporters and volunteers going door-to-door, distributing fliers and policy statements. But in the age of politics 2.0, “canvassing” the suburbs to win over voters seems an almost quaint, anachronistic idea.
In the same way that the Internet is revolutionizing the public’s access to information, education and opportunity, it is also revolutionizing the way political campaigns are run. Consider Barack Obama’s highly effective use of social networking and Web video sites during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The success of Senator Obama’s campaign can be largely attributed to his ability to effectively communicate his message of change and to raise campaign money online.
Obama’s MySpace page is a textbook example of using social networking on the Web to not only spread a candidate’s message and vision, but to call on the public to get involved. Not surprisingly, Senator Obama has over 391,000 friends on MySpace. His campaign also uses Twitter.com, Digg, FaceBook and YouTube to great effect.
Even the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is embracing the Web to a greater degree than any of his predecessors. Most recently, McCain campaign posted a “2008 Strategy Briefing” on YouTube, outlining the candidate’s positions on a variety of topics, ranging from economic reform to the war in Iraq.
The video, which is narrated by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, lays out the case for a McCain presidency and draws clear distinctions between his policies and those of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
But where McCain is now wholeheartedly embracing YouTube and other Web 2.0 sites, Obama has made them a central part of his candidacy from the beginning. In fact, in the near future, students of political science will undoubtedly study the 2008 Obama Web strategy as a masterful use of the medium.
And as more and more Americans continue to turn to the Internet for news and information, savvy politicians will take advantage of new media resources to influence public perception, persuade and raise funds. The 2008 presidential campaign is rewriting all the rules of campaigning for high office in America, and social networking has become much more than just a buzzword — it is now an essential part of presidential politics.
