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Kenneth Rector

Dr. Barbara Presnell

English 1102

12 April 2011

New Media’s Effect on the 2008 Election

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I have always had sympathy for those who don’t have the
opportunities that I have. In our great United States the rich are
getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. I have come to realize
that this is such a terrible thing to see in my lifetime. I was curious,
why is it this way? I quickly came to realize that the head of it all is the
government. The men and women running this country aren’t doing
such a great job, and the people are suffering for it. The big deal to me
is that the people are electing such officials over and over again. With
the rise of new media, I decided to research a relationship between the
two topics.
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United

States of America. He made history by being the first African-American

President, and he also surpassed a major stepping-stone in social

media. Obama used various political strategies, including the use of

social media and Internet, to win this election. Therefore, his race for

presidency may have been highly affected by the rise of social media

within the younger demographic area.

Before the Obama period, many new pathways were taken to

gain the attention of voters. Clair Cain Miller, writer for the highly

acclaimed New York Times Online, states “the election of Barack

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Obama as president has echoed that of John F. Kennedy is his use of a

new medium that will forever change politics.” Miller continues to

claim, “For Mr. Kennedy, it was television. For Mr. Obama, it is the

Internet.” I have found many other elections that mirror the 2008

election, all have one simple thing in common; some sort of new media

was just becoming well known.

Heading futher back in history than the Kennedy election; the

election of our 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was greatly

effected by radio. At Berkeley University, one of the best universities in

the nation, four students theorized, “FDR used the radio to facilitate an

imagined community” (Anaya, Zho, Hsiao, and Kurnia). The group

continued to explain that the people backing FDR didn’t know each

other, but somehow they felt a part of a group. That being said, the

breakout of the radio on the election of Roosevelt caused a drastic

increase in voters. Roosevelt discovered that he could reach the

masses.

John F. Kennedy used the rise of the television to help earn him

the spot of the 35th President of the United States of America. Many

people, such as Monica Davey from the New York Times Upfront (very

established branch of the New York Times), believe that John F.

Kennedy won the first televised political debate and the presidency

because of the way he was presented on the television (Monica).

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Howard Dean’s campaign really opened the door for online

campaigning. Miller states that Dean’s 2004 campaign “was

groundbreaking in its use of the Internet to raise small amounts of

money from hundreds of thousands of people.” However, with the

advancements made in Internet technology, Obama “was

groundbreaking in its use of the Internet to raise small amounts of

money from hundreds of thousands of people” (Miller).

As a form of research, I sent a survey out with various questions

about the 2008 election and social media. 40% of the subjects that

responded believed that the Internet had a major impact on the

Obama campaign. While 80% did not participate in the 2008 election,

90% have participated in some sort of social media (Facebook, Twitter,

Myspace, YouTube,). This means that people are getting on these

social media websites and actually observing campaigning. Personally,

I was not able to vote in the 2008 election, and I do participate in social

media. I fit in the same category as most of the people that replied to

my survey. New media has majorly effected my generation; therefore

campaigning will begin to invade new media. To repeat Clair Miller of

the New York Times, Kennedy’s use of television is the same as

Obama’s use of the Internet.

Obama’s 2008 campaign was quite intelligent for using the

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Internet. Tamara A. Small, writer for the Institute for Research on

Public Policy, states “there are clear benefits for a campaign on

Facebook”. She continues to explain that campaigning on Facebook

has four outstanding features: “first, a campaign can increase

exposure at a low cost or no cost. Moreover, this exposure is

unmediated by the press. Second,

Facebook provides access to the millennial generation — those born

between 1980 and 2000…Third, because Facebook requires the user to
request to be a “friend” or supporter of the campaign, a ready-made
database is created allowing campaigns to raise contributions
and recruit volunteers on-line. Fourth, like other aspects of the
Internet, Facebook is interactive. This could potentially allow
communication between voters and the campaign and between voters
and other voters” (Small).
With that said, the Internet obviously helped Obama’s 2008
campaign. Steve Schifferes, writer for the British Broadcasting
Corporation News wrote an entire news article explaining, “the internet
has proved one of the key tools to his (Obama) success” (Schifferes).
Schifferes also agrees with Small, stating “both the fundraising and the
mobilizing potential of the internet proved key advantages for Mr.
Obama during the primary season” (Shifferes).
To my surprise, new media has affected politics for quite a while.

I discovered the fact that as technology grows, politics becomes

incorporated within the latest technology. From the eyes of someone

who has never voted before and knows very little about politics, it is

very clear that politicians follow the crowd. Not only is America shallow

enough to elect a man like Kennedy based on his looks, they didn’t

learn to follow the facts and not what they saw. In the 2008, the people

decided to follow who looked better than who performed better.

Obama is youthful, gaining the younger voted. McCain is old, but

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probably could have performed better. This surprised me, and opened

my eyes into the world of politics. I am now very excited for the

elections in November 2011.

Works Cited Page

Miller, Clair. "How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics." New

York Times Web. 30 Mar 2011.

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Stirland, Sarah. "Propelled by Internet, Barack Obama Wins

Presidency." Threat Level. Web. 30 March 2011.

Smith, Aaron. "The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008." Pew Internet

(2009) Web. 30 Mar 2011.

Small, Tamara. "The Facebook Effect? On- Line Campaigning in the

2008 Canadian and U.S. Elections." IRPP Archive (2008): 85-87. Web.

31 Mar 2011.

Anaya, Ray, Daisy Zho, Yuan Hsiao, and Shendy Kurnia. "FDR’s Use Of

The Radio." Berkely University. Address.

Davey, Monica. "1960: The First Mass Media Election." New York Times

Upfront Web. 24 Apr 2011.