The Internet - The Key To Win an Election Campaign

Essay aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich Medien / Kommunikation - Medien und Politik, Pol. Kommunikation, Universität Leipzig, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The presidential election campaign of Barack Obama was declared as the first Internet- Campaign and in the American media there was talk of a transformation of the traditional campaigning. Hillary Clinton announced her presidential candidature in january 2008 not at a press conference but on the internet. 'The 2008 campaign will be the first truly 21st Century presidential race.' wrote Arianna Huffington at The Huffington Post on August 02 in 2007. It is the same in politics as it is in every other part of our society: The internet becomes more and more important. Even the reasons are the same, the internet provides numerous considerable advantages which must not be wasted. Modern politicians from many countries have realized this and try to use the internet for their activities. The main aspect which makes the internet the number one medium of our society is its function as a communication platform. The amount of data and information available on the internet grows every day. Today, people use the internet not just to find information but to create and publish information themselves. Besides that, today the internet provides possibilities to publish videos, photos and even your own private thoughts and more and more people use that. In a way the internet has become more and more personal and it is like a huge bulletin board for everyone's own ideas. That is the advantage for modern politics, the internet provides the opportunity to communicate with people in a more personal way (than for example TV would do). There are two very good examples for people who have used all that with great success. Howard Dean ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, nevertheless he is considered to be a pioneer of campaigning on the internet and especially political fundraising via the Internet. However, a perfect example is the election campaign of Barack Obama, whose online campaign applied a new standard. Nobody can deny that the internet is connected to nearly every part of modern society. Since more and more people use the internet frequently and a company like Google becomes more and more powerful, the internet has to play an important role in politics. By discussing the advantages of the internet as a communication platform, the advantages of the internet for an election campaign, and the examples of Howard Dean and Barack Obama this paper will prove that the internet is the key to win a presidential election campaign these days.