The Power of Politics 2.0
Politics 2.0 is a new concept of political campaigning powered by Web 2.0 technologies like social networking, e-participation and blogging. Since the 2004 United States Elections, the Internet has become much more important because of the increasing interactivity capabilities of Web 2.0 technologies.
The media tricks are effective tools for political campaigning. In 1960, John F. Kennedy won in part because of the popular medium of television. In 2008, the Internet (Web 2.0) has become the most effective medium for Obama to win the elections. This reminds us of the term “Market is the medium!”. A popular medium helps the person who uses it, to increase his/her popularity. In the 2008 U.S. elections cycle, the candidates used the web 2.0 tools to connect to their followers. The impact of Politics 2.0 on the 2008 U.S. elections is undeniable. The statistics helps us understand the impact of politics 2.0 easily:
- 500 million blog postings mentioned Obama and 150 million blog postings mentioned about McCain.
- Obama has about 850,000 MySpace friends and McCain has about 220,000.
- There are 118,107 Twitter followers of Obama and McCain had only 4,942 followers.
- Million of online polls conducted.
These statistics are impressive. Mainstream media is limited by their boss’ views. But the Internet has the ability to vocalize each individuals mind. Obama’s team discovered this fact and Change.gov was one of the best action of Obama’s campaign, to access each individual to learn his/her vision about America and Obama as the president. Change.gov has been the website form Obama’s campaign slogan The Internet gave the power of ‘targeting right people’ which main stream doesn’t have, to Obama’s team. This action serves the purpose of reaching youth and directing them to vote for Obama strategy. The demographics of the Web 2.0 users overlap with the demographics of Democratic voters.
All these information shows us the power of politics 2.0 on political campaigns and maybe Obama would not have won without the Internet. The freedom on the Internet spreads to our daily lives. The virtual has become real once again.
The video below is from Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco and contains the panel “The Web and Politics” leaded by New York Magazine’s John Heilemann. Arianna Huffington, Joe Trippi and San Francisco Mayor Gavon Newsom joined him. This video is worth watching.
References:
TechCrunch – The Internet As a Force In Politics: “Obama Would Not Have Won Without The Internet”
ReadWriteWeb – Obama’s Social Media Advantage
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