As the 2008 Presidential Campaign season is fully in swing, Americans are bound to see unprecedented shifts in the ways they are able to access information on particular candidates.  The emergence of new digital media technologies and their accessibility to the public as well as the proliferation of the Internet has given way to what Henry Jenkins refers to as Convergence Culture; a society offering unique and diverse news suiting our particular needs available at our fingertips.

The 2004 Presidential Campaign was a time of experimentation in which political candidates utilized new media to their advantage.  “Consider, for example, John Kerry’s announcement of his running mate.  Kerry made the announcement first via e-mail to supporters who had registered through his Web site; the Kerry campaign used the announcement to expand its list of potential supporters for electronic mailings in the fall, and they used the buzz around the e-mail announcement to increase viewership of the televised announcement” (Jenkins 217).

Congress approved the Telecommunications Act in 1996 easing laws placed by the Federal Communications Commission in the early days of radio and television prohibiting and regulating cross-media ownership and control.  The result was a less informed public.  When it came to the political landscape, the trend was “an alienation of Americans from everything Washington…and the feeling of large numbers of Americans that they are disrespected by political and media elites” (TheHill.com).

In just twenty years, news coverage of political candidates in a typical broadcast has dropped from 43 seconds in 1968 to just 9 seconds in 1988.  Mainstream media outlets present their audience with biased content that is corporate controlled often with an economic interest in mind.  As the country is at war in Iraq, the major networks are careful not to cover controversial issues that threaten losing their viewers.  For example, prior to the 2004 election, ABC barred affiliates from airing a feature on “Nightline” that it felt “focused attention solely on people who have died in the war in order to push public opinion toward the United States getting out of Iraq” (The Free Expression Policy Project) and risked alienating sectors of their audience.

Dissatisfied with the “corporately controlled content” they are receiving from the major networks, more and more people are turning to other forms of media for access to news and information on political campaigns.  Statistics reveal that 39% of people watched nightly news broadcasts for information on political campaigns in 2000 compared to only 23% of respondents in 2004.

The Internet offers users access to an endless array of diverse media content.  Bloggers and citizen journalists provide like-minded readers with news and viewpoints often underrepresented by mainstream media.  Through the Internet, viewers access news and information through a diverse range of outlets including the BBC, which has a long history of presenting unbiased content as well as other “indie media” outlets including Free Speech TV and “Democracy Now!” (The Free Expression Policy Project).

The Internet also provides users with the opportunity to participate in political commentary.  As Jenkins discusses in “Photoshop for Democracy”, parodies surrounding political candidates express widespread opinions on the Web .  For example, About.com offers a gallery of the 100 most popular political cartoons.  Websites such as YouTube.com allow users to upload video content, expressing their personal opinions on political candidates, therefore actively participating in media production and political news.

As more and more voters, particularly of the younger generation, have turned to the Internet, political candidates are faced with the new challenge of engaging this younger demographic.  In order to succeed in a digital culture, political candidates will need to utilize new media to their advantage as a strategy in gaining voter support.

Consider Senator Barack Obama’s current popularity with the younger generation.  According to the Spartan Internet Political Performance (SIPP) Index, “measuring the support and how well each candidate is connecting with individuals across the Internet”, Obama received a 37% rating in comparison with his lead Democratic opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, receiving only a 20% rating.

Obama is employing grassroots political strategies such as these.  The senator has created a profile for his campaign on the popular college website, Facebook.com, and has gained enormous support.  Obama currently has over 700,000 supporters on the site. 

I believe that new media and digital technologies will play an increasingly more important role within political campaigns.  Evidence has revealed that communicating with voters via the Web is successful in gaining voter support.  How capable these candidates are at utilizing these technologies to their advantage may not determine who wins the 2008 Presidential Election this upcoming November, but will most certainly be a factor and will continue to play an even more crucial role in the future.

For More Information

The Free Expression Policy Project  

TheHill.com

Through the emergence of new digital media technologies, society has become fully immersed in what Henry Jenkins describes as a “Convergence Culture” in which participation by all members of the community is essential.  As a result, a number of social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and other similar sites have sprung up.

Following its release in February of 2004 by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook surged in popularity throughout 2005. 

There are 64 million registered Facebook users worldwide making the site the 6^th most trafficked website on the Internet. 

In its early days, users could connect only with others belonging to a college or university network.  Facebook sought to distinguish itself from rival MySpace by centering on strengthening relationships with those you knew in your past.  In Zuckerberg’s words to The New York Times: “We’re not thinking about ourselves as a community – we’re not trying to build a community – we’re not trying to make new connections”.

Much of its enormous popularity can be attributed to its user-friendly format.  Facebook makes it simple for users to upload photos (14 million photos are uploaded daily!) and import their blogs from websites such as Livejournal and Blogger.  In the past year, Facebook even added an application allowing users to post free classified advertisements modeling Craigslist.

Despite the fact that Facebook, as of yet, has not faced its demise, the future of the social networking phenomenon is dim.  Throughout its short history, Facebook has been plagued by a number of controversies. 

Following its release in 2004, a lawsuit was filed against Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, by the founders of ConnectU who allege that Zuckerberg stole the source code to create the social networking site. 

Many feel that Zuckerberg’s lack of experience may lead to the end of Facebook.  Afterall, how could Zuckerberg, a 23 year old CEO who developed this project in his dorm room, possibly bear the pressures of running a massive technology startup?

He has already made a number of what many consider to be devastating business and financial mistakes such as rejecting an offer of to sell Facebook to Viacom for $750 million.  Facebook’s planned expenditure of $200 million for 2008 may also lead to a number of financial problems for the startup as they plan to increase their spending and double their number of employees, despite seeing a decrease in profits.

The website is also seeing a decline in its growth and popularity.  In July, the website reported an average of 150,000 new users registering on a daily basis.  A report released last month by Comscore, an Internet marketing research company, found that “the number of people who visit

Facebook has been leveling off over the past few months in the U.S.

With Facebook granting free access to users for their services, many have begun to wonder how the social networking website will manage to earn any money.  In comes another crucial business mistake made by Zuckerberg: Project Beacon, which permitted users to be targeted with socially responsible ads based on information.  Registered users of Facebook were outraged feeling that their privacy had been violated.  Not only did Facebook manage to alienate itself from its loyal user base, but the plan to allow advertisers space on the site seemingly has backfired as advertisers are not achieving impressive results.

This is not the first time users have voiced their complaints over this issue.  Controversy arose in the fall of 2006 when Facebook opened its doors to anyone with Internet, demolishing the unique feature that once distinguished itself from its rival MySpace.

So, what is Facebook to do?  Over the course of the next five years, Zuckerberg plans to continue developing new applications to be accessible to users.  But will this work?  Only time will tell, but reports have shown that users are sick of all the “Application Spam” they are receiving and are at risk of alienating their users even more.

 (d.)

For More Information

Wikipedia

Facebook, Inc. News – The New York Times

The Drama 2.0 Show

PCMech

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