The increased role the internet has played in American political campaigns is undeniable. It has been used in presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, but the full capabilities likely were not seen until the 2008 race between John McCain and Barack Obama. This was even more the case for Barack Obama, whose internet campaign strategy was unmatched and helped him reach and motivate young voters across the country.
Perhaps the most useful aspect of the internet is its ability to raise money from people with varying levels of economic standing. Both Howard Dean in 2004, and Obama in 2008 were largely funded by regular people making smaller donations of $20 or $50. This was a group of potential donors that was largely untapped in previous elections and played a large role in putting up the record fundraising numbers seen by Obama and Dean. Campaigns are typically funded though large scale donations from wealthy donors.
This practice of collecting thousands of smaller donations has proved beneficial and comes at little cost to the campaign. Whereas holding large, grandiose fundraising galas take the campaigns time and money to pull off, sending out an email with a ghost written plea from the candidate explaining that they need all the help they can get to defeat their opponent, is all but cost free and can be sent to every single email address the campaign has on record. This increases the potential donor field exponentially.
Speaking of costs, the internet provides free advertising through social media like Facebook and Youtube. This allows the candidates to infiltrate the lives of voters and get their message out through a whole other platform in addition to television and radio. It was estimated that videos posted on Youtube by the Obama campaign were watched for 14.7 million hours which would have cost close to $50 million in television ads (Miller, 2008).
Organizing campaign events was another task made simpler and cheaper through the use of the internet. Instead of using hundreds of volunteers to operate get out the vote campaigns and alert supporters of rallies and campaign stops, messages could be sent via the web to get the word out and save the volunteer man hours for other tasks.
The role of the internet created an increase in candidate scrutiny. This allowed candidates to directly address the attack ads made by their opponent, and the extensive information on the web allowed voters to fact check the attacks themselves. This issue was again addressed by the Obama campaign with fightthesmears.com which debunked a number of false accusations made by his opponents throughout the campaign.
Going along with the fact checking, the internet has allowed candidate vetting to reach new levels. Voters have access to more information on each candidate than ever before. Whether it’s the candidates personal life history, positions on issues throughout their career, or statements made in the past, the internet allows voters to hold candidates accountable for their statements and actions by providing them with a large quantity of information.
In all, the effects of the internet on campaigning have probably had a net positive effect for voters. More information on candidates is always a good thing, even if voters may become annoyed with the constant barrage of communications they must deal with.
Sources:
Miller, C. C. (2008, 7 November). How Obama's Internet Campaign Changed Politics. Retrieved April 2011, from New York Times: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics/
Organizing for America. (2008). Fight the Smears. Retrieved April 2011, from http://www.fightthesmears.com/
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