U.S. President Barack Obama has been touted as "the
social media president" and the history books will certainly mark the 2008
election as the first to be influenced by social media. Do you think that
social media will continue to play an important role in the 2012 election, or
is the phenomenon over-hyped?
I have read about the upcoming 2012 election, and I have
noticed that Obama has used even more Social Media tools than the 2008
elections. I remember how big of an impact it caused on the outcome of the
Elections. According to Huffington Post’s founder Ariana Huffington, “Were
it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for
the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee,” I believe that
because social media was such a big support in Obama’s successful election,
they will continue to rely on it to get the message out. More people have been
informed about updates with the election; a study was conducted by a branding
agency. Digitas and they found that 88 percent of Adults in the U.S that use
social media have registered to vote. I like that Obama has made it possible
for the population to have access to ask questions online, talk to others with
more knowledge about the debate, and even comment on how they feel about
specific issues within the country. Now that social media is the number one way
to communicate and create awareness, it is defiantly an important part in the
elections. If you miss the elections on the television, you can still go on
almost any website and find out information that you have missed. Now that the
elections are made more accessible, you can find out more information about
both nominees that you would never know before. You can ask questions about
important causes directly on their campaign websites, and almost every other
social media tools. When people can be involved it creates a more positive environment,
because they feel as if they made a difference to the future of the country.
There are so many reasons why I believe that social media will play a huge part
in the 2012 elections, but those are just some of the important ones.
I disagree with the quote you took from Huffington Post that states “Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president." because Obama didn't win the 2008 presidential election due to his use of social media. He won because of his empathy to help Middle-Class Americans and ensured voters that they will have access to good quality medical care services (White,2008). I do think though that social media is a beneficial tool for candidates to use in elections and i agree that it is one of the number one ways to communicate with voters. Hopefully it creates awareness to young voters to exercise their right to vote!!
ReplyDeleteI believe that Obama would have still been elected President even without the use of social media. I agree that social media will play a huge part in the 2012 elections. With Generation Z, the generation "born on the internet" approaching voting age, I believe this is a great tool to get the message across to these new voters. I also like that Obama made it possible for voters to ask questions and express their opinions. I believe this will keep voters interested and feel better about the fact that they are actually being heard.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the respect that social media no commands is the reason why Barack Obama became President. In the Democratic primaries Hilary Clinton was by-far the most well-known candidate and the clear front-runner for the party's nomination, which also meant that she had the greatest amount of financial backing. Yet once people with greater demographic diversity started showing support for Barack Obama on social media websites the big money donors for the democratic campaigns began to switch their financial allegiance to the Obama, who they now saw as the more popular candidate and thus more likely to win the Presidency. Nice find with the Ariana Huffington quote.
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