Internet and Politics

The power and limitation of internet for political campaigning

It has been a widely understood fact that the internet is a powerful method to reach to audience far and wide and yet at the same time, it is limited in its own way.. today,  i will be touching on this topic since this week's main theme is on politics.. :)

Firstly, let me touch on the power of the internet. Indeed, the internet has many multiple uses, even for political campaigning! The internet is powerful as it allows people immediate access. Since most people check their E-mail anywhere from 1 to 100 times a day, using the Internet to reach out to potential voters is brilliant. Also, each candidate has a website where voters may go to find out how to help the campaign and to see where the candidate will next be speaking. The Internet helps to quickly spread the word about the policy of the candidate.

For example, let's take the most well known president of the world in this current time, Barack Obama. He too, understands the value in reaching to the technologically savvy demographic. One of his donation campaign was conducted in part via email. Rather than a contributor sending $20 and never hearing back, the campaign managers cleverly set up a system that allowed people donations to be matched by other donors. Each donor could contact one another and write why they supported Barack. As a result, this donation campaign was a success, mostly thanks to the accessibility of the internet to the public. 

You Tube also has an impact on politics. This more recent addition to Internet usage provides instant coverage of political events, news clips that relate to candidates, ads that are making the rounds of Internet users, and spoofs of the candidates. If a politician does something embarrassing in public you can be sure it will be on You Tube within 24 hours or less. Morever, youtube videos target young people to participate in online opinion and may bring more youths to the polls in upcoming elections.

The Internet also makes it easy to mobilize political activism. Political groups are able to stage huge protests and events with a simple mass E-mail. Impromptu gatherings are also possible via E-mail alerts. If a candidate is in a public space during private time he or she may find a crowd who has been alerted via the Internet awaiting them outside on their departure.

The Internet also allows voters to use Google or Helium to find articles about and texts of speeches by each candidate to read about their political strategies. The Internet makes keeping up on each candidates opinions quite simple. It is an invaluable tool for voters.

However, despite the above factors that i mentioned, i feel that the internet is limited in some ways.  Personally, i feel that by using the internet, the political campaigns loses its personal touch. People who watch the videos of the speeches that candidates make may not get the full impact of the speech if they were not at the campaign "live" which may affect the voting. Besides that, using the internet may sway people to vote for someone just because they see a mass majority of people giving opinions on the internet to vote for a certain candidate.

Ultimately, political campaigning will inevitably make use of the internet to promote the candidates, therefore, it is always good to keep in mind the above while reading/watching the speeches made by the candidates.. :)