Obama's win means future elections must be fought online | The Guardian - 1 views
-
Varjavand Contractor on 20 Apr 16Situation: This article pertains to the United States' Presidential Elections of 2008 that was won by Barack Obama and his usage of the Internet as well as Social Media. The reason he won the 2008 elections was not just because of his presidential policies, but however due to his personal reach and trust that the Internet will help fund and run a primary part of his campaign. Social and Ethical Significance: This article talks about how online campaigning is the key to 90%+ of political campaigns of the future and how they function. The article takes the (obvious) example of Barack Obama's presidential campaign of 2008 that was a historic campaign for multiple reasons. The article [published in 2008], claims that the primary reason that Obama succeeded because he "understood the potential of social media to communicate and raise funds - leaving his 72-year old opponent floundering." This campaign is the first election where all candidates utilised online social networks like Facebook [and still popular then, MySpace] to send forward their messages. This article also talks about personal knowledge of a person can be gained by reading a candidate's personal details such as favourite musicians and pastimes. Obama was successful on Facebook, rather than other competition, because he was engaging to people younger to him on his online campaigns, who appreciate casual behaviour, online and offline[while his competition kept it overly professional online]. "At 47, he may be older than the average user there, but Obama is a natural Facebook politician. On his personal profile there - which featured his "Our Moment is Now" motto - Obama named his favourite musicians as Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Dylan, and listed his pastimes as basketball, writing, and "loafing w/kids" " Stakeholders: Candidates - They are the people relying on the Internet and their campaigns, that he can get the kind of reach he needs to move forward in his own elections. Voters - They