Today's post will be about how Internet has and will influence politics.
According to research conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project, the Internet has brought about several gains for politics. It is reported that twice the number of people have learned something about political campaigns from the Internet (compared to survey done in the 2004 campaign). Furthermore, the Internet managed to capture young people in their search for information regarding campaigns through social networking sites like Facebook. Further information can be read at this link where it even provide the original transcript of the study.
One interesting article which I found from New York Times said that the Obama's campaign was successful because of the Internet. He is compared to John F. Kennedy where President Kennedy won as a result of the television while Obama was elected President because of his use of the Internet. One way in which the Internet was successfully used is in the way it cut costs when it comes to organizing supporters. According to the article, what would have taken "an army of volunteers and paid organizers on the ground" was easily done through an Internet website. Furthermore, he made use of the free advertising that could be gained through sites like YouTube and Facebook. The article goes on to mention the other interesting and successful ways in which the Internet could be used for a successful campaign.
Finally, I would like to compare the prevalence of Internet in the U.S politics with that of Singapore. This article from ZDNetAsia mentions how the government actually made some concessions about campaigning on the Internet. However, the article goes further on to mention how these concessions, already reluctantly given, were further restricted which have not yet been outlined at the time this article was written. A rather more extreme article compares Singapore to a "modern police state" by meticulous scrutiny and system of surveillance. Although I personally do not promote nor agree with the writer's article, I find it an interesting read nonetheless.
Just to summarize what I've covered this week: Research has shown that the Internet is beneficial in some ways when it comes to gathering information about campaigns. This is supported by an article which lists out the various ways in which the Obama campaign had successfully used the Internet. However, not all the countries in the world have embraced the Internet in the political arena.
And just to end off with a lighter note, here's a cartoon that I found:
No comments:
Post a Comment