Politics and New New Media

Social Media has without doubt revolutionized the way humans, both communicate and formulate relationships. With the likes of Facebook boasting more the 400 million regular users worldwide it is not hard to see that social media such as these have changed the way we communicate for good. Although it is not only the social world that is altering, these new media’s have had a lasting impact on the political landscape aswell. The ability of social media’s like: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and youtube, to be available on mobile phones makes them forever accessible. As internet speed and connectivity improves everywhere all of the time, it may only be time that tells how primary these lines of communication can become.

Politics and its finer points are often lost on the common man. New new media has allowed for medium where the common man can 1. Have a reason to have an interest in politics and 2. Have access to it. Everyone has a vested interest in politics but most are too consumed in their own lives to ‘make their vote count’ if you will. During the 2008 presidential campaign saw the introduction of youtube, where CNN selected questions for the candidates that had been submitted via the video streaming website giving the American citizens a voice, a power they hadn’t seen before. Needless to say the questions were carefully selected, and some submitted were rumored to have been posted by people affiliated with the campaigns (Levinson, 2009). This made for compelling viewing of an otherwise boring and non significant event on most Americans calendars.

Chief of ‘The Huffington Post” Arianna Huffington (2008) suggested that Barack Obama won the presidency because of the Internet. More specifically the “new new media” that have become the major players in presidential campaigns. The highly interactive campaign website run by the Obama camp has been given a lot of credit for the election win. With hundreds and thousands of hits everyday during the campaign it’s not hard to create a clever website with power beyond its creators belief.