 to the recipient) and through calling the office of the political candidate concerned.
Howard, PN 2005, ‘Deep democracy, thin citizenship: the impact of digital media in political campaign strategy’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
In this article, the author highlights how the internet changed the landscape of information dissemination. Instead of simply producing information and disseminating it in a unilateral fashion, the internet has granted everyone who has access to the World Wide Web to capability to create his/her own information and publish it in an instant. This medium allows people to become both producers and consumers of information—with no permanent label of being a consumer or producer on each person. These labels easily shift and change as one person assumes various roles in his online interactions, whether with fellow voters or with political candidates.
Furthermore, Howard touches on a particularly interesting topic which is about the control in online media. Since the voting public demands more of a politician’s virtual presence, it is possible to interact directly with the candidate—a feat in the online medium that could either make or break a candidate. The concern of political strategists is to give the demands of the public by exposing the candidates to the virtual populace and yet shelter the same politician from queries that might be beyond the politician’s comprehension at that point in time. The issue of control in an uncontrollable medium is a very interesting topic to discuss as an additional analysis of this research paper.
Trent, JS & Friedenberg, RV 2008, ‘Political campaign communication: principles and practices, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, Maryland.
This book is a run-down of the different factors that affect the successfulness of a political campaign. The first chapter of the book deals with basic principle of political campaigns which includes its importance, functions, strategies, and the different channels that could be utilized to reach the desired audience: the voters. As early as the first chapter, the authors already discussed how technology re-shapes the political campaign strategies of political parties in the United States. This specific discussion about technology is a critical analysis of how the perception and strategies of politicians are being changes gradually by the arrival of various media such as the television in the 1950’s and the internet at present.
Political campaign communications will be a very useful book in this research. It will be used as the main jump off point for the discussion of political campaigns in general and how technology is utilized by political candidates during the campaign period. Consequently, in the last chapter, there also is a discussion about the internet’s role in political campaigns today. This is a more magnified analysis of online political campaigns as it discusses the difference of first and second-tier content and how these content propel a candidates popularity among the voting public.
Scher, RK 1997, ‘The modern political campaign: Mudslinging, bombast and the vitality of American politics, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., Armonk, N.Y.
Using a resource which is more than 10 years old is not accepted in most researches. However, the researcher found this book very useful after reading its content. Using this book, the researcher would be able to make use of comparisons between campaigns without the advent of the internet and campaigns nowadays. The 1996 Presidential elections was the latest political activity before the publication of this book and so the author, Richard Scher, was able to provide numerous accounts on how presidential candidates praised or denounced media coverage of political sorties. It also featured some politician’s sentiments about the apparent power of the media in building or destroying the reputation of a political candidate. In fact, from the title of this book alone, it seems as if most of the information contained in this book points to the loopholes and the abuse of power of the media—as seen from the perspective of the candidates.
In a nutshell, Scher points out that the media has the task of underscoring what the politicians do in their political campaigns. The author believes that the media is only a channel, a vessel of information. The media broadcasts new and information for the world to see but it does not invent any fact that did not happen during the sorties.
Benoit, WL 2007, ‘Communication in political campaigns’, Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York, NY.
Since the topic of this research is about the online medium in political campaigns, this book by Benoit will be very useful in this research. Chapter 3 is especially dedicated to discussing the role of various media in campaign discourse. This analyzes online campaigns vis-à-vis television, direct mailing, radio spots, and debates. Comparison of various media is very important in determining which medium must be used by a particular political candidate given specific circumstances such as the position a candidate is aiming for and the demographics of the voting population he wants to reach. For example, using the newspaper to target the younger voting population will not be as effective as using online or television advertisements since most of the young people nowadays prefer accessing information through visual means such as the televisions and computers.
With the use of this book, the researcher will be able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each medium and how online advertisement could possible help candidates with limited campaign budget reach the target voting population without shelling out too much money. This book indeed provides a wealth of information necessary to create a well-grounded research about the hype of online political campaigns.
Guzetta,SJ 2006, ‘The campaign manual: A definitive study of the modern political campaign process’, 7th edition, Political Publications, Alexandria, VA.
Authored by an expert political campaign consultant, who is also a member of the American Association of Political Consultants, this manual is indeed the book to live by for aspiring politicians. It does not only outline campaign strategies and winning characteristics of a favorable politician, this manual also details the media characteristic of the district which the politician wants to target. Media characteristic is defined as the “commercially available methods of communicating with the electorate” (Guzetta 2006, p. 105). This media factor is important in making the most out of the media being used to reach out to the voting public.
Without studying the media characteristic of a district, it is possible that the financial resources of a political candidate is simple being wasted on useless advertisements which the people do not have access to anyway. This simple factor makes a big difference in political campaigns. Even politicians who have the biggest funds for political sorties might lose to a politician with a smaller budget. This manual written by Guzetta is a good reminder that it is not solely the number of advertisement that matter but also how many of these advertisements actually reach the intended audience. The keyword in this political battle is the proper utilization of resources.
Seidman,SA 2008, ‘Posters, propaganda, and persuasion, in election campaigns around the world and throughout history’, Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York, NY.
Most online political campaigns zero in on the websites created by the supporters of a particular candidate. But Seidman provides a scenario wherein two different media could converge to create a new breed of political campaign. In this case, the main thrust of the book is the creation of posters and how this particular campaign paraphernalia disseminates information to the voting public and how it could help a politician win an election. But under the subsection on technology and how it adapts to the changes of the popular media, posters are now being posted online—even sold online to supporters who would like to donate funds to their political bets. Compare this process to how posters are being used 10 years ago, indeed, even print media are adapting to the technological advancements in our society.
Aside from posters, the political parties of presidential candidates also thought of developing applications which web users could use to create their own buttons, posters, pins, bumper stickers, and so on. Not only does the internet give the people the democracy they are craving for, the political parties are also spending less money on printing campaign paraphernalia because people could already print their own stickers in support of their favored candidates.
Political campaigns and most importantly elections are important aspects of political life. Elections enable patriotic citizens to actively participate in selecting a future leader for their country (Trent et al 2008). The process of democracy is firmly entrenched in the U.S and the political election campaign makes an integral part of the democratic system.
According to Trent et al (2008), the electoral process enables individuals to determine how their interests are going to be met in future. This includes a vetting process in which individuals vote based on the individual who supports their needs. Trent et al (2008) also sates that the voting process and elections validate an individual’s right to power.
Advertising is a vital factor in raising campaign costs and in publicizing an individual who is campaigning (Trent et al 2008). In the year 2000 the republican candidate for presidency George.W. Bush is said to have spent $134 million on television advertising alone. He is recorded to have spent 42% more than what President Clinton spent during his reelection campaign in 1996.Advertising is referred to as the secondary level of campaigning and is said to assist voters in making up their mind as to the proper candidate to vote for based on the aspect of the campaign.
Architects of modern day campaigns are said to prefer to use messages that appeal mostly to the heart and voters emotions other than messages that appeal to the brain (Scher,1997).This is the main reason as to why campaigns today tend to focus on the candidates and their image by using specific views and words that bring out emotional content(Scher,1997).In the long run the image created by the architects of modern day campaigns are usually separate from the actual character of the individual.
The emotional appeal is also said to be used as a tool against an opponent by tarnishing their image to the voters (Scher, 1997).For instance in 1988,