1 Uses of Technologies in the 2008 Presidential Campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain
In the twenty-first century, technologies are leaving their imprints on everything from social interaction, medical diagnoses, and running for President. More than ever before, the presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain were powered by technology to achieve instant communication with potential voters, even occasionally bypassing the conventional media. For example, when Barack Obama announced he had selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate, he first announced his choice in a text message to supporters who had registered their email addresses and phone numbers (Yadav). A Pew Internet Project report reveals that a record number of Americans (46 percent) have the Internet, email, or cell phones to receive election campaign updates (Sindat). These technologies provide Americans with information on the candidates through policy statement videos, voter databases with breakdowns according to demographics and age, and social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook (Sindat). Perhaps more than any other technology in Campaign ‘08, ―The Internet has turned presidential politics into a fully interactive event‖ (Scherer and Newton-Small 34). Both Obama and McCain established campaign websites that were fully interactive and included detailed positions on the issues, voter registration information, and candidate merchandise (Yadav). The respective campaigns also established their presences on so-called ‗social media‘ websites as MySpace and Facebook to appeal to younger voters and encourage the sharing of videos on YouTube and Brightcove (Yadav).
2 Early in his campaign, Barack Obama acknowledged the importance of utilizing technologies by making them its centerpiece based upon the recommendations of Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig (Talbot 78). By the fall of 2007 and well before other announced candidates at the time, Obama had formulated an extensive technology agenda tha