Political Campaigns being pushed forward with the use of Technology

The use of the internet and other technologies has influenced political campaigns in a radical way over the past few years.  ‘E-Government’ has encouraged citizens to become more involved with social issues and has kept them informed with up-to-date information available to anyone with internet access.  As we saw in the last election in November 2012, social networking sites played a huge role in the election.  E-Government has perhaps increased voter awareness and is helpful with reaching younger adults who are constantly on social media or other websites to begin with.  The Internet is a great tool for politicians to use since they know that they can reach a large amount of people with relatively low cost.  According to the Pew Research Center, the number of online US adults who use social networks has increased from 37 percent in 2008 to 69 percent in 2012.  This is why it is becoming such a huge platform and opportunity to promote political campaigns.  Another finding was that 22 percent of registered voters on social media sites shared their vote publicly  which in turn could influence friends or acquaintances of this voter on the websites.  Another way that E-Government has surfaced during an election is by the use of cellular phones to retrieve information regarding the politicians and their views.  27 percent of registered voters took advantage of this according to Pew Research.  Politicians are also able to accept online donations, which creates a convenient way for voters to support the candidates.  The very top link on Barack Obama’s website directs voters to a site where they can donate money.   There are also many videos and posts about current issues on Obama’s website.  There are currently 35 million+ followers of Barack Obama’s Facebook page and on the days leading up to the election, there were many posts encouraging citizens to vote, with some of the posts being shared over 200,000 times.  Using technology to reach more people has obviously played a huge part in the structure of political campaigns and has helped empower citizens to become more involved and express their views.  What has been your experience with political campaigns on the Internet/social media sites?  Do you think it is having a large impact on the elections in the US and the ability to persuade citizens to vote for a particular candidate?

Sources:  http://pewinternet.org/Infographics/2012/Digital-Politics.aspx

http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Web-20-Powers-Political-Campaigns--.html