We hear it time and time again in our media studies and political communications classes: Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign revolutionized the role of internet in American politics. According to a June 5 piece in PR Week by David Singleton entitled ‘Conference News Praise for Obama Strategy’, Jeremy Hunt explained that Obama’s internet strategy was unlike anything any political party had ever done before.
A Pew Internet and American Life study on the Internet’s role in the 2008 campaign discovered many interesting statistics on the public’s involvement online throughout the campaign.
According to the study, 2008 was the year that the internet became equal to newspapers and far-surpassed radio as an important source of political information for the American public and over half of all American adults went online to search for information or get involved in the political process during this time.
About one in five internet users shared their personal opinions on issues and the candidates with others by commenting or posting questions on these social sites and one in three users forwarded content to others, according to the study.
Almost half of the internet users watched political videos online, according to the Pew Study. This video by the Obama campaign, with more than a million and a half views on YouTube, got a variety of well-known celebrities to perform his speech in an uplifting way that would make any PR team proud. I clearly remember watching this during the campaign and instantly wanting to know more about Obama and what these celebrities who I admire saw in him and his political views.
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