Essay On Electoral Campaign

For decades many have said the internet is the digital future of America. In today’s modern society, we as citizens heavily rely on the internet and social media on a day to day basics. Whether we are looking up current events, checking on our favorite celebrities, or browsing our social media accounts, it is all centered on technology. Which comes as no surprise, as to why majority of electoral campaigns are moving towards internet based operations. Almost 10 years ago, during the 2008 presidential election, Congressman Ron Paul shocked the world with his unique use of internet medium for his campaign. With his strong motives to make drastic changes in our political system, followers latched on quickly to support him. Although he was unsuccessful

Recent studies have shown that both sides of parties, Republican and Democrat, spend nearly 100% on Facebook for political reasons. “While many of the sites also had links to other SNSs (e.g. Twitter), Facebook was clearly the predominantly linked SNS. In fact, it was linked to nearly 96 percent of the state party websites at T1 (Democratic), and this figure increased to 97 percent at T2 (Republican). Thus, we focus our analysis on Facebook” (Bekafigo 102). Recently, majority of electoral advertising campaigns have also moved to the virtual world. Campaigns are able to reach a larger percentage of the American population with less efforts. Ever notice while you’re scrolling on Facebook and see those ads with the label “sponsored” above them? This is an example of a personalized ad. Companies, or in this case, political campaigns use these ads to specify connect to citizens. Campaign parties often use this tactic to attract young adults, ages 18-25, while they are scrolling on the internet. Young adults are the primary ones targeted by campaigns because they have been labeled as “risk takers”, they are more likely to create blogs and V-Logs of their candidate of choice. “The young generation has greater internet literacy and more positive attitudes to web innovations thus making younger candidates more likely to go online” (Carlson