While television ads still dominate movement communications , candidates are increasingly using novel engineering prick such as Web sites , blog and automatize calling to hit voters .
In the 2006 election bicycle , 18 per centum of Americans get most of their political data from the Internet , more than double the turn from the previous mid - term election in 2002 . As for voters under 36 years one-time , 35 percent said they relied on the Internet more than any other media for campaign information in 2006 [ source : Pew Internet & American Life Project ] . In political sympathies , image - defining and media direction are the master jobs ofcampaign communications
These communication tools help candidates craft an epitome , which is everything in American politics , according toStanford University ’s Political Communications Lab , which canvass how public opinion and political behavior are colligate . Political campaigns are n’t won through subordination of the issues , but through skillful direction of the media .
The most powerful sensitive for hunting expedition communication continues to be idiot box . In the 2006 mid - full term elections , 69 per centum of Americans let the majority of their political information by watching TV [ author : Pew Internet & American Life Project ] . pol carry on to spend gazillion of dollar sign on political idiot box ad to bolster their ikon or assail their opponents ' credibility . Political ads are not only effective , but also have the potentiality to become their own news stories , gather devoid reporting from broadcast and print journalists [ reference : Stanford University ] .
The rise of the Internet as a powerful medium for campaign communications point to the increasing political importance of theNet Generation . The Net Generation is a term for voters between the ages of 18 and 27 who grew up with eastward - mail accounts , instant messaging crony , cell speech sound and Google . Their world is seeped in technology , and they gestate the same from campaign communication .
In a 2007 survey , thePew Internet & American Life Projectfound that a growing portion of Americans are no longer satisfied with passively accumulate political information online . Instead , they want to apply vane 2.0 tool – blogs , video recording and societal net – to seek out various opinions , create their own political content and share it with others [ source : Pew Internet & American Life Project ] .
And , politicians are mind . They ’re not just hiringpress secretariesto handle campaign communicating , but alsodirectors of online communicationanddirectors of e - strategy[source : the Online NewsHour ] .
In the first quarter of 2007 alone , presidential hopefuls as a radical spent $ 2.5 million on net serve , including stave and technology [ rootage : the Online NewsHour ] . That ’s nothing equate with telly – candidate are expected to spend $ 2 billion to $ 3 billion in the 2008 election on TV advertizement [ source : msnbc ] . But , the return on investing with the cyberspace is telling . With $ 2.5 million in Internet outlay , candidates have already earned $ 25 million to $ 30 million in on-line fund raising [ generator : the Online NewsHour ] .
Web conferencing and teleconference have also become democratic high - tech peter for communicating “ in person ” with elector . on-line town halls andtele - town hallsoffer a candidate the opportunity to blab out directly to targeted voter demographics ( like specific county in an former primary state ) and answer their questions live viaphone , e - mail or online message boards .
In this HowStuffWorks article , we ’ll explore improvement in hunting expedition communications engineering . We ’ll start with campaign Web sites and characteristic like blog , societal web , picture and electronic notifications . Then we ’ll talk over how “ robo - calling ” and teleconferencing technology work in campaigns .
Campaign Web Sites
In the mid - term congressional election of 2002 , only 55 percent of candidates had a campaign entanglement situation . By the 2006 mid - term elections , that number was up to 97 percent [ source : The Bivings Group ] . What politicians are realizing is that the net is n’t a digest - alone metier , but one through which all other media is collected , create and share [ source : Online NewsHour ] . The net can be a television set , a moving picture theater , a tuner place , a telephone , a newspaper , a townsfolk dorm , a fundraiser and a powerful recruiting center .
What we ’ve seen over the retiring three election cps – 2004 , 2006 , and now 2008 – is a speedy enlargement of the feature and functionality offered by campaign Web internet site . In a 2006 report called The cyberspace ’s Role in Political Campaigns , The Bivings Groupidentified three “ tiers ” of campaign Web sites put up different degree of technical mundaneness :
Tier One : Web internet site that offer the basic effort information , such as campaigner life story , contact info , donations and military volunteer signaling - up . In 2006 , 80 to 94 percent of campaign Web sites offered Tier One feature .
tier up Two : Web site also offering blogs , video , audio , RSS feed in and downloads . Between 14 and 55 pct of campaign vane situation qualify as Tier Two in 2006 .
Tier Three : Campaign sites with social networking capabilities ( such as “ house parties , ” team building or personal fund - erect safari ) , an“en español”option and podcasts . These made up 3 to 12 percent of campaign Web sites in 2006 .
[ seed : The Bivings Group ]
The Bivings Group also notes that challengers were much more prone to habituate Tier Two and Tier Three engineering than incumbents , no matter their party association . For model , 32 percent of challengers used blogs , compared to only 10 percentage of incumbents [ source : The Bivings Group ] . tier up Two and Three technologies also were much more potential to be used in hotly contested or “ fundamental ” races [ source : The Bivings Group ] .
Now permit ’s take a closer look at some of the most popular Web 2.0 features of campaign vane sites : blog , societal web , video and electronic notice .
Web 2.0
Blogs
The popularity of Howard Dean ’s presidential campaign web log was the breakout Internet news report of the 2004 election . Dean ’s web log was credit with taking a young , relatively unknown nominee and move him to the top of the Democratic contenders ( until he was derail , in part by anonline video clipping ) .
By the 2006 mid - term elections , 23 percentage of campaign Web sites include blogs write by the candidate or faculty members [ source:']The Bivings Group ] . In that same year , 14 million Americans said they actively read political and media blog , and two million were write about political sympathies on their own blog [ source : Pew Internet & American Life Study ] .
However , not all campaign blogs are created equal . The goal of a campaign web log should be for the candidate to install a relationship with the reader or elector [ source : The Bivings Group ] . Blogs are a direction to share personal view and feelings with the world . For many political candidates ( and their lawyer , in finicky ) , that ’s extremely dangerous dominion . That ’s why so many campaign blogs are nothing more than recycled insistence release in web log signifier [ reservoir : The Bivings Group ] .
movement web log do n’t have to be written by the campaigner ( most are far too busy , or in many cases , too old to infer the medium ) , say analyst from The Bivings Group , but they involve to be write by a passionate , articulated stave member who ’s in signature with the hot issues flying around the blogosphere [ source : The Bivings Group ] . One path to stay plug in is to found relationship with other political blogger . And , the more blogger “ champion ” you have , the easier it is to get the word out about your candidate .
One interesting feature of many 2008 presidential political campaign sites is that they allow single voters to create and conserve personal blogs on the candidate ’s Web land site . This is part of the overall push button for prospect internet web site to mime the features and functionality of democratic societal networking sites likeMySpaceand Facebook . By registering and becoming a member of a military campaign Web website , you’re able to make a profile varlet on which you’re able to host your own web log .
Now let ’s talk more about campaign communications and societal networking .
Campaigning and Other Web Sites
on-line social networking sites likeMySpace , Facebook , LinkedIn , Hi5,Twitterand century of others allow substance abuser to create a personal profile and then connect with sure-enough and new friends . Once connected to these friends , they can forge groups base on shared stake ; they can share photos , video recording and blog ; and they can ship each other messages .
on-line societal networking began as a Net contemporaries - only obsession , but has blow up exponentially in both popularity and the diversity of users . MySpace , for instance , used to be mostly for teens and young musicians . By August 2006 , however , more than 40 percentage of MySpace users were between 35 and 54 class honest-to-god .
The vast majority of 2008 presidential prospect have profile on MySpace , Facebook , YouTube , flickr , del.icio.usand more . Their profile Page are collect spaces for supporters ( and detractor ) . Voters post public message of encouragement or remark on the issues . They answer to and comment on each other ’s messages , starting farsighted threads of conversations that can last for days .
With on-line social meshwork , campaign communications is no longer a one - agency street from candidate to voter . In connection 2.0 lingo , compeer - to - compeer or voter - to - voter communicating is every bit important [ germ : eyeon08.com ] . These sites are also a powerful way for the nominee to discover what the voters are verbalize about and respond quickly .
For example , the Mitt Romney presidential campaign has hire a team of young run prole to supervise social networking site for potentially harmful rumors or misinformation . When a video appeared on YouTube of Romney expressing his support for abortion rightfulness 13 years ago , his campaign immediately posted its own video explaining how Romney ’s stance on the issue has evolved over the yr [ source : Online NewsHour ] .
In a upsurge to capitalize on the popularity of online societal networking , many 2008 presidential candidates have also launched on-line societal connection on their individual cause WWW website . voter can register with a campaign site and become a member . As a member , you have access to social networking and communicating tools such as :
In addition , the two major U.S. political political party have launched their own societal connection , the Democrats ’ PartyBuilder and the Republicans’MyGOP . Both situation proffer features and functionality standardised to those of the individual prospect internet site .
On the next page , we ’ll talk about other Web site campaign engineering science .
Campaigning as a Multimedia Experience
Besides blogging , prospect are also using online picture and electronic notification to hand voter .
Video
More than one-half of U.S. household are look to have high - speed , wideband net access by the end of 2007 [ source : cnetnews.com ] . Significant broadband insight has turned the Web into a truly multimedia experience . As of February 2007 , 21 million Americans say they ’ve watched a political video recording clip online [ source : Pew Internet & American Life Study ] .
All the 2008 presidential candidate internet sites include picture clip of some kind , and many have regularly update online “ TV channels ” devoted to behind - the - picture footage of the candidate . The goal , once again , is to make the campaigner feel approachable to the voter and to countenance the candidate to broadcast his content without going through conventional media channels .
Several presidential candidates have also heldonline town hallson their Web sites . In these events , the campaigner might be in an actual town hall emplacement like Ames , Iowa , but also answering interrogation via e - mail or online message circuit card posts . The event is rain buckets live on the candidate ’s WWW internet site and archived for next wake .
Electronic Notifications
When you visit the campaign Web website of the 2008 presidential candidate , many of them first direct you to a splash Sir Frederick Handley Page where you ’re inquire to enter your e - ring mail computer address . you may bypass this step by clicking on a contact ( usually much smaller ) saying “ Go directly to Candidate.com . ”
E - postal service is a type ofelectronic notification . Electronic presentment are any type of automatize communications send by phone , e - mail service , text content or fax .
A new feature of several crusade Web sites is the power to sign up to receive text edition content via jail cell phone from the drive staff of your favorite campaigner . Themobile sectionof presidential prospect Barack Obama ’s campaign website tolerate you to sign up for specific text messages based on key issues such as wellness , education , Iraq , line and reform . Obama ’s site also allow you to download wallpaper for your prison cell headphone and even Obama ringtones .
A late study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Princeton University found that people who receive a textbook subject matter the day before an election were 4 to 5 percent more potential to vote [ source : New Voters Project ] . school text messages are also incredibly cheap when compared with other “ Get Out the Vote ” techniques like door - to - door canvassing or direct mail . According to the report card , textbook message costs $ 1.56 per vote get compared with $ 67 for lineal ring mail .
Now allow ’s move aside from Web website campaign communicating to speak about how the telephone is being used to get the Book out to voters .
Robo-Calling and Campaigns
The 2006 mid - term elections envision a enceinte increase in the habit of a effort communication proficiency hollo " robo - career . " Robo - vocation is a form of aggregate notification that uses a computer to call thousand of voters with a pre - recorded headphone substance . agree to the Pew Internet & American Life Project , 63 percent of registered voters received an automatise earpiece call with a political content in the final stages of the 2006 elections .
Robo - call are made using anautodialingservice or computer software . Here ’s how this works :
An extra 24 per centum of voter in 2006 received phone calls from veridical human beings exhort them to vote for a fussy nominee . These phone calls were likely made using apredictive dialing system . Predictive dialing computer software automatically dial outbound phone numbers and only eliminate the call to a live agent if a call is successfully reply by a individual . If the computer encounters an answer simple machine or a in use signal , it does n’t fleet along the call [ reference : TMCnet ] .
The reckoner is smart enough to calculate how many calls can be handled by the number of live agent , how many calls will successfully go through and how long each person will remain on the line [ informant : TMCnet ] . Telemarketers typically employ predictive dialers . The telltale pause that accompanies most telemarketing phone call is due to the time required for the computing machine to realise a human spokesperson and connect the call to an agent .
The 2006 elections also saw the first manipulation oftele - township hallmeetings . Tele - townspeople halls are a combination of robo - calling and teleconferencing technologies . Here ’s how tele - town halls work :
Future of Campaign Communications Technology
As nominee adapt to the prominence of societal networking sites like MySpace and Facebook , they must also address the grow presence of alternate online realities like Second Life [ author : Second life-time ] .
Democrat Mike Gravel was the first 2008 presidential candidate to establish an prescribed campaign home base in Second Life [ source : Metaversed ] . John Edwards build his headquarters some months later on , but fell dupe tovirtual vandals .
More and more , the futurity of effort communications is go aside from prescribed spokespeople , paid advertizement and credentialed journalists into the deal of ordinary citizen empowered by over-the-top technology . consort to Micah Sifry of thePersonal Democracy Forum , elector - generated content and grassroots online opening move are hold up to be the “ the wild bill of fare ” of the 2008 election [ generator : TechNewsWorld ] .
For more information about crusade communication engineering and related topics , check out the tie on the next page .
