The Pew Research Center has new findings showing a rise in Internet use by Americans in receiving campaign news and information. Nearly a quarter of Americans (24%) “say they regularly learn something about the campaign from the internet” which is up from just 13% in 2004. The study polled 1,430 American adults.
Not surprising the use of social networks among young people as a way of learning about the campaign is now an important tool and the use of local news by all surveyed is down, markedly since the 2000 election.
For those looking to show a revolution in online campaigning the research doesn’t provide it. Instead a very large percentage of those surveyed (52%) say they came across campaign information while doing something else online rather than solely seeking it out. Meanwhile while Internet dominates those 30 and younger, those 30+ still get the majority of their campaign information from traditional media.
So as one would expect the use of the Internet in learning about the election is up but still has a long way to go.
Senator Hillary Clinton has become the first guest blogger on Glamour magazine’s Glamocracy blog using the opportunity to write a piece on women finding their voices. For many who have hoped to see greater use of blogging by the candidates themselves and not just their staffers, the piece is probably a disappointing read, more like a short essay or editorial and of course it is for a mainstream media outlet. With that said, it is a step in the right direction!
Glamour has invited all of the candidates to either guest blog or answer questions and Senator John McCain will be next.
techPresident was nice enough to lump me in with a host of far better writers on the topic of how the candidates are using the Web for a 2007 in review post. You can check out the highlights of all of our thoughts at techPresident. Very interesting conclusions with Ron Paula and Barack Obama leading the pack in most questions but some mentions for John Edwards, Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton in there.
Not many Republicans are seen as really using the Web effectively, other than some brief Mitt Romney and John McCain mentions. For the most part I found it interesting that many of us who were asked to comment agreed on most of the answers.
Thanks to techPresident for letting me be involved!
Yahoo has a political dashboard I have been playing around with. You can find out who is leading in state and national polls, how many people are eligible to vote in each state which is also broken down by race and check out who won in the last few elections for each state and nationally.
SecureWorks has an interesting although technical article up about the innerworkings of Ron Paul spam:
On the weekend of October 27, 2007, the Internet was suddenly bombarded with a rash of spam emails promoting U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul. The spam run continued until Tuesday, October 30, when it stopped as suddenly as it began. At the same time, political blogs began to light up, accusing the campaign (or at least its ardent supporters) of running a criminal botnet for political purposes. We decided to cut through the spin and take a closer look at this botnet to determine its origins and shine some light on who might be responsible.
the recent flurry of Ron Paul spam originated from a Reactor botnet controlled by a commercial spammer through a colocation facility in the US.
Researchers: Ron Paul campaign e-mails originating from spambots
The researchers analyzed header elements of the spam e-mails to trace them back to zombie systems that were infected with the Srizbi trojan, an unusual piece of malware with highly advanced features.
The Boston Globe has an interesting story about how candidates are still turning to television to reach voters.
I have been warning net-evangelists for a year now not to discount so easily the power of television or what is and will undoubtedly continue to be candidates reliance on it. The Internet is powerful, it is an amazing way to disseminate information and raise money, but in sheer capacity to influence television is still king.
The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years, using purchase cards and the negotiating power of the government to reduce costs of standardized procurement, auctioning surplus federal property, and reducing the erroneous payments identified by the Government Accountability Office, and closing the CEO pay deductibility loophole. The rest of the plan will be funded using a small portion of the savings associated with fighting the war in Iraq.
Reform No Child Left Behind
Reward effective teaching
Make math and science a national priority in education
He would pay for a number of his initiatives by delaying a plan for the United States of America to return to the moon and be a stepping stone for human exploration of Mars. This leaves me wondering how we can make science and math a national priority for students while canceling an initiative that would make America competitive with China, Russia, India & Japan while creating scientific discoveries that could fuel our economy not to mention inspire child. A five year delay would likely remove any competitive edge the U.S. has over other nations.
The New York Times has an article by Saul Hansell looking into the use of online advertising networks and how campaigns are utilizing them with often undesired effect. The big example given is the appearance of Mitt Romney ads on Gay.com however it is a problem I’ve hardly seen limited to that one candidate or incident. Read the rest of this entry »
As noted a few days ago FOX News has told Republican candidates they cannot use debate footage from the network in their political ads. Now Mitt Romney is challenging FOX by using debate footage in his latest ad and his lawyer has sent a five page letter to the corporation arguing use of the footage is “fair and legal”.
The campaign is arguing that use of the footage represents the “very essence” of the first amendment and the freedom of political speech and that FOX, which benefited from the candidates appearance by selling commercial time.
While I agree and argued the other day that debate footage should be free I do have to protest and say Romney and the others could have EASILY worked this out long ago by refusing to appear on the stage unless FOX released the copyright to all footage.
The Caucus reports that FOX is sending legal notices out to Republican candidates over their use of debate footage and images in campaign ads on their web sites. Previously FOX had only targeted Senator John McCain.
Earlier in the year there was momentum from Democrats to keep debate footage copyright free and open to the public. That quickly died and since that point both parties have held their debates and forums with organizations that reserve copyright. That hasn’t stopped the candidates from posting clips of their favorite moments on YouTube. Read the rest of this entry »
