As an older student I thought that this subject wouldn’t be that interesting to me and I wouldn’t really learn anything new. I’ve lived through these changes and I can remember when there was no YouTube, Facebook or Netflix. My friends and I only used the internet to illegally download films and music which resulted in the death of many computers in my home growing up. I’ve have always been interested in international politics and I have paid attention to the changes that news outlets have had to make over the years in regards to expanding their reach online. However I was surprised to learn that 2008 was the first ‘Internet Election’ that saw American National candidates embrace the internet using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to raise money and campaign. Millions of dollars were raised using the internet as a fund raising tool and statistics form the Pew Research Centre showed that 74% of President Obama supporters had received news and information about the 2008 election presidential online. 1998 was the first time a news story was broken on the internet and just last month Fox News teamed with Google to stream the GOP debate (Republican Presidential Candidates) live. The news industry and the internet have been on a long journey together and the history of the internet tells that people are always willing to embrace different ways of consuming media. The Pew Research Centre has some interesting statistics on Internet use in relation to news, I’d advise anyone interested in American News & Politics to check out the link below.
Daniel Williams
http://www.pewinternet.org/2008/06/15/the-internet-and-the-2008-election/
Network Society and the Media 
Daniel, this is a very interesting topic to chose because it allows us to archive massive amounts of data to determine, by the end of the election, which social media platforms have proved to be the most successful for political campaigning. In an article on Newsweek, http://europe.newsweek.com/racing-twitter-white-house-2016-presidential-hopefuls-social-media-328772?rm=eu , there is a graph that shows almost every runner has a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube channel. Some of them have accounts on LinkedIn, Snapchat (with their own filters), Meerkat and Periscope. These are developing social media platforms with less users that may not guarantee the same following as some of the other social media giants. My question is which social media platform do you think is the most successful and do you think this election will encourage campaign followers to join the less trafficked applications?
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Before I clicked on the link (great find btw) I would have said Twitter because it was created for mobile use and most stories I’ve seen covering voter reactions always seem to be from twitter. So I wasn’t surprised that they all had a twitter accounts but just to see all those ticks for the various apps really hit me. These candidates are leaving no stone unturned and I’m sure the candidates using Snap chat were trying to steal a march on the candidates that weren’t. As for the driving campaign followers to less trafficked apps I definitely think it’s possible especially where Meerkat is concerned. Imagine you can’t attend the town hall that Jeb Bush is speaking in but you have a friend there that can share a live stream with you on Meerkat or Facebook as it happens.
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Daniel, I find this fascinating. You could turn everything in your favor with just a drop of imagination. And I’m saying imagination because having a Snapchat account is not a revolutionary thing to do. But it matters how you use it, right? It matters when you do it and how. And political campaigns have always used tricks to get a sit in the front row but I believe that Social Media is a powerful weapon to use against the other candidates and if you have imagination when using it, you could actually be a step closer to the prize.
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Daniel, I find this fascinating. You could turn everything in your favor with just a drop of imagination. And I’m saying imagination because having a Snapchat account is not a revolutionary thing to do. But it matters how you use it, right? It matters when you do it
and how. And political campaigns have always used tricks to get a sit in the front row but I believe that Social Media is a powerful weapon to use against the other candidates and if you have imagination when using it, you could actually be one step closer to the prize.
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I found this post very interesting, Daniel. I liked how you focused on the use of the internet for elections, it’s not something I personally knew much about. I also liked the point of the death of many computers due to illegally downloading films and music.. Very relatable!!
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