Obama and the Internet

Arianna Huffington, editor in chied of The Huffington Post once said: „Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee“.

In his campaign Obama organized his supporters using the Internet, in a way that in the past would have required many volunteers and paid organizers on the ground. The campaign tools have changed since a few years ago. Because of the Internet Obama was able to move thousands of people to organize.

Obama took advantage of sites like Youtube and used it for free advertising. Using such videos ment millions of dollars worth of free advertisement. Those videos posted in his campaign were also more effective than television ads because viewers either chose to watch them or they might recieve them from a friend instead of their television shows being interrupted during the ad.

Obama even created a webside to keep in touch and talk to the citizens. We´re going to end this blog on the words of Mr. Trippi, who ran Howard Dean´s 2004 campaign about Obama´s campaign : „Just like Kennedy brought in television presidency, I think we´re about to see the first wired, connected, networked presidency“.


http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics/


Hanna

Facebook and Twitter protests

In Tunisia there ruled a president by the name of Ben Ali. He ruled an authoritarian regime and in Tunisia there was an illiberal democracy. After many years of Ben Alis´ dictatorship people got fed up and all hell broke loose after a young man set himself on fire, protesting the situation in the country. Unemployment and corruption in the government were the main thing people got fed up with. People used the websites Facebook and Twitter to organize their protests against president Ben Ali and even though the protests weren´t being broadcast on television, footages of them could be seen on the internet. All though there were some internet restrictions in the country, people found a way to get the world to see and hear what was going on. In the end president Ben Ali fled the country with his family. The fight isn´t over for the pople of Tunisia yet for a better society but at least there´s one big obstacle out of the way.

Here´s a news clip from the protests in Tunisia. 

Protests in Tunisia

Ingibjörg  Ýr

Do all governments approve of the internet?

There are many ways that governments can censor information and by censoring the internet governments can influence the media. One may resume that governments try to censor some aspects of the endless flow of information that travels on the internet for different reasons and in different ways.

One form of government cencorship is media regulation and therefore the censorship is written into law. In the United States the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the independent federal body that is responsible for regulating information that is broadcasted for an example by radio, television and satellite. The things that the FCC censors is what wsa considered to be profane, obscene and indecent.

The internet however is a bit of a challange when it comes to censorship. There are internet censorship laws all over the world and requests by states for search engines to limit information. In Chine filtering systems are in place to restrict access to what are considered to be offensive websites including anti-Chine websites, Western news sources and pornography. The government in Singapore decided to censor websites in 2007 that could threaten the sanctity of society. Google is regularly asked to remove websites by Western countries such as the UK, USA and Germany.

It is understandable for some websites to be deleted from the internet and it´s a known fact that all sorts of bad things are put online, some unexcusable offences are even among them. What is important however is that most likely all governments regulate, restrict and inhibit information and that some of it is even in the favour of the health and sanity of the society. But it´s a thin red line for the governments to travel on since it´s the right of the people to get information online, eventhough it´s not in favour of the government. 


Ingibjörg Ýr

The way to get closer to voters

The internet is a media that is interactive. Unlike watching television or listening to the radio, internet users can comment their opinions on news and politicians are even using Facebook to try to get people to become members of the party they´re representing. For an example, those who become „friend of the Conservatives“ in the United States on Facebook will reicieve regular updates and advice on getting involved.

Using social networking sites to drum up political supports is having a huge impact on politics in general, voters and the political environment as well. The internet provides a certain restraint on politicians since messages, videos and news travel fast and anyone who´s interested, or isn´t interested but clicks accidently on the wrong button, will now see straight away if a politician makes mistakes or does something to offend voters. On the other hand though politicians have a broader range of getting into peoples´ homes just by a single message on Facebook or a video on Youtube.

The big question it whether more activity online is actually getting more poeple interested in politics and are poeple getting the right message through. Using propaganda for certain interests groups makes it easy to manipulate what people think regarding high profiled issues. It´s known that videos are seomtimes being edited before they are put on the internet so people should be aware of who got the message online before taking sides and judging on the matter right away. 


Ingibjörg Ýr

Icelandic political parties online

Here you can find the Icelandic political parties online. They all have their agenda on the Internet where voters can also get in touch with the parties. Latest news from Alþingi are put online so the voters can keep up with the latest news, debates and opinions on important matters.

http://www.xd.is/

http://www.samfylkingin.is/

http://www.vg.is/

http://www.framsokn.is/

http://hreyfingin.is/

Ingibjörg Ýr

Mistakes live forever.......

The Internet provides one thing that isn´t talked about all that much, that messages and clips can be viewed over and over again, which perhaps isn´t a good thing when you have made a tiny mistake on-air. This can be awful for politicians since they have to present the perfect image for the voters. Here are some clips from famous politicians in the United States and I bet some of them wished that these clips could be deleted. :)

Oops I did it again.......

Ingibjörg Ýr

Voters influenced by the Internet, the new way to reach out and get votes

When Sen. Obama got elected president of the United States he tried a new approach using the Internet to get to voters. Young voters use the Internet much more now than they did not so long ago and the Internet provides a good way to get the message through to them. It is also interactive that means that the voter can ask questions and get answers, which was hard to do before this enormous use of the internet. Here´s a video that shows how Obama most likely won the elections against McCain by being on top of the media called the Internet and how he could affect the voters by using it during his campaign.

Obama vs. McCain

Ingibjörg Ýr