Although the Web may have miles to go before it starts to seriously influence voter registration — millions of younger people who can’t yet vote but have grown up with the Web — it is already having an significant effect on how candidates relate to the voters.
The internet is also playing a crucial role in attracting a growing number of individuals to politics. And while online news organizations need to be more vigilant about user-generated content, the web’s participatory elements stand only to bring more people into the political process.
There are essentially four audiences a political campaign can seek to reach or interact with the internet:
- The public at large.
- The media.
- Supporters.
- The internal audience.
If you work for a large corporation, it’s a challenge to navigate the waters of politics. But when the company gets involved in national, state and local political races, it can make for some discomfiting situations. Some large technology companies donate money to candidates of all political persuasions. Many of today’s workers are very concerned about “rights” and it’s an important issue. Nobody wants to feel like an indentured servant, and today’s work world is much more cognizant of individual rights than in the past.
Moreover, the internet has now become a leading source of campaign news for young people and the role of social networking sites such as MySpace, Twitter and Facebook is a notable part of the story. Fully 42 percent of those ages 18 to 29 say they regularly learn about the campaign from the internet, the highest percentage for any news source. In 2004, just 20 percent of young people said they routinely got campaign news from the internet. Compared with the 1990s campaigns, far fewer people now say they regularly learn about the campaign from local TV news, nightly network news and daily newspapers. Cable news networks are up modestly since the early year 2000, but have shown no growth since then.
Social networks offer a cheaper and easier way to identify dissidents than other, more traditional forms of surveillance. The internet can be used to spread propaganda very effectively. The web can also be effective in supporting the government line, or at least casting doubt on critics’ position.
These underscores how dramatically social networking sites have become a defining force in modern-day politics. Looking ahead, it's clear that the internet's role in politics will continue evolving as the technology improves and users continuously adapt it for new purposes.