The Methods and Implication of the Obama Campign Use of Scial Networking Tools

     In an era of online social networking, politics today has seen significant use of sites such as Facebook and Twitter to gather individuals wishing to get involved with government. Defined as the practice and theory of influencing other people on a civic or individual level, politics has historically seen various different ways of getting people involved, ways such as handing out flyers, holding fundraisers, and hosting town meetings. In recent times however, these efforts have paled in comparison to what is possible through the use of online networking, as evidenced with Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, which not only allowed him to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries but also was vital to his taking of the presidency.

     A clear example of the Obama's campaign diverse use of social-networking can been seen in the 2008 primaries. During the presidential primaries, Clinton's campaign established a presence on baby-boomer social-networking website Eons.com as well as urging supporters to visit www.hilaryclinton.com, while Obama's campaign focused efforts on using MyObama.com as a base of operations. From MyObama.com, the Obama campaign thoroughly covered the web communication sphere with a deluge of targeted campaign ads and information on sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, and Twitter. Not only was the Obama campaign able to use these sites to advertise, but it was also able to establish MyBO as a center of campaign activities with features such as posting campaign links, comparing donation money targets, as well as discussing campaign events attended. With this level of interactivity, supporters were at close hand in the Obama campaign, their donations bolstered by the easy donation system set up to collect money for the campaign. Compared to the Clinton campaign's relatively narrowed focus, the Obama campaign made sure to thoroughly cover the social networking aspect of their efforts, documenting every detail as well as calling for an enormous amount of voter interactivity. 

     As technology advances, new ways to implement such technology is inevitable. May it be from drone technologies used to deliver Amazon packages or plastic printers used to construct artificial organs, the future holds many advances, may they be good or bad. As shown with the Obama campaign, the possibilities are endless and far reaching.