Election resources in the digital world

By Sarah Granger

Print Story | Email Story
Add to My Digital Landing

Related Articles

• 2009 Holiday Gift Guide: For the Women
• 2009 Holiday Gift Guide: For the Men
• Introducing Twitter Lists
• Building a Website: Website Design 101
• Building a Website: Selecting a Domain Name and Host

As the election nears, we're inundated 24x7 with messages about candidates and ballot initiatives on TV and online. Navigating the news, sifting through the spin, and avoiding collecting gigabytes of digital political spam can be a real challenge as we move into the final days of the 2008 campaign. More information is available in a greater variety of forms than ever before. Here’s a look at some of the best digital sources along with tips on how to make them work for you.

Politics and Election News on TV and Video

First, a suggestion: Ignore the television ads. Campaigns spend most of their money on these ads in order to shift public opinion, but can you really decide your vote from a slanted, 30-second television commercial? Instead, set your DVR for the debates, political talk shows, and election news. MSNBC supposedly has the most election coverage of all networks, and although CNN is typically thought of to carry pro-Democrat angles and FOX to carry pro-Republican, that's not always the case. Hundreds of hours a week of election coverage is available on TV.

In each election since digital technology began taking hold, one 'killer app' has taken shape as the most effective online vehicle. For the 2008 election, it's online video. Finally thanks to high-speed networks, most voters online can view videos via YouTube or through TV news network websites. Early in the primary season, videos like "I Feel Pretty" of John Edwards combing his hair set to Julie Andrews music, the "Obama Girl" music video, and the "1984" anti-Hillary Clinton spoof video dominated the Net. Now for the general election, video clips from debates, speeches, and candidates on talk shows are already making their way around the Web. Gaffes will no longer be missed; they will be viewed over and over and passed from one person to the next. The same goes for comedic material like the already famous "Saturday Night Live" skits with Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin.

Campaigns on the Web

The first major national campaigns to have Web sites were Clinton/Gore and Dole/Kemp in 1996. Bill Bradley made headlines with his interactive web site in 2000, eventually leading to a fully Web 2.0 campaign for Barack Obama (often called "the Internet candidate") where my.barackobama.com customizes personal Web pages with social networking features for supporters wanting to be involved with the campaign. McCain supporters can start earning points in a similar way through individual user accounts at johnmccain.com.

Campaigns are also taking advantage of existing social networking sites to spread their message. When Barack Obama hit one million facebook supporters, that was a major campaign milestone. Now, he’s rapidly approaching two million. Independent sites have sprung up to support, reject or poke fun at candidates as well. Everywhere we turn, more people are getting involved in politics online.

Campaign Communications

John McCain's 2000 campaign is credited as being the first to fully take advantage of e-mail. It should be no surprise then that they have mastered this art going into 2008. Heading into the final stretch, those of us who have signed-up for campaign e-mail receive it on an almost daily basis, but the great thing about e-mail is it is simple to forward to friends and it usually provides specific goals the campaigns want to achieve by sending messages to supporters.

Text-messaging has also become a cornerstone of campaign digital technology, culminating with Barack Obama's decision to announce his VP choice via text message. The technology couldn't compete with media leaks, but the campaign collected hundreds of thousands of cell phone numbers to use in mobilizing and getting out the vote. Twitter has also become a great way for people and campaigns to share what they’re doing. Twitter can also be set to send feeds via text message, so Twitter users can sign up for urgent election updates from their favorite feeds.

Political News, Information and Opinion Online

Political blogs first came to attention during the 2004 election. One of the most interactive ways to find news and opinion online, blogs such as Daily Kos and The Next Right give Democrats and Republicans respectively a wide range of commentary. The line between blogs and online newspapers has gradually blurred, with sites like The Huffington Post and Townhall.com. Political magazines have gone online, such as The National Review and The Nation, and newspapers now have blogs, like The New York Times' "Caucus" blog. Politics.alltop.com is one good place to start looking for sites you might like.

For more news and resources about technology and the presidential campaign, see techpresident.com, and the author of this article also writes a column about technology in the 2008 election. Finally, don’t forget to register to vote: You can do a lot of the process online. For Republicans, johnmccain.com has a secure site. Democrats, see VoteforChange.

Sarah Granger advises candidates and organizations on technology in campaigns. She directed Internet strategy for a 2004 presidential exploratory organization including the launch of the first true blog by a politician.