Exam 2 Results Multiple Choice Average = 74% Short Answer Average = 85% Essay Average = 88% Short Answer

Wag the Dog, Bob Roberts, Bulworth, Head of State 3 negative stereotypes: Politicians are corrupt, political process is a fraud, citizens are stupid Napoleon Dynamite: Outsiders can overcome adversity and prevail; be yourself

Essay In favor of Grandpa: Dumbs down news, less credible, cynical of politics, not taken seriously,

promotes bad stereotypes about politics and citizens, doesn’t offer solutions, can be misinterpreted

Against Grandpa: Gateway to news, 5th estate, multiple sides of story, recall more, engaged more, higher internal efficacy

Politics & The InternetTechnology is changing everythinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

US ElectionsChadwick & Howard, 2009, Ch. 2

Main Argument Examine how US parties and national candidates use internet in campaigns

History of internet campaigning

Why is the internet important?

Less expensive than TV

Can help level playing field for 3rd parties

Easier, faster, and more efficient campaign mobilization

Bypass traditional gatekeepers

Offers citizens more choice of information

Discovery: Experimentation & Exploration1992-1999 First campaign to use internet

1992, George H. W. Bush & Bill Clinton

Bush Posted to bulletin boards and emailed

Speeches and position papers

Clinton Posted to newsgroups, created a Clinton listserv,

Speeches, position papers, biographical information

Impact Limited

Few citizens used internet for politics

Discovery: Experimentation & Exploration1992-1999 March-April 1995: Political parties get involved

Rnc.org

Dnc.org

1996 Presidential Campaign Clinton and Dole have websites

“Brochureware”

Impact Limited, but growing

Dole invited people to visit his website after 1st presidential debate

Within 24 hours, had more than 2 million visitors

Discovery: Experimentation & Exploration1992-1999 1998 Midterm Elections

More than 2/3rds of candidates have websites

State parties building websites

“Brochureware”

Greater use of campaign email

Impact Limited, but growing

Mobilization efforts begin

Jesse Ventura builds email network for Minnesota governor’s race and coordinates events online

Maturation2000-2006Internet helped campaigns in 4 ways:

1. General campaign operations

2. Campaign communications

3. Mobilization

4. Fund –raising

Maturation2000-20061. General Campaign Operations

Information gathering more efficient now Search engines

LexisNexis

RSS feeds

Distribution of campaign materials Al Gore’s 2000 “Gore Stores”

George W. Bush’s 2004 “Wstuff”

John Kerry’s “Kerry Gear”

21st century campaign materials: clothing, reading lists, computer screen-savers and wallpapers, customized posters

Maturation2000-20062. Campaign Communications

Candidate biographies

Policy positions (printer-friendly and downloadable)

Negative opponent-oriented material

Contact information

Search the website

Spanish versions of websites

Targeted advertising and “narrowcasting” to demographics

Emails to campaign staff, volunteers, and supporters

Example: McCain in 2000 emailed supporters to call 10 Republicans in NH for primary voting

Maturation2000-20063. Mobilization

Beyond informing, implies engagement

Blogs 1st Use: Howard Dean 2004 primary

Now a campaign standard

Interactive with comment feature

Events State and local campaign events

Ways to volunteer locally

Voter registration

Early voting

Maturation2000-20064. Fund-raising Online

2000

$1 million mark – Bill Bradley, Democratic primary

$500,000 in one day – John McCain, Republican primary

2004

$20 million, 40% of campaign – Howard Dean, Democratic primary

$14 million, 5% of campaign – George W. Bush, Republican incumbent

$89 million, 33% of campaign – John Kerry, Democratic candidate

Donor Profile: Middle-class, educated, politically active

Donor Appeal: Candidates who capture public mood and underdog candidates

Post-Maturation2006 & BeyondLimitations of Campaign Websites

Self-selection problem

Visitors are existing supporters

Reach small percentage of voters

Requires motivation

Going Beyond Websites

Media-controlled tools

User-controlled tools

Post-Maturation2006 & BeyondMedia-Controlled Online Communication

Advertise on media websites Local TV, local newspapers, and local radio websites most common ad buys

National newspaper and blogs popular too

Cheaper than TV

Reach more voters than campaign websites

Get featured on traditional media as well

Grew more than 700% from 2002 to 2006

Political blogs: See Technorati Daily Kos, InstaPundit, Eschaton, and CrooksAndLiars

Appeal to more extreme viewpoints

Post-Maturation2006 & BeyondUser-Controlled Online Communication

Social networking sites increase self-publishing

YouTube Campaign advertising, speeches, conversations to supporters, rallies

3rd party, bloggers, independent-media, traditional media , and entertainment presence

Promotes candidates’ gaffes (e.g., Hillary’s singing) and issue contradictions (e.g., Mitt Romney & abortion)

Democratizes “gotcha journalism” – Individuals can post

Average visit is 28 minutes

Post-Maturation2006 & BeyondUser-Controlled Online Communication

Facebook Formal campaign profiles

“Digital yard signs” – Fan groups

Recruit volunteers, spread news, link back to campaign website

Pitfalls Lack of control

Youth most active online, but least participatory for voting

Conclusion Internet is NOT TV

Self-selection problem

Most active are existing supporters

Reach small percentage of voters

Requires motivation

But, it can help with…1. General campaign operations

2. Campaign communication

3. Mobilization

4. Fund-raising

Moving more toward interactivity and multimedia

In-Class Assignment #17 Blog Post 9 Discussion

Who’s campaign did you pick to work for?

What would your new media strategy be?

How would you use new media to target particular demographic groups?

What You Said On Your Blogs OBAMA 2012 REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER 2012

Continue successful new media strategy from 2008

Get campaign videos on popular YouTube channels (e.g., Shane Dawson)

Campaign on ESPN

Visit Conservative Talk Shows, Get positive coverage on Fox News

“Change” or “Yes We Can” motto?

Use negative issue/policy ads

Appeal to independents and older people

Text alerts

Need the youth vote

YouTube Low budget, comical, informative ads

featuring famous supporters

Social networking sites Organize conservatives

Monitor for embarrassing material for our candidate and provide counterarguments

Text alerts

Positive-based campaigning

Web 2.0Chadwick & Howard, 2009, Ch. 15

Working With Web 1.0:History of Online News in the US First newspapers go online between 1990-1992

1994: 60 newspapers had websites

1995: Major news organizations had websites

1998: Between 1,600-2000 newspaper websites

2002: 3,400-4,000 newspaper websites

Regular consumption of online news grows 2% in 1996

31% in 2006

Well, What Was Web 1.0? 1990-2005

Computer-based web browsing

Dial-up connections

Content Static

Text-based

Few graphics

“Shovelware”

Dominated by techies

Defining Web 2.0 2005-Present

Increased mobility Wifi

Cell phones, iPods, iPads

Broadband, high-speed

Content Audio and video

Interactive Flash

Original web content

User-generated content Easy upload to disseminate text, audio, video, and photos

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, WordPress, Blogger, etc.

News on Web 2.0 Contributory: “Citizen journalists”

Commenting is easy: Message boards, blogs, email

Suggest story ideas more easily

Submit news footage and reporting (CNN’s iReport, Wyoming Christmas tree)

Customized: “Daily Me” iGoogle, Yahoo, newspapers

Converged and competitive: No clear media boundaries Newspaper websites produce video / local TV station websites produce text

Fight for breaking news

Student EvaluationsPretty pretty please fill them out!

News on Web 2.0 Niche markets: Targeted groups

Linguistic: Spanish news in Arizona

Regional: New West

Alternative/independent: Indymedia

News magazines: Slate

Lefties: Daily Kos

Online news aggregators: News portals Google News

Yahoo! News

AOL

International NewsMillions of Americans visit these sites

BBC News, The Guardian, The London Times, Al-Jazeera

BBC News visits slightly higher (5.6 million) than Fox News (5.5 million)

Diversity of international news

An illusion

News agencies dominant (AP, Reuters) Between 60-100% of Yahoo!, AOL, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN news

New York Times and BBC News show least reliance

In-Class Assignment #18 Are the top stories on the home pages of The New York Times, Al Jazeera,

and BBC News all the same?

How would you compare the content across these three news sites?

Have you ever visited any international news websites before this assignment? Why or why not?

What did you learn from visiting these international news websites?

Why do you think Americans would want to visit news from international sources online?

What type of Americans do you think visit these sites?

Market Leaders: Some Things Don’t Change Top websites in popularity (Nielsen/NetRatings)

1. Yahoo! News

2. MSNBC

3. CNN

4. AOL News

5. Gannett

6. IBS

7. New York Times

8. Knight Ridder

9. Tribune

10. USA Today

11. Google News

Market Leaders: Some Things Don’t Change Why? There’s so many other choices.

1.Audience convenience to check headlines quickly

2.Brand strength

3.Credibility of information

Alternative sources: On the rise

53% internet users went to non-market leader websites in ‘06 midterms

19% internet users went to satire sites (The Onion, Daily Show)

$$$ ??? Not Really Online news largely unprofitable

Few charge for basic access

Common to charge for additional services Archives

Classifieds

Multimedia

In-depth coverage

Measurement problem No standard to count “visitors” (website hits, ad clicks, unique visitors, time on site)

Need to collect more visitor data for advertisers

Profit possible if online ads take off

Audience Input Does the internet increase audience input?

The potential is there Email

Blogs and comments

Chat rooms

iReport

Creation of “audience-editors”

But still editorial control of comments

Journalists don’t respond

Few readers actually engage 13% visit journalists’ blogs

13% emailed journalists

Unequal AccessInternet users and early adopters of technology

Young

Wealthier

Educated

Likely to post content

Is Web 2.0 really spreading news ideas and enlightening citizens?

ImplicationsUltimate Goal: Reduce Costs

Convergence Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV, Tampa Bay Online

Increase of deadline pressure

Increase of re-packaging material

Increase of demand for multimedia skills

Decrease in the number of journalists

Conclusions for Web 2.0PRO CON

More news outlets available for citizens

Some visit non-US news sites, blogs, and niche sites

Radical, independent, alternative news easy to find

Potential for contributory/citizen journalism

Yet, market leaders continue to dominate web

Still reliance on AP and Reuters Less information diversity

Cost-cutting is a priority Hurts news coverage

Readers’ online behavior is recorded

Editorial control still