Sunday, November 11, 2007

Who Needs a T.V. Anymore?

For starters, although I decided to go to American University, in Washington, DC, I am not into politics. Many people are surprised to hear that, which I understand. I never followed politics in high school and even here, I just pay my attention to the primary's. I came to AU for reasons other than its location, but that's another story.

The discussion this week is about how politics is taking over the internet. I am not surprised to see this happen. I view politics as a business, which has a budget and a workforce. They have strategies and game plans in which to campaign their candidates. Using the internet is simply another tool in which to do so. They are finding innovative ways to get their names out to the public and to display their views. From the Pickled Politics article, Sunny writes, "The supporters understand politicians need them to sustain their campaign, so they donate money and volunteer their services after watching targeted messages."

The other issue addresses the fact that people, usually young adults, are using the internet to spread a message and create a plan of action. In ABC's, "Person of the Week: Ana Slavin and Nick Anderson", Charles Gibson talks about how these two teenagers raised money for Darfur through web 'friends'. This is very similar to politicians trying to gain an edge in today's world. More and more people are connecting to the internet, and teenagers realize that. I am in fact very proud of what they did and commend their actions. It just goes to show how powerful the internet can be.

3 comments:

rachbrandon said...

As you said, the internet is indeed a powerful thing. Campaigns are conducted in a business matter (man, are you in Kogod or what? ha!) so they know that if they want to connect to our demographic they better get online. Anothr problem they face is that our generation can be rather apathetic, so the real challenge for these candidates will be grabbing our attention on the web when we already have the option of sifting through so many other things.

Joe Khedouri said...

This is very true, I am in kogod. They train well.

I agree with your comment. We can be apathetic and lazy so it's even more amazing when things actually happen.

khaled said...

yur totally right, no suprises it's the Internet era. and as you mentioned plotics is really like business. polticians have a "voice" to sell to the public and the use of social networking made it much easier to reach their "customers" or advocates.