Thanks for Reading!

Well, as it turns out, blogs aren't as easy as you'd think. However, this was by far the best way to explore Obama's campaign.

I think a few "Thank you"s are in order.

Thank you:

to everyone who took time to read this blog

to anyone who commented or participated in the poll

to numerous YouTube authors for posting such entertaining and useful videos

to authors from the New York Times, Boston Globe, BBC, the list goes on

Henry Jenkins for your insightful book Convergence Culture

Thanks again for reading everyone!

"This is your victory"

Looking toward the future, we see that these new literacies do not only affect the elections, but also the decisions made by the politicians in office. In fact, one of President Obama’s biggest plans while in office is to strongly implement the newer technologies to better the lives of Americans. The plan includes ensuring an open online community to better share information, creating a transparent democracy, and encourage competitiveness among Americans (Obama ’08, 1). Obama is hoping to continue the same clear and personal communication between the White House and the public that he had with his campaign. This should include governmental information about decisions being made that have previously not been widely available. These new literacies appear to have a dramatic effect on the Obama Presidency, and will most likely influence future elections and the way our country is governed by encouraging the participation of the public.

By incorporating the new literacies, Obama transformed the way the public views politics in general, especially elections. The new literacies not only helped Obama gain popularity from the younger generation, but they also changed the way voters think about candidates. Similar to JFK, he found a step up over his opponent McCain and was able to win the election. While some believe that this election was more about African American history or another historical event, I believe that the biggest influencer in the 2008 election was simply a combination of new and fresh ideas and the use of new literacies. By having an abundant funding system, great popularity and recognition, and exceptional, dedicated volunteers, Obama was greatly successful in the election and completely altered the way the public views governmental leadership.

"I have a Scream"

New literacies affect every campaign, even if a candidate does not partake in using them directly. In 2004, politician and hopeful Presidential candidate Howard Dean broke ground in his use of the new literacies to gain better funding through smaller donations. Unfortunately, technology was not as widely known in general and especially in politics and Dean focused too much on new technology and did not include enough community, so he dropped out of the race (Schifferes, 1). Dean later paid for his mistaken usage of the internet— because he was one of the first to really incorporate the internet into his campaign, hundreds of spoofs were made of his campaign videos, including a video entitled “I Have a Scream” as well as one involving the Janet Jackson Superbowl mishap (Jenkins, 225). Obama learned from Dean’s mistakes and made sure to make community the center of his campaign. The availability and popularity of the new literacies changed dramatically between the 2004 and 2008 elections, such as YouTube’s jump in popularity and usage. By using YouTube, Obama was able to have free advertising and increase the amount of viewers (Miller, 1). This form of campaigning was extremely popular because people sought after it themselves rather than be forced to watch in during a television show. People also favor the internet over other forms of literacy for their information because they can copy and paste information from a text or a video into a conversation on a blog or website to argue a point or support a candidate they like. The online videos also allow the public to watch a debate as many times as they choose, providing them the opportunity to closely observe the candidates in a specific situation (Miller, 1). The only downside to these videos is that while people can observe the candidates strengths, they can also observe and expose every weakness. This is seen through an amazing amount of derogatory videos that have come out about every candidate. However, that is what the new literacies are all about—transparency and authenticity. Candidates can no longer deny saying something in a speech or change their wording later to sound more eloquent. The public is watching more closely now than ever.

Here's the "I have a Scream" speech on video--wait until the end, it's worth it:

Blue State Digital

The technology behind the sites is rather interesting and unusual for a presidential candidate. Instead of using a big name company to back him, Obama once again focused on the smaller, simpler option, using a company called Blue State Digital. At this point, Blue State Digital was just a small start up company getting work wherever they could find it. When Jascha Franklin-Hodge, a MIT dropout and designer for the company, received the call for help from the Obama campaign, he was thrilled. The main way they contributed to the campaign was building and organizing the My Barack Obama site, which would eventually become the central hub of the entire campaign. They also continued working with him after the election to build a new transition website, called change.gov (Talbot, 1). This site was formed so that the public could still feel that personal connection with Obama as he came into office. Of course, times have already changed, and there is a newer, more up to date site named whitehouse.gov organized by yet again, BSD. All of these sites offer the important information that people need on a governmental website, but they also feature fun, user-friendly aspects, such as a photo of the day and a blog page (whitehouse.gov). These new literacies not only affected Obama in his campaign, but all future campaigns, whether presidential or not.

Here's Blue State Digital's website now (it's a little bigger than it was before Obama's campaign):

Blue State Digital

The Fountain of Youth

By using these new literacies, Obama attracted the younger generation, a group of voters that had overall been previously apathetic about politics according to Thomas Patterson, a professor of Harvard University. “Since the start of this campaign…I think what we’ve seen is a second source of energy for young voters and that’s the Obama campaign…He happened to have the kind of personality, the kind of message that appealed to them (Schifferes, 1).” A larger part of this new message that attracted the young generation was the way it was presented to them. There are few people in the younger generations that want to sit down and read the entire newspaper to get their information, but if it is easily accessible online, especially on sites they frequent, it is much more likely they will respond in a vocal and positive manner. Many children and young adults find the political jargon confusing and overwhelming. Jenkins suggests that by involving new literacies through technology in politics, this younger generation will feel like they have a sort of control on a very small level, causing them to become more immersed in the subject. Jenkins argues this idea with the recently popular Alphaville, an online community populated by users of The Sims Online. One of the largest demographics using this game was the younger generation. Virtual worlds like Alphaville allow younger people to speak their mind and feel like what they have to say is important and respected (Jenkins, 239). It is unsure if a measure this drastic would be successful in politics, but the simple involvement of new literacies would increase this feeling of empowerment and the youth’s involvement. These technologically advanced campaigning options were difficult to produce, but were easily and positively viewed by the public.

"Just Facebook me about it.."

Perhaps the biggest advantage Obama had in the election was his popularity and recognition throughout his campaign. Obama’s decision to run actually stemmed from a MySpace page that his supporters made for him prior to candidacy (Dignan, 1). Once he began campaigning, Obama steered away from the more abrasive e-mails and television ads that always interrupt you while you try to watch your favorite show. Rather, he chose to incorporate blogging sites, networking sites such as Facebook, a personal website allowing a personal connection with the public, as well as YouTube videos to get his points across and gain recognition. Obama was not looking for the cutting edge, newest technology available to help him win the election; instead, he kept it exciting yet simple. He stuck with things the majority of the computer-using public could understand—movable text and embedded videos (Dignan, 1). The real advantage Obama gained from using these new technologies was the sense of community and empowerment to the public.

As previously discussed, Obama had an unbelievable group of volunteers, and because his campaign largely took place through the internet and the public’s personal computers, a majority of the work and organization was outsourced to his supporters (Dignan, 1). This aided Obama with his campaign, especially with the election’s time constraints because he had thousands helping him. Volunteers were able to organize campaigning events in states that Obama did not target directly, widening his campaign. It also got his information out to the public in a rapid amount of time. Obama took full advantage of sites like Facebook because of the already established community feel it has. As David Carr, a writer from CIOZone, stated, “The Obama campaign has Chris Hughes, who was one of the three co-founders of Facebook and now runs the campaign’s my.barackobama.com, which itself is a sort of social network (Dignan, 1).” Obama was able to align himself with a few key people in charge of these community sites to better connect with people. He knew that he was not an expert in the field and therefore called upon those that were.

Money, Money, Money!

Like John F. Kennedy in his election, Barack Obama used new literacies in a way that gave him a drastic advantage over his opponent, John McCain. By the time his candidacy was announced, he had already set up a complete website, fully accessible by the public. As previously addressed, it included links to donate money as a place to discuss and organize campaigning meetings (Shifferes, 1). Through his websites, hehad a group of people already committed to volunteering and campaigning for Obama before the election even began. These people, connected through his website, aided him in setting up some important ground-work in the key swing and caucus states (Shifferes, 1). This was especially helpful in defeating Hilary Clinton’s campaign to become the 2008 Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee because people who were voting democratically were already committed to Obama through his volunteers. By using his volunteers early on and taking small sums of money in donations, Obama’s funding was overflowing, and he was able to knock Clinton out of the running completely. Unlike Obama, Clinton used big time television advertising to gain large sums of money from fewer donators. This eventually caused her to pay out of pocket for her campaign, and she was forced to resign (Shifferes, 1). Unlike Clinton, Obama chose to focus on large and small donors with almost complete equality. Through his use of new literacies such as his website and blogs, he was able to gain most of his funding from online donation sites. After being named the Democratic nominee, Obama refused the help of any public financing, making his decline into a part of his argument and campaign. He stated that taking money from the taxpayers was not the best way to campaign, making him even more popular with the people(OpenSecrets.org, 1). Because he declined the help of public financing, he had no limitations or regulations attached to his funding. This allowed him to pour his money into the campaigning that he thought was the best and most effective. Obama also made the point to let the public know that they were completely funding his campaign through their small donations—in fact, over 91% of the contributions Obama had gotten in late June of 2008 had been under one hundred dollars (Mooney, 1). Obama’s choice of funding combined with his use of new literacies drastically affected the campaign.

Question to think about: What did you think when you heard that Obama turned down the help of public financing that many candidates eagerly accept? Were you impressed or disappointed and why?

From JFK to Obama

People gathered around the television to watch JFK's televised debate against Nixon:

Obama has often been compared to John F. Kennedy in his election and campaigning tactics. John F. Kennedy was the first candidate to involve television in elections, providing a whole new angle of each candidate. The percentage of televisions in homes jumped dramatically from a mere 11% in 1950 to a grand total of 88% in 1960 (JFK , 1). People could now put a face with the name and voice they heard over their radios and read in their newspapers. And, although we would like to think appearance has nothing to do with an election, it most certainly does. John F. Kennedy constantly appeared clean cut, healthy, and to many women, attractive. The public is overall more likely to vote for someone with those physical characteristics. However, beyond all of that, John F. Kennedy’s personal connection with the public through television was what won him the votes when the election got heated in the end. Like Obama, JFK was not favored by some voters because of a “controversial background”, specifically his youth, his Catholic beliefs, and the belief that he was not trained or versed in foreign affairs (JFK, 1). John F. Kennedy combated these setbacks by talking directly with the public through the newest form of literacy, television. He held a televised debate with Richard Nixon, Vice President at the time, and showed up ready for action. He wore clothing that stood out from the grayscale background and spoke directly to the cameras, differing drastically from Nixon, who appeared distant and uncomfortable on video. John F. Kennedy was able to fill in a gap that the public felt with Nixon, gaining many more supporters. After the debate, television viewers thought Kennedy would surely win; however, radio listeners felt that Nixon was substantially ahead. However, the first televised campaign and debate ended up completely altering the public’s opinion and ruling the election—out of four million people that voted the way they did because of the televised debate, three million voted for Kennedy (JFK, 1). Kennedy also aided his campaign greatly by grouping himself with former forward thinking Democratic Presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt with his fireside chat. By using the new literacies available at the time and linking himself with other successful politicians similar to himself, Kennedy was able to win an otherwise toss-up election—without them, there is a good chance Nixon would have would have been the new President.

Some People Never Change

Certain groups of people that did not agree with this new sort of campaigning and do not believe that the new literacies aided Obama in any way. It is necessary to address the effects and disputes caused because of the generation gap. The younger generations were shown to be overall more receptive to Obama’s campaigning tactics than older generations. However, a strict line cannot be drawn in this category anymore because there is a constant blurring of where the gap presently lies. Also, some people will continue to vote for a certain political party, rather than an actual candidate. In these cases, Obama’s new campaign may not have affected his success. Others believe that Obama’s campaign was aided more by his appearance and background instead of his use of the new literacies. Coming in as the first young, African American male to run for President automatically makes you a target and a celebrity. Some voters supported Obama because of these characteristics without really looking into his plans or opinions on topics. However, taking these few groups into account, I believe that the new literacies aided Obama in his election in a substantial way.

A new way to campaign and fundraise

Compared to candidates before him as well as in the 2008 election, Obama formed and implemented a completely new way of campaigning. Rather than using to use the more traditional methods of communication, such as radio and television ads, televised speeches, and written statements in newspapers, he used new literacies that reached out to a modern society. The new literacies he chose to use included YouTube videos (viral and scholarly), blogging sites, Facebook fan pages and applications, personal websites, and even an iPhone application that allowed you to contact your friends who live key caucus states to further support of Obama. Through these new avenues of communication, Obama was able to rapidly gain popularity and recognition, as well as gain funding more efficiently to aid him in his election. By viewing his website alone, you can see his personal statements and thoughts on a variety of issues, as well as donate to his campaign in increments as small as just five dollars (mybarackobama.com,1). Obama collected one of the largest funds for his campaign of any presidential candidate in history because of the millions of negligible donations—it allowed for even those without a high income to contribute and feel involved with his campaign and decisions. Another thing that contributed to his wealth as a candidate was the fact that very little was being used for advertising his campaign. He used almost exclusively online videos on sites such as YouTube, paying millions less than he would for television. For example, if Obama had bought the 14.5 million hours on television that people spent watching his videos, he would have paid around 47 million dollars (Miller, 1). This amazing amount of funding paired with his instant and contagious popularity and recognition aided him drastically in the election, especially early on in the race.

Here's Obama's personal campaigning site:

http://my.barackobama.com

First Post! Introduction to the Topic

“This victory alone is not the change we seek—it is only the chance for us to make that change,” remarked Obama on his victorious election night. That night was more than a victory for Obama, it was one that many Americans felt. Obama completely changed the way Americans view him as a Presidential candidate, as well as other politicians through their elections and in office. Although Obama was seen as slightly controversial, he was able to successfully win an election using the new literacies as his primary avenue of communication to connect with the public. By taking advantage of some of these new literacies, Obama’s campaign formed a new way to gain attention in elections and govern in politics by enabling the public to feel in control of the outcome of the election and empowered in the decisions made in office.

Here's possibly the most popular viral video you will see involving Obama--thought it was interesting and very impacting:

Welcome

The purpose of this blog is to explore how the new literacies (Facebook, blogs, YouTube, etc) affected Barack Obama's campaign in the 2008 Presidential election. I will put up each topic as it's own blog post--let me know what you think through comments. Also, don't forget to participate in the poll! Thanks so much for visiting!