Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Online media invaluable in '08 election
By Meredith Simons
Oklahoma Daily (U. Oklahoma)
02/14/2008

(U-WIRE) NORMAN, Okla. — It has changed how Americans shop, study and speak. Now, the Internet is changing the way they vote.

Experts say the Internet allows people to inform themselves and share their information with others at unprecedented rates. The speed and ease of this communication is changing the way politicians run campaigns and the way voters view them.

Anthony Nagid, film and video studies sophomore, said he chose his favorite candidate after spending time online, researching the candidates' platforms and watching their YouTube videos.

Nagid said after researching all of the candidates online, he was most impressed by Republican candidate Ron Paul. He downloaded digital versions of Paul's books and read online analyses of Paul's proposed policies.

"After watching and reading all these things, it was just obvious that he was the best choice," Nagid said.

After he decided to support Paul, Nagid created a pro-Ron Paul Facebook group for OU students and got in touch with other Ron Paul supporters via Facebook, messaging the leaders of other groups and offering to help them with their projects, he said.

Nagid's use of the Internet to independently gather information and connect with like-minded voters is an example of how many Americans are using technology to change the political landscape.

"It was obvious to me, even last year that the 2008 presidential election was going to be a milestone year, in terms of voter-generated content," said Andrew Rasiej, the founder of techpresident.com, a Web site that analyzes the relationship between politics and technology.

Rasiej said the rapid expansion of blog, social networking and video sites has changed the way campaigns reach voters and encourage voters to reach out to each other.

From my.barackobama.com, voters can launch their own blogs, plan events and register to vote.

Hillary Clinton's online Action Center invites supporters to send pro-Hillary e-cards, donate money and make phone calls to encourage others to vote for Clinton.

"Political opinion is formed by word of mouth," Rasiej said. "And those conversations traditionally happened over a dining room table or around the water cooler. But those conversations now have the ability to take place on the Internet."

He said the Internet has fostered political conversation with social networking sites, which provide a place where discussion can happen, and more general news and information sites, which provide voters with the information they need to discuss.

Nagid said for him, the Internet's most important role has been informational. Without it, he would not have been able to read so many of Paul's writings or view the videos that persuaded him to support Paul's campaign.

Peter Wallsten, a political reporter for the Los Angeles Times, also said the Internet is changing the political process by putting more information in the hands of voters.

"It's allowing voters to go actively and easily find information that they want," Wallsten said. "So it's definitely making the whole process a lot more democratic."

Maria LaGanga, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, agrees.

"There is a constant stream of information going out and being available, and now a constant platform for it," she said.

LaGanga, who just spent three weeks on the campaign trail with Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, said blogs have fueled the expansion of information availability because of their ability to cheaply produce commentary on every aspect of a campaign.

"This is probably the most covered and most written about campaign ever because not only do you have reporters, but bloggers, and so on," she said.

Wallsten said candidates who used to hold conference calls and press conferences just for traditional reporters are now planning calls and conferences exclusively for bloggers.

Rasiej said the significance of the new online communication is not just found in its ability to disseminate information, but in the fact that the power to disseminate information is put in the hands of average voters.

He said he believes technology is moving political power from the major parties to the citizens by giving every individual the ability to communicate with and influence their friends and family.

"My dad, who is 82 years old, has been forwarding around Barack Obama's Iowa speech," Rasiej said. "That action by my dad, and tens of thousands of other dads, engaging in politics, forwarding information, endorsing candidates - that is changing the dynamics of politics."

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