Politics & the Internet

Last night, instead of finding a television to watch breaking election news, I stayed at my computer, checking back in to credible news sites to find out any updates. This made me think back to the ways I used to find out breaking election news-- even sophomore year, during the Presidential election, I remember being with a ridiculous amount of people huddled around a dorm room television. And I could've done this again I guess, if I'd wanted, but I think that something has changed in the way America and I do politics.

There are many advantages to using the internet instead of the television to find out breaking election news. For one thing, I didn't have to sit through some news anchor's meaningless drivel as he tried to fill up time between election projections. I was also able to immediately access information regarding the exact races I was interested in finding out about, without having to sit through in-depth profiles of Nebraska's House candidates. Most importantly, at least for me, I was able to multi-task throughout the whole night, keeping a handle on both my school work and the future of America! Did anyone else find that this year they shifted to the internet from watching television for election coverage?

Another note: I think there has also been a similar shift in the strategies campaigners are using to find and address prospective voters. The internet allows users to access information encyclopediacally (thank you, Hamlet on the Holodeck); now that the internet can look just as spiffed up and polished as an expensive television advertisement, I think it makes sense that both Americans and lobbyists are starting to use the internet far more during the campaign process. What's interesting is that although campaign websites possess the ability to provide more information on an issue, they are still in a lot of cases keeping it boiled down to television comprehension levels--that is, instead of allowing political websites to be used as places where campaign issues are discussed more deeply, candidates and their websites have still maintained that sort of icky politician slime-ball feel of their TV advertisements. Which to me, signals not that the growing use of websites is supplementary to the television advertisements, but that the websites are designed with the same goals in mind as the television advertisements, thus indicating both a shift in campaigning, and to be honest a real loss of opportunity to provide citizens with more useful information in the voting process.