The Internet and Campaign 2012: Developments and Trends

摘要

The Internet has by now affected virtually every aspect of political campaigns and campaigning. While this statement may seem fairly banal, it hides a number of realities about the various roles the medium plays in selecting presidents and other politicians. For example, not only can citizens now get news about campaigns, candidates, and so on, whenever and wherever they find it convenient, but this news now includes in-depth, insider information that was previously available only to die-hard political junkies. Web sites like Politico, ABC News' "The Note," and others track and report on the most esoteric, but often critical information about organization and other developments of the campaign. This includes tracking candidate movements, who attended which fund-raisers, which candidates hired which campaign professionals, who endorsed whom, and so on.