How Obama Won

Response to "How Obama Won" I definitely agree that the Obama campaigns’ use of social media and social networking was one of the several reasons why he was able to win the election. In response to how this election differed from others is also mainly because of what Obama’s campaign stood for. He became a symbol for change, and his slogan was ‘yes we can.’ Everything about him from his age, to his race, to his background, and being a democrat in contrast to a large number of American’s tired of Bush’s conservative ways proved to be a golden opportunity for a new candidate in every sense of the word to step in. The smartest thing that the Obama campaign could do was not only to emphasize the fact that Obama represents change, but also reach out to a majority of his younger voters who seemed to be more interested in him for these very reasons. It is the younger voters who are more likely to fluently use and understand social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Myspace, and Obama’s campaign made it easy and fun to keep up with his campaign throughout the busy political year. The article talks about how other candidates such as Clinton and McCain failed to use these sites, but I think in these scenarios, especially in McCain’s case, it probably didn’t seem as important to them to delve into new media sites because most of their supporters tended to be older, and more conservative in terms of what websites they go to. As an example, I know many of my friends’ fathers who were McCain supporters did not really understand what social networking sites are, let alone how to begin using them. In response to the first question on why Meghan McCain’s ‘bloggette’ failed to attract a large number of supporters I think was because everything about it aimed to a very specific, and fairly small demographic. Quoting from the article on the blog, “the bloggette site features a silhouette of a fetching woman in red high-heeled shoes.” This site probably wouldn’t be so appealing to someone who is not a middle- to upper class female who tends to lean republican already, and regularly wears makeup and heels to work.

draft