George Washington University political scientist Henry Farrell posts this item today reporting on a conference he recently attended at Harvard about the political applications of the Internet in the 2008 campaign. Farrell includes some comments from Obama campaign representatives who note that their online tactics were really nothing more using the Internet to put old campaign tactics (contacting voters, raising money, and get out the vote efforts) on steroids. Farrell writes:
From a voter contact/mobilization standpoint that’s probably right. Research shows the most effective voter mobilization/persuasion occurs through peer-to-peer contact and social groups. The web can facilitate these interactions quite effectively and efficiently. But I have to believe the Internet has also fundamentally changed the way campaigns advertise. Television and radio will always play a role. But given the amount of time voters spend viewing information via the Internet (one estimate I saw recently provided by Google finds that Americans now spend as many hours per week online as watching TV), online advertising is revolutionizing campaigns as much as television did in the early 1960s. Campaign 2008 probably just scratched the surface of the coming advertising revolution. Hat Tip: The Monkey Cage
