Nicole Rapier
Vice-President, Butler County Young Republicans
Technology Chair, Butler County Republican Women's Club
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube... you don't have to be a genius to see that technology impacts politics. Everyday voters now have the ability to participate in politics in a way that little over ten years ago we were only dreaming of. After all, most of you reading this now likely checked one of your social networking sites shortly after you got up this morning.
Can, and will, the next generation of politicians effectively use these mediums available to them?
Will these mediums influence public opinion?
Does one party benefit from the use of new technology more than the other?
Recently dubbed e-politics, new technology has opened the door to a whole new arena of fund-raising, grass-roots, communication and marketing participation. You only have to do a quick search in your facebook groups to see how many politicians are using some of these outlets. In Ohio John Kasich, Kevin Coughlin, Rob Portman, Mary Taylor, Josh Mandel, Jon Husted and several others all participate in one or more of these technologies, using them to reach out to potential voters and volunteers. Used effectively some of these sites can message and keep informed larger amounts of the general public than traditional media (ie. television and radio).
In November of 2003 social networking was introduced. MySpace was followed shortly after by Facebook and Flickr in February of 2004, and YouTube in 2005. These sites made it possible to communicate with the world without picking up a phone, turning on the TV, or listening to the radio. Unlike previous methods of mass communication new technology is cheap, and has better outreach. After all, we now have the opportunity to reach several demographics that may have been harder to reach previously... the housewife, the student, business professionals, the ever elusive 20-somethings, the poor, the rich, the educated and uneducated. It's interactive, and as up close and personal as you can get without sitting down face-to-face.
By spring of 2008, 40 percent of adult Americans had used the Internet to get political news and information, this is up from 31 percent at the same stage in 2004 and 34 percent for that entire election season. Furthermore, among adults, 47 percent of non-Hispanic whites use the Internet, e-mail or text messaging to get political news or exchange their views, compared with 43 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 50 percent of English-speaking Hispanics, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
These numbers alone speak volumes of the potential new technology has to influence politics. There are several studies that show e-politics is rapidly changing the traditional power structures by making candidates more transparent, communicative and participatory.
There are two schools of thought on the impact of the internet on politics. The first being the cyber-optimists, who argue that new technology helps to increase the role of the community in public affairs and therefore promotes participatory democracy. The second are the cyber-pessimists who argue that new technology has not and may never have a progressive and liberalizing effect on politics at all.
Regardless of your opinion, there is no doubt, the Internet has increased the quantity and sometimes quality of available information. The statistics from channels like iTunes, YouTube, and other podcasting sites, indicate that technology could have played a very critical role in the 2008 elections. While many argue it was far from the deciding factor, it is hard to ignore.
The Internet and technology are now positioned to play a huge role in future elections. And with it being accessible to everyone regardless of party affiliation, it is fair game. Using OhioGOP-TV, blogs, E-mail updates and interactive calendars all while harnessing the power of the social networking sites, the Ohio GOP, with John McClelland at the helm has stepped up it's game, and is rapidly changing the face of Ohio politics as we know it.
Does technology have the power to change the face of politics? Absolutely, and it's only a matter of time before technology plays a critical role in our elections.
