Archive for June, 2008
Political networks
“If anyone talking about what they publish newspapers, the press would not have any influence on society.” This observation by the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde was the inspiration that Paul Lazarsfeld needed to decide to compare the political influence of the media with that of humans. What affects us more time to make policy decisions? Does what we read in the press or whatever it tells a relative or neighbor? Who will we trust the most? Is there some kind of interaction between the two influences ?
The seminal work of Katz and Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence (1950) has now regained in the Internet age. Social networks have always existed, but the network has popularized. Thanks to the Internet easier for us to understand our own world as a social network of networks. Web sites such as Facebook, we face our own social reality, not define us as individuals, but based on our contacts .
In the political field, as recent studies published by the Pew Foundation this week reveal that 1 out of 10 Americans use social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace to exert some kind of political activity (to receive news, post comments, join groups, etc.). Among the users of such networks (ie those who have created a profile on Facebook or MySpace), the percentage of political activity climbs to 40 percent. True, this segment of the population is very young (most under age 30), with high levels of education and financial comfort. But they are the future. As a curious note, it should be noted that almost 30 percent of the users of these sites (29%) say they have discovered the political leanings of their friends through social networking sites .
Another figure of interest offered by the Pew survey on the political use of the Internet among Americans is not mediated consumption of political information. More than one quarter of Internet users (27%) has seen videos of speeches of candidates on the Web. This is an informative consumer not mediated by journalists, which allows the user to access the candidate’s speech without the interpretation of the caste of professional mediators .
Two, therefore, are the significant trends that we discover the Pew study: The importance of social networks for socializing and political mobilization, and the growing non-mediated consumption, raw, political information. In both cases the influence of traditional mass media seems to be threatened .
However, Christine B. Williams, professor of Bentley College in Massachusetts, offers data aplacarían the euphoria of which augur a new political kingdom headed by Facebook. In a paper presented at the Harvard Conference on Networks in Political Science last weekend, Williams demonstrates that the viewing of videos and searches for the names of candidates on Facebook climb after their victories in the real world. That is, that the Internet remains (and does not create) the famous’ momentum ‘that pursue political candidates Americans .
In any case, the Internet, either secondary or primary actor, is now part of the political division in any election campaign . Be it an engine of change or a co-opted by the traditional political forces (parties, media) depends on factors that are yet to explore .
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Obama and the nature of the Internet
Joe Trippier account, the political consultant who used the Internet to aupar to an unknown Howard Dean at the gates of the presidential nomination in 2004, Obama would never have won if not for Clinton, precisely, the Internet. Hillary’s campaign, said Trippier, is the most perfect of how many have been executed so far. The most perfect among the old model, of course. Contacts between Clinton supplied them with millions in donations. But the Internet gave Obama millions of humble donations, in the aggregate, left the small collections of succulent dinner in support of Hillary. As we can see in the documentaries on animals, teamwork hundreds of millions of ants can do succumb to the largest of the tarantulas.
McLuhan would no doubt have something to say about Obama and the nature of the medium Internet. The network allows play at the local and national (also at the international level, as evidenced by the networks altermundializadoras). Help the candidate’s followers to find other supporters at his place of residence (so that all candidates applying for postal code as required information on their web forms), and also allows donate money in small amounts, even on a scheduled, in the form of modest payments.
Obama is a great candidate. Has shown that the rhetoric and discourse in public life have so much today as in classical Greece. The renewed vigor of political discourse is due in part to the Internet. In an insightful article published in the June issue of the magazine The Atlantic , Marc Ambinder says that while the era of the television precedence ’sound bite’ and the statement brief and disjointed, “the speeches of Obama sound either on YouTube. ” There will be those who will not just believe, but never before as they are now badly needed the writers of speeches. The speech revives in the Internet age. The ‘black’ of Obama is as important as Obama himself.
In another article published in the same magazine, Joshua Green reveals the secrets of another Democratic candidate for president: His skillful capture of the elite of Silicon Valley. Neglected by Clinton, the brains behind the ’start ups’ technological put their wallets to serve the political equivalent of a’ start up ‘: Obama. Young, different, with immense potential and ready to eat the world. Obama was a new ‘hype’ in search of patrons. An iPod in the development phase. A risky bet, but the type of bet that like in Silicon Valley.
FDR seemed born for radio. JFK was the epitome of telegenia. Obama is very likely candidate Internet.
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