IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: 2012 Election

  • The Importance of Social Media in the 2012 Election

    More and more are the variety of social media through which voters are able to use.  These are convenient and simple tools that are effective ways to express the opinions of voters and influence the course of the electoral campaign. The role that social media has been critical in drawing conclusions about the outcome of the 2012 election. According to various studies, websites like Facebook have caused an increase in voter registration. Ultimately, social media networks are the powerful influencers that are often capable of moving large quantities of votes. It is important to recognize that an electoral campaign that is closer and pays closer attention to real human dynamics has a completely different approach than the traditional campaign. Nowadays, an effective campaign should be based less on the money spent and more on the intelligent use of new technologies to create new bonds with the everyday voter.Ultimately, the roles of social networks, new media as well as the weight of the establishment are all factors that will have a crucial role in deciding the electoral dispute.

    As previously stated, social media has encouraged many young eligible voters to register and vote. For many of the past elections, the young demographic is not properly represented in voting. This year, there are record numbers for college aged students voting.  Much of this can be attributed to social media outlets.  Young people in general use social media more than any other demographic (to date). Also, social media websites such as twitter allow you to follow each candidate and get quick, short, and frequent updates on what they plan to make their policy be if they are to be elected. This is only the second election that we are able to follow Candidates directly on Twitter since it did not exist prior to 2006. Also, Twitter has gained a substantial amount of users since the 2008 election. On Twitter, there are trending topics, and subjects regarding the recent presidential election have been trending at record numbers. Social Media allows people to get quick and easy access to information about the election.

    Both presidential candidates devoted much time and effort to boost the collection of information and social media sharing amongst voters. In the current election, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have predominately utilized Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which are the top powerhouse tools of social media today. As the election progresses, candidates have concentrated their efforts on “swing voters”. Swing voters are voters who have yet to make up their minds and plan to wait till the very last minute to make a decision about who to vote for. Social media can establish a medium for interchange between our presidential candidates and many of these swing voters, avoiding an influence on votes that have already been established.  This reveals the importance of social media and web video usage in terms of voting. Not only can social media institute this medium that allows a campaign to be specifically modified for particular voters, but it provides value for each candidate, resulting into fewer costs for ads. The cost of advertising through social media is much less than the cost of paying T.V. channels to run advertisements; not to mention the impact of online ads have been reported as just as good or perhaps even better than the ones shows on television. All political parties in the current election have greatly benefited from these recent online updates and social media enhancements.

    –Sasha De Vecchi, Lindsay Gallagher, Jay Reilly, Cary Welborn

  • “Keep America America”; Mitt Romney’s Slogan Backfires

    This year’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida was not exactly a great success. In fact, the Gallup Poll showed us that Mitt Romney’s speech at the convention received “the lowest rating of any of the eight speeches Gallup has tested since Bob Dole’s GOP acceptance speech in 1996,” according to The Huffington Post.  The post also stated that the convention produced the worst voter intentions in history with a +2 percent, compared to +3 in 2004 and +5 in 2008. While there are many variables that contribute to such low ratings, the convenience and effectiveness of the mass media played a key role.

    Most people will not argue with the claim that media attention has become the basis for political attitudes in today’s society. The fact that the average American can essentially look up any information whenever and wherever they want can be very beneficial for presidential candidates in regards to reaching a large number of voters in a short period time. However, there is a downside to millions of Americans having the world at their fingertips. Mitt Romney first experienced the disadvantages to the Web 2.0 phenomenon when he spoke at the NAACP convention this past July. When reflecting on his speech, Romney stated, “I had the privilege of speaking today at the NAACP convention in Houston…when I mentioned I’m going to get rid of Obamacare, they weren’t happy … that’s OK…You remind them of this: If they want more stuff from government, tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff. But don’t forget, nothing is really free.” When this statement went viral, Romney received a lot of negative press. While some argue that accusations against Romney’s statement were taken out of context, it shows how important media attention is to the public’s perception of a candidate. People made their own judgments about Romney’s statement, which in turn swayed their opinion about Romney one way or another. A more recent example of how detrimental the mass media can be consists of one of Romney’s recent catchphrases which simply reads “Keep America America”. People are outraged that Romney continually recited the phrase because the slogan “Keep America American” was used by the Ku Klux Klan in their 1920’s attempt to deface many groups including African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and homosexuals.

    Americablog, a progress political blog, was the first to provide the now popular examples of the controversial overlap. Much of the focus was put on a video of the multi-millionaire candidate in which he is found using the now controversial slogan. Mitt Romney was also quoted on the blog from an article found in the L.A. Times in which he repeats the phrase.

    Since Romney first used the slogan, people have been publicly bashing him on all social media sites. While Romney’s slogan “Keep America America” is eerily similar to the Ku Klux Klan’s rally to “Keep America American,”the two phrases are not one in the same. While Romney used the phrase to insinuate that we must keep American values incorporated in our government, the Ku Klux Klan used the phrase to convince people to discriminate against others. It is obvious that presidential candidates, or anyone associated with politics should be very careful about slogans and phrases they use because one wrong word can gain a lot of bad press. Therefore, while it is unknown why Romney used such a slogan for his campaign, he is going to have to deal with the consequences and try to regain some voters that he might have lost as a result of using it.

    The fact that Romney had a similar but not identical (while we must admit it may be too similar) slogan to that of the Ku Klux Klan has directly affected him.  Romney, in a sense has been “branded” by this one slogan.  It is likely that people who may have not even followed the presidential election have formulated an opinion against Romney upon hearing the controversy behind the “Keep America America” slogan.  The rise of technology’s role on mass media in today’s society has led to more branding than ever before.