Net Politics
Our argument is the internet has been a very big part of the elections especially in recent yeas. Our project focuses on different points of views such as candidates affecting voters via the internet, web users affecting each other’s opinions in blogs, and other various tools the internet provides plays a big rule in the elections. For example this past elections you were able to place your vote online! progressively over time the impact of the internet on elections has and will continue to increase.
Our project can “start” with something like this,
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2000/Internet-Election-News-Audience-Seeks-Convenience-Familiar-Names/Report.aspx
This is a research conducted by a non-profit organization. As you can see, the study is done in 2000, and it compares the usage of Internet in 1996 vs. 2000 elections.
What do you mean by “start” with? What does the artifact say about Internet usage in these two elections?
If I didn’t know better, I’d guess from this comment that this is the only research you’ve done.
We can also go back and find the homepages of pass presidents, as well as New York Times Topics for the Presidential Elections.
Using the timeline, I think we have a good introduction to our argument – but I think to really express change over time the timeline can help us illustrate how far the internet’s political arm has stretched in the last decade.
Are you using timeline.verite.co? Have you not gone back and found those homepages yet? Where does your research stand? It’s increasingly unclear to me from this post and these comments….
Currently, I have the home pages for George W. Bush while at the white house (through an White House archieve), and John Kerry’s Senator website.
I also have an archive link to their campaign site – but I’m not sure if it’s gonna work with the timeline.
http://web.archive.org/web/20041102034247/http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html
I’ve also done research on the web presence of both the candidates NOW, as opposed to when they ran in 2004.
The post is on our blog here:
http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/netpolitics/2012/11/24/where-in-social-media-are-they-now/
I have a lot of research, it’s just a matter of using it all to formate a coherent narrative.
Eli: this — “the internet has been a very big part of the elections especially in recent years” — is not a compelling or precise historical argument. We know this already. We know that candidates use the internet to try to sway voters, that the web has given voters a forum for impacting each other, and that the Internet plays a big roll.
What, precisely, is that role? Is it something entirely new, or did it merely replace older ways of communicating? How has the internet changed politics? How has it changed elections, or campaigns? How has the way the Internet has been used in elections in evolved in the past twenty years.
This is simply way too vague for where we are in this project, and doesn’t represent the work that I know your group has done!
The thing about our project is that we’re going from small internet use (website, email) to large internet use (website, email, social networking, youtube, etc.)
An interesting thing we’re finding is that as later the campaigns are, the internet use grows.
Could are argument be that the use of internet to reach voters has increased over time?
“Increasing,” “growing”… these don’t tell us much about how Internet usage has evolved, only that its grown in scope. Frankly, that wouldn’t surprise anyone. What you want to do is show how the role of the Internet has evolved beyond its becoming more prevalent. What does it mean for our politics? How have things changed?
Here’s an example, absurd though it may be: “The evolving role of the Internet in American presidential elections over the past twenty years has made it possible for Martians to exert increased influence over federal immigration policy.”
Then, you’d present evidence to support that argument.
You want your argument to articulate some qualitative change, and then your evidence to back your argument up.
I was referring to the use of the internet in elections adjusting to society, like voting online rather than the physical ballots.