Text Mining Sources for Group 1
Secondary Sources for Group 1:
1.) PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION
This document goes in to great detail how the Internet has become a factor during Clinton’s Presidency and how Bush Jr was the first president to establish a Twitter account and the significance of how social media and the Internet became an integral part of the election process from that point.
2.) Does the Messenger Matter? Candidate-Media Agenda Convergence and Its Effects on Voter
By using data during the early stages of the 2006 Texas midterm election, Danny Hayes show how media coverage of candidates affects the willingness for voters to vote for them. The findings in Hayes pieces show the value for candidates of enlisting new media to help pass along their message and to strengthen their influence as a political candiate.
In this piece, the authors discuss how the internet divides voters. The piece talks about how just like the elderly, those less well educated, and some minorities are less likely to use the Internet than other Americans, candidates for lower-level offices are less likely to use it than presidential and congressional candidates.
Group One:
Each of these are good sources to give you a theoretical grounding of the role of the web in shaping presidential communication. The first shows how the Clinton and Bush administrations adapted (or resisted) certain modes of online communication. The second examines the relationship between campaigns and messaging (though focused on a state gubernatorial election, not presidential politics). The third hones in on some of the costs of a massive shift to online communication (again, focused on non-presidential elections), and considers the electoral factors that impact the nature and extent of a candidate’s Internet usage.
These piece will be helpful to you in framing your investigation into the evolving role of social media in presidential elections, but I’m thinking you need to narrow your topic even further. Your original proposal suggested you would look specifically at young voters; these sources don’t speak to that dynamic at all. You might look for essays or journal articles on the impact of the Internet on voter registration drives in the last and current election cycles. How do they compare to the “rock the vote” initiatives of the 1990s? What about the result of the Motor Voter Act (1993)?
If you are going to be examining this specific question, then you guys need to go to school on not only the evolving history of social media in presidential campaign politics (and.. you need to define that clearly… are we just talking about the web? Or are we talking about ALL FORMS of social media, dating back through television, radio, and to broadsides and pamphlets), but also on the history of youth voting.
I will try to gather some sources for you that put social media in historical perspective (I’m sure something’s been written since 2008, it just doesn’t come to mind). You guys should look for secondary reading on the history of voter registration initiatives.
Thank you for helpful tips prof. Waltzer.
This is not set in stone, but I think we will focus on the 2012 and 2008 elections. If I understood my group mates correctly, we want to explore the influence of social networking websites rather than social media in general (at least that’s what i though).
You’re going to need to go back further than this. I’d say 1996 would be a good place to start. We want to make sure that we can see change over time, and just doing the most two recent elections won’t capture that change. The question is, how do you identify or articulate the antecedent to social networking during the web 1.0 era? Were there email chains in 1996? I’m not sure. I do know however that there were very active social media efforts around the 2000 election. I was part of one where voters in Michigan (where the election was close) were swapping Ralph Nader votes with Al Gore voters in NYS (where the election wasn’t close) with the twin goal of getting Gore elected, and getting the Green Part above the 5% threshold that would give them access to federal campaign funds. There was a web site set up to facilitate these swaps, but the Federal Election Commission had it shut down.
So– clearly there was some “social” media in that election. Keep thinking about this…
Good afternoon professor,
Our focus for the project is going remains the same. I was responsible for forwarding these three articles two Caroline. I did understand the assignment; I was just having a difficulty finding articles that directly pertained to social media and the presidential election. I agree with you in all aspects as how these sources do not closely pertain to our topic. I thought it will be beneficial to our group that if we are going to be discussing social media, at some point we need to mention the internet and it influences in previous presidencies and election. May I please have your thoughts? also do you think we are going to need to explain the significance of the internet even though we will be focusing on social media?
Thank you for your time. see you soon.
Good afternoon professor,
Our focus for the project going forward remains the same. I was responsible for forwarding these three articles to Caroline. I did understand the assignment; I was just having a difficulty finding articles that directly pertained to social media and the presidential election. I agree with you in all aspects as how these sources do not closely pertain to our topic. I thought it will be beneficial to our group that if we are going to be discussing social media, at some point we need to mention the internet and it influences in previous presidencies and elections. May I please have your thoughts? also do you think we are going to need to explain the significance of the internet even though we will be focusing on social media?
Thank you for your time. see you soon.