The 2008 Presidential Primaries | Canadian Ministry

Timothy Macri

The 2008 presidential primaries have used multi-media more than ever before to get their messages out there and pull in support. As the race heats up media outlets such as the internet are becoming more commonplace. Blogs, video and audio messages are being used to describe the individuals they endorse. Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton are two heavily contested candidates for president.

Obama, has used a barrage of unconventional web sites, including: Myspace, Utube and Wikipedia to name a few. Obama has a music video on Utube and has a supportive history of him on Wikipedia. The traffic on Myspace is approximately 200 million people. This affords Obama access to a larger number of younger Americans.  Obama and Clinton have both used this site to great effect. There are many Americans under the age of thirty voicing their opinions on the presidential race. Many have endorsed both Clinton and Obama for president and have even decorated their site backgrounds with their images. This is very important as far as political strategy goes.  Many young Americans do not vote; civilyouth.org states that in 2004 only 47% of young Americans ages 18-24 voted, while Americans over the age of 25 had at least 66% showing at the polls. These web sites such as Myspace, Utube and Wikipedia are viewed more increasing by the youth. To reach older voter they still rely on traditions methods such as traditional news, public speeches, dinners, and televised debates. The Clinton campaign like Obama’s campaign has also infiltrated blog media on the net. Blog is a source of getting news that has not been filtered by the big time media corporations. Blog reading is more subscribed to by the youth. Blog writing does not have to be an actual reporter either, many people who live average day to day lives can write blogs and have their opinions voiced. It can start a chain reaction where one piece is blogged and then someone writes an opinion or a comment or even another blog about the same topic.

While Obama and Clinton seem to have the blog writing down it is still not as effective as Myspace with over 200 million people with profiles.   “With nearly 60 million registered users, 15 billion page views per month, and more than 150,000 new users signing up every day, MySpace is that rare social networking contagion that keeps spreading and growing” (gigaom.com).  Myspace has an average of over 300,000 people signing up on it a day. This helps the Clinton and Obama campaigns reach a larger number of voters and a beneficiary factor is that all of this type of media is relatively inexpensive.  Myspace also allows areas for blogs and the ability to form groups. One such group on Myspace is “hottie’s for Hilary”. However, Obama does seem to have more from opinionated followers.  
In today’s fast paced world sometimes it is difficult to sit down and find the time to read all the available information on the web.  However, there is another way to obtain information on either Obama or Clinton faster. On the internet there is a website known as Utube. This allows you to post videos on the internet. A number of the televised speeches are posted on this site. For example, if Clinton goes on the “Today Show” it will more than likely appear on Utube shortly following the airing of the show.  Obama even has several music videos on U tube. 

In conclusion, the 2008 presidential primaries have used multi-media more than ever before to get their messages out there. Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton are two heavily contested candidates for president.  However, in my opinion Obama seems to have the upper hand as far as the internet non-traditional web sources are concern. His followers are blogging at a greater rate and seem to be very informed. Obama has more web sites to promote his ideas and seems to be using the new technology with finesse. With the success of the campaign in the new technology it would seem the future is going to be in the web areana.