2012 Elections and the Race to Newer "New Media"

With the 2012 Presidential Election gearing up and likely to soon be dominating media coverage, candidates are looking for a way to spread their political message through new media forums. President Barack Obama was known for his innovate use of social media, grassroots politics, and for mobilizing the youth vote. This article by Rob Salkowitz, author of Young World Rising: How Youth Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the World from the Bottom Up, share his predication for the role new media will play in the upcoming election.
One issues that I think this article does a nice job of focusing on is the speed at which social media is evolving. The 2004 election was arguably the first major election to be influence by the rise of social media and, since then, politicians have been searching for ways to creatively promote their message on the internet. One of the benefits of social networking for politicians is that this type of media is relatively low cost, especially when compared to television and newspaper advertisements. Salkowitz points out that the biggest factor in the next election will be figuring out to turn this low cost media into a profitable venture. For example, instead of using new media just to share a message, a politicians will have to use new media to get more donations to their campaign. While this article does not necessarily frame any new media technology as most useful than another, it does make some valid points of about the limitations of recent developments. It seems that applications, like FourSquare and “video-on-demand” improvements, will be unable to make substantial improvements to a candidate’s message. This article does a good job of balancing the potential benefits of newer media tools in the upcoming elections, with limitations that candidates will face in developing their online strategies.