Grassroots Go Viral

Barack Obama’s clear victory in the 2008 election cycle was history-making, not only in its end, but also in its means. The Obama campaign itself was a vital, engaged, focused, and disciplined grass-roots movement that very effectively steered millions of participants to concerted action and understanding. Moved to energized excitement by a charismatic and inspiring leader, the campaign embodied unprecedented lines of communication and concomitant fundraising success. Although the campaign’s computer mediated communication (CMC) has been a matter of public record and was occasionally mentioned by the media during the campaign, its presence has necessarily taken a back seat to the issues. However, now that the campaign dust is beginning to settle and the Obama team is gearing up for its enormous new responsibilities, there is time to consider the expanded role of CMC in the political arena.

While past political candidates have fairly successfully used websites to market their positions and candidacies and to raise funds (e.g., Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign), none has been more successful at mobilizing supporters than the new president-elect. The campaign relied on an organizing model developed by Harvard University Marshall Ganz, a public policy lecturer at Harvard (Stirland, 2008, ¶ 5). Obama’s own background as a community organizer as well as his own inspired oratory and ideas undoubtedly laid the framework for the use of this model in his very successful campaign. However, there is little doubt that the integration of technology with field organizing efforts also had a deep impact.

The campaign website not only provided “organizing tools” designed to make it easier for individuals to feel personally committed to the campaign, but also offered social networking with other Obama supporters in both virtual and real world situations, as well as blogging and links into other social networking sites such as My Space and Face Book (http://www.barackobama.com/index.php). The payoff for this CMC-enhanced organizing was the participation of an estimated 1.5 million volunteers (Stirland, 2008, ¶ 8) as well as financial contributions totaling and unprecedented $639 million (Zibreg 1, 2008, p. 1).

Thurlow (2004) calls the “fact that we no longer find a technology remarkable or realize just how dependent on it we really are” invisibility -- a sign of a mature technology (p. 37). I have only recently begun to take conscious stock of my own reliance on CMC and to realize that personal computer/Internet technology has become so incredibly intertwined with my everyday life that it is almost invisible. Without a second thought, I work, attend school, communicate with family and friends, write, read books, magazines, and newspapers, watch television programs and movies, make political and charitable contributions, and research papers and issues of interest on my personal computer. I keep my computer in my living room near my sofa because I frequently want quickly look up something that catches my interest on television.

I am not alone in the integration of CMC into my daily life. My 72-year-old mother is at least as proficient with computers and the Internet as I (more proficient with photo editing and publishing programs). I have an 82-year-old friend who fearlessly uses emails and blogs to communicate with her children who are scattered across the world. My own children could type before their penmanship had even fully formed and do not know a world without a computer and Internet access. Connection is now the rule rather than the exception.

There is really no doubt that CMC is a mature technology that has, indeed become invisible in many ways or that the maturity of the technology has moved it nearly seamlessly into the political realm. For the most part we have just accepted the fact that the Obama campaign took full advantage of the fact of most Americans’ dependence on CMC in their every day lives in bringing this new leader to power. We are not surprised that, within 48 hours of his victory, President-elect Obama’s team set up a website (http://change.gov/) wherein citizens are invited to tell their own stories, state a vision for the country, and apply for employment (Miller, 2008, ¶ 8). It went almost unnoticed that Obama appointed technology experts to his transition team (Hill, 2008, ¶ 1), suggesting that CMC will continue to be an integrated part of his administration and the manner in which he communicates with the electorate. Few people other that real technophiles made note of the fact that Obama made campaign promises concerning net neutrality, broadband penetration, wireless spectrum usage, H-1B non-immigrant visas needed to recruit foreign guest workers in technical fields, and Internet privacy issues (Zibreg 2, 2008, pp. 1-2), but fewer still are surprised that he might consider the issues important enough to speak to.

There is no escaping the fact that this incoming President has adapted and adopted CMC as a part of the political toolbox to use in both campaigning and governing. The Obama campaign was morphed from a strong and inspired political campaign into a behemoth by the strategic use of CMC. As great success breeds imitation, there is likewise no escaping the fact that CMC will play a continuing integral role in our modern political lives.

References

Hill, J.S. (2008) Technology execs join Obama’s transition team. Retrieved on November 7, 2008 from http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40077/118/.

Miller, J.L. (2008) Obama’s change.gov goes live. Retrieved on November 7, 2008 from http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/11/06/obamas-changegov-goes-live.

Stirland, S.L. (2008) Obama's secret weapons: Internet, databases and psychology. Retrieved on November 7, 2008 from http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/obamas-secret-w.html.

Thurlow, C., Lengel, L., & Tomic, A. (2004). Computer mediated communication: Social interaction and the Internet. London: SAGE.

Zibreg, C. (Zibreg 2) (2008) Barack Obama’s top 5 technology promises. Retrieved on November 7, 2008 from http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-40085-128.html.