Social Media and The Presidential Election

Social Media & the Elections

Campaigns and elections were based on speeches and newspaper to make the community get more involved in the elections, but everything has changed. Nowadays, the social media is playing a really important role in how the candidates are perceived. There are many sources in the social media that enables the candidates to raise money, recruit campaign volunteers and convince voters. The messages are being distributed in a more fast and efficient way through the media networks like Facebook and Tweeter.

Campaigns The campaign needs to be organized. The polls are really important because they can tell what kind of people, concerns, and information the community knows about the candidate. This way the campaign can more easily target the population and be more effective. These polls can also explain the public's opinion and the kind of advertisement the population wants.

Funding

"The 2008 presidential and congressional elections cost $5.3 billion dollars, a 25 percent increase over 2004." Federal Election Campaign Act explains how the assets are supposed to be used during a campaign and how much the candidates are supposed to used. So with such a high amounts of money being spent during campaigns and with a law that puts a limit to it, the candidates need to find a way to raise funds to maintain their campaign. In 2008, Barack Obama used the media in an incredible manner to get more people interested in the campaign and many of them contributed with donations towards his campaigns.

“First of all, if you look at the numbers on this, it’s absolutely incredible. He had 4 million donors to his campaign, which is about one in 17 people who voted for him gave him money," Peter Fenn. (Political communications strategist)

Convincing VotersPopulation want to know everything about the candidates. The candidates imagine is really important for a good campaign. In other words, the candidates want to share their background, experiences, and personal qualities. I believe media is a great way to share this kind of information