Obama Campaign Organizing & New Media: Presentation to Organizing 2.0 Summit

Net Movements in the Obama Era Organizing & New Media in the Obama Era Presentation to The Organizing 2.0 Conference Ari Melber, J.D. www.arimelber.com

What People Want Now

Politics in the TV Era: Short, Simple, Stupid Sources : Prof. Daniel Hallin, “Sound Bite News” (1988) Micah Sifry (2008) TechPresident.John Tierney, New York Times, “Sound Bites Become Smaller Mouthfuls” (1998) Soundbites in televised campaign coverage fell to just 7 seconds

Soundbite Politics
Presumes and fosters a simplistic, apathetic electorate
“ Everything should be made as simple as possible, but never more so.” Albert Einstein
“ Nothing of any significance is going to be said in 9.8 seconds. ” Walter Cronkite

Attention Disintermediation
Obama routed around the soundbite press to address the public directly, first recruiting support, then mobilizing and organizing people to act.
His campaign used the web to not only shape media coverage, but to replace it with his own content and distribution networks .

Example: Soundbites to Speeches
Obama was the only candidate to make a YouTube response to the State of the Union.
His campaign uploaded five times as many videos as other campaigns, including lengthy policy speeches.
Sources: Obama Campaign YouTube Channel (2008), Ari Melber, The Nation (2008)

Opponents Scoffed
Clinton Campaign , Dec. 07:
“ Our supporters look like caucus-goers…
“ Their supporters look like Facebook.”

Time ’s Joe Klein, March 08: Most people will never hear the elegant complexity of Obama's speech in full ...though they certainly should .
“ Experts” Did Not Get It
Washington Monthly’ s Kevin Drum, Jan. 08:
Very few people, especially outside the early primary states, get to see Obama giving a speech.
The Atlantic’s Matt Yglesias, Jan. 08: Obama gives a "doubly-impressive” speech, but “ most voters have almost certainly never sat and watched him deliver one .”

But The People Listened Source: “Obama’s Speech Makes YouTube History,” Ari Melber, The Nation (2008) The American Elections of 2008, (Box-Steffensmeier, Schier 2009) (citing Melber, 2008) The Nation’s Ari Melber, Mar. 08: At this pace, it will be the most watched contemporary political speech in Internet history . Over 7.5 million people watched Obama’s 37- minute race speech -- more than the entire TV audience combined

And Kept Listening
2.3m watched Iowa Victory Speech
2.7m watched 13-minute “Yes We Can” Speech
20m viewed Obama channel
What about McCain?
Source: “Hope Will Not Be Televised: Obama YouTube vs. Clinton Clash,” Ari Melber, The Nation (Jan 2008)

99m > 25m Obama tripled McCain in total views on official campaign channels Organizing Attention

This means YOU
Total views for all YouTube videos about either candidate: Two B illion
Of the Top 20 most viewed videos about either candidate, most were created by independent people outside the campaigns (Obama: 16/20 McCain: 19/20)
Source: “YouTubing The Election,” Ari Melber, The Nation (Nov 2008)

But: YouTube is a Platform -- Not a Strategy Open Disintermediation Interactive Bottom Up Organizing Enlarge Universe Closed Gatekeeper Outreach One-Way Communication Top Down Management Convert Persuadables TRADITIONAL NEW

Obama’s New Media Networks Millions Platform Source : Ari Melber, (2009)

Organizing Landscape
At the end of the 2008 election:
Liberal Democrats were twice as likely to attend political events as Moderate Democrats
Liberal Democrats were three times as likely to donate money online
Liberal Democrats were also twice as likely to watch political videos online as Conservative Republicans
“ Liberal Dems Top Conservative Reps in Donations, Activism,” Pew Research Center, October 12, 2008.

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Obama Campaign Organizing & New Media: Presentation to Organizing 2.0 Summit

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Obama Campaign Organizing & New Media: Presentation to Organizing 2.0 Summit Presentation Transcript