The Digital President2point0

Center for Communication & Civic Engagement Lance Bennett, Director www.engagedcitizen.org Information ~ Technology ~ Community @

Digital Media and the 2008 U.S. Election Lance Bennett Muzammil Hussain Deen Freelon Chris Wells

Changing Mediascape: Top US Websites (monthly visitors)

1. Google

(134 million)

2. Yahoo (123)

5. Wikipedia (76)

7. Youtube (70)

8. Myspace (67)

10. Ebay (59)

12. Facebook (45)

15. blogspot (43)

17. craigslist (40)

26. CNN (29)

30. blogger (24)

31. flickr (22)…

42. N Y Times (16)

source: Quantcast 11/20/08

Decline in network TV nightly news Source: Nielsen Media Research (November ratings) Pew Project for Excellence

More Go Newsless Pew: 2008

~ but more are going online ~ to get & share direct information

46% used internet, email, or texting to get info, express views, mobilize others

35% watched online videos

39% used net for getting direct access to documents and events

10% used social networking sites for election

10% donated money online

Pew Internet & American Life – June 15, 2008

a digital landslide for Obama

social networking,

video sharing

email exchanges

blogging

tweeting,

source: Tech President Nov 15, 2008

The Obamasphere

~ the youtube contest in the primaries ~ Obama – Clinton - McCain Youtube Views Source: Jon Hickey www.engagedcitizen.org

Estimated 3 billion views for all videos about Obama or McCain – all producers Roughly 2-1 edge for Obama (not coded for + or - content) Youtube Campaign Channels

The Obama Channel: 20 million views beats Beyonce (15mil) & Britney (13mil) in November

~ the long tail of targeting ~ concentration of local campaign event videos on Obama youtube channel source: Bob Boynton youtube08

~ beyond the sound bite ~ large audiences for serious content

and some not so serious:

political music videos

personal commentary

not controlled by campaigns

large scale viral distribution

widely shared popular messages not (fully) controlled by the campaigns

~ different kind of public discussion ~ citizen to citizen multi media discourses

~ following a viral video ~ desktops  bloggers  mass media

source: NetPulse, Politics Online, Nov 21, 2008 ~ a look at the bottom line~ how dig media mattered

youth 18-25 – digital communications create more engagement in the election process Waggener-Edstrom - June 2008 - (400 telephone – 400 online)

state level youth vote margins – Obama majorities in blue Source: Stateline youth vote landslide

next?

Obama voters plan to continue interacting with the administration

25% of Obama voters expect to support the administration's agenda by reaching out to others online

Fully 51% of online Obama supporters expect some kind of ongoing communication from the new administration

34% of Obama-supporting email users expect email communication, 37% of social network site users expect SNS updates and 11% of phone texters expect to receive text messages from the new administration.