New Media and Politics

These are some of the new media, to the left, and these are some of the numbers, below. Email is far ahead of other forms of electronic communication with more than 80% of the population now sending and receiving email messages, and buying online is second. In the comparisons of 2007, 2008, and 2009 the largest increase 2007 to 2008 was watching streaming video. The YouTube 2008 presidential election campaign contributed more than 60 million views to that increase. The largest increase 2008 to 2009 was visiting social networks.

Changes in communication technology and practice are happening so rapidly they leave our understanding far behind. The changes in communication technology and patterns of use are chronicled by many tech bloggers; a list is available here. We know very little about how these new practices of communication are becoming integrated into practices of politics. This is where I am attempting to shed some light.

The presidential election of 2008 was a watershed for video/YouTube and politics. YouTube did not exist in 2004. In 2007/2008 there were thousands of videos and more than a hundred million views.

I did two analyses based on campaigns in the primary and a series of a dozen analyses of the fall election campaign. And there is a book manuscript wending its way through the publication process.

Technology: tools and raw data

work in progress: health care campaign #hc09

work in progress: Protest in Venzuela; #FreeMediaVe