(h) High-tech politicking - a tribute to Obama

There is a saying goes, people would not care how much you know, until they know how much you care. It stressed on the importance on relationship. The bonding with one another has always been a key for the success for everything, including election.

Grigsby (in Shiels, 2008) strengthens the importance of getting connected, 'The use of mobile technology to get out the vote and get people involved is a way for the grass roots to really make an impact'. United States president seems to know this well, and wisely, he made full use of technologies which then, succeeded his ministry.

For instance, iPhone's application of 'Call friend', to pass on up-to-date news from campaign, together with videos, photos and talking points to help convince friends to vote for him. (Shiels, 2008) Also, Obama has made full use of text message when he announced Joe Biden as his choice for Vice President in a text message (SMS) to his supporters. (Spalter, 2008)

Source: The Huffington Post

Apart from that, Facebook helps to create a friendly and up-to-date Barack Obama, showing that he is ready to take the lead to change. Strengthening his vision on changes of United States -- something that the citizen have been long for. Upon explaining the relationship between individual values and media use, Besley (2008) points out that 'core values appears to be derived, learned and internalized from society and its institution (media); which then, explains Obama's victory.

Clearly as it seems, Obama's application of technology is to grab the attention of the readers. Usage of websites, Facebook, SMSes to mobile phone and updates to iPhone are means to assist and attract the reader (Walsh, 2006), making them feel involved and close to Obama. Spalter (2008) supports Walsh (2006) when he made this statement, 'it was a landmark moment not just in politics, but also in America's embrace of innovative technology' upon the news of Obama uses text messaging for informing his choice of Vice President.

Amazed, McCullagh (in Shiels, 2008) gave his opinion on Obama's usage of iphone, 'Having your friends sorted by battleground states is something I haven't seen any other politician come up with before. This is a glimpse of the future of high-tech politicking.'

In short, it is simply amazing to see how much media can benefit the society, even in the context of politic.


References

Besley, J.C., 2008, Media use and human values, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 85, No. 2, p. 311

Shiels, M., 2008, 'Obama uses iPhone to win support', BBC News, viewed 23 June 2009, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7649753.stm

Spalter, J., 2008, Obama's Mobile Moment, viewed 23 June 2009, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-spalter/obamas-mobile-moment_b_120819.html

Walsh, M 2006, 'The textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29. no. 1, pp. 24-37