20:26: There's a lot of territorial stomping around this 'town-hall' style debate. The incumbent and the challenger-to-the-throne are going head-to-head over energy policy., and each of them are prowling around the stage, vying for the center-stage. For my money, Romney seems to be on-top, even telling the President to "sit-down" and let him answer.
20:31: Now on to tax cuts. There is a huge tussle between the parties over who will cut taxes most to the middle-class. Yet it is confusing. Both of them say they are there to help the middle-class; both seem sincere. Yet, given both of their spots are backed up by stats you have to be an economics wiz to know who to believe (safe in the knowledge that those 'in-the-know' either had no idea, or didn't want to acknowledge the huge economic errors that plunged us into the current mess).
20:34: Obama is attacking Romney over the lack of specifics for his proposed tax and spending plans which Romney claims will save $7tn (that means trillion, your guess on how many zeros that is is as good as mine). Romney fires back with his Olympics and Massachusetts record and attacks the $16tn of national debt that has been accumulated under Obama.
20:39: Obama is more assertive for sure this debate. Yet the town-hall format was intended to be geared for the undecided voters out there. In fact, there are 80+ in the crowd. The arguments from both the debators seem to be going over the same ground. I am not sure that there is any new information being given thus far which is going to sway them either way.
20:41: The next question is on equal pay for women in the workplace. Romney talks of the equal-ops hiring policy that he ran under his tenure of Massachusetts. Romney is very 'on-the-money' with his numbers on women. He talks of the 3.5m unemployed women and seems to be in-touch. This was an area which commentators thought had been an apparent weakness of the Republican party.
20:44: Funnily enough, Obama doesn't see it that way. He takes Romney to task over the female health care issues, such as contraception, which would be 'out-of-their-hands' under a Republican administration. Female rights are a strong Democrat policy.
20:47: A female voter, who declares herself to be undecided, states she is underwhelmed by the present Obama administration, but also believes the present economic stagnation is due to errors made during the previous Bush administration.
20: 49 Romney picks the question up and thanks the lady for proffering it. He puts distance between himself and Bush (who came under a lot of flack as President) and says he will create jobs. Obama points to the 5.2m jobs created over the last 4 years. Getting the jobless figure (through luck or judgment) was a major coup for the Democrats. No part who have had unemployment over 8% have ever been invited back by the American public (it is currently 7.8%).
20: 53: A key technique for building rhetoric arguments is said to be repetition. This debate is evidence this is true! A concerned voter, who voted for Obama last time round, is finding there to be a lack of positive energy about this campaign and that prices have gone up. The same policies come back to him in a neat sound bite from Obama: tax cuts to the middle-class; end of the war in Iraq; attack on Al-Qaeda leadership, including the death of bin Laden. He states the last 4 years have been tough...but can he get away from the fact that gas was $1.86 a gallon at the pumps in 2008 and is now over $4.
20: 57: 2008 was a time for change. The focus of the Obama campaign was on social reform and hope that the under-represented minority populations would have a voice. Now the unrelenting question of economic stagnation is something the current President may find it too hard to break away from.
20:59: Wow! That half-hour flew by. I want to check in on other news sites such as the BBC, CNN, Fox etc and see how they think the debate is panning out...
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
The Role of Social Media in the 2012 US Presidential Election
According to Al-Jazeera news network, one-third of all Americans under-30 now get their news via social media. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/20121046251660618.html There is no doubt that the ability for the prospective candidates in the forthcoming 2012 US Presidential election to harness its potential fully will have an enormous effect on who is sitting in the Oval Office at the end of November.
President Obama was the first person to really exploit the value of the internet as a canvassing tool. The New York Times reported in 2008 that he was able to get $600m of support from followers such as unions and wealthy beneficiaries. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10carr.html?_r=0 That figure may seem like a splash in the ocean considering spending for this current election is projected to be as high as $6bn but it is certainly a very effective means of garnering support.
This time round, in respect to their online content, Al Jazeera state President Obama has the edge over Mitt Romney and a quick glance at their respective websites (http://www.mittromney.com/blogs/mitts-view; http://www.barackobama.com/news) and blog spaces reveal that the Obama material looks fresher and more presentable. The same Al-Jazeera article reported that Twitter announced Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention received 9.5 million Tweets in response. If voting figures in the US at the upcoming election remain rooted at the traditional region of less than 50% of the population, that number of tweets represents a considerable portion of the voting electorate.
Online spaces allow for the electioneering committees to target their content to be much more specific to that demographic meaning voters feel more included and are more likely to recommend the content to their friends or colleagues, some of whom could be the all-important ‘swing’ voters come election day. Messages for these voters can feel far more personal as the teams are able to use data drawn from people’s online accounts to make the message appeal more directly to their interests. The fact that people have chosen to ‘follow’ their candidate means that they are far more invested in the message they receive as opposed to the ‘blunderbus’ approach of televised political adverts and the enormous cost in time and manpower of door-to-door knocking.
Being able to adapt to technological advancements has always been a decisive factor in politics. Without wanting to mention him in the same breath as the candidates who will be competing for the Presidency in November, Hitler was able to portray his National Socialist Party as modern and dynamic due to his collaboration with Leni Riefenstahl on pioneeering propaganda vehicles such as “Triumph of the Will”. In terms of American politics, Ronald Reagan was revered as “the great communicator” owing to both his background previously as an actor and his command over modern communication technologies, such as live, televised state addresses. While the televised debates, (the second of which is this Tuesday, October 16th) allow voters to see a more ‘human’ side to the candidates, the votes may already be cast in many people’s minds owing to the influence that social media has already had.
Social Media's Role in the Arab Spring
Last year, at the height of the protests in Tahrir Square, satellite images on CNN depicted a ring of steel surrounding the soon-to-be-deposed President Mubarak's palace and the state broadcasting corporation. The maligned president had showed himself to be out of touch with his people throughout his 30-years of rule, and now, as they protested in the streets of Cairo, he had shown himself unprepared to combat the role that social media would play in precipitating the downfall of his regime.
The tanks and soldiers that surrounded the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) in February of 2011 were there to ensure that the Information Ministry could maintain its ability to send out pro-Mubarak propaganda in the form of political adverts, state addresses and radio broadcasts. By controlling the access that Egypt's people had to information, Mubarak hoped he could cling to power. Yet he and his ministers had vastly underestimated the revolutionaries' ability to organise themselves to be at certain protest locations at a certain time, circulate information relating to governmental abuses and send messages of support to those leading the movement.
What was very clear was how social media, through Facebook and Twitter, had changed the way in which leaders could be held to account, revolutions organized, and countries governed. The pace of change was too fast for Mubarak. However, while this new form of social media galvanized a people, a BBC article I read on the issue http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16704543 states that it has also created a power vaccuum as the young revoluionaries lack a figure with the charisma and know-how to take their issues on in the new fragile emerging democracy.
The tanks and soldiers that surrounded the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) in February of 2011 were there to ensure that the Information Ministry could maintain its ability to send out pro-Mubarak propaganda in the form of political adverts, state addresses and radio broadcasts. By controlling the access that Egypt's people had to information, Mubarak hoped he could cling to power. Yet he and his ministers had vastly underestimated the revolutionaries' ability to organise themselves to be at certain protest locations at a certain time, circulate information relating to governmental abuses and send messages of support to those leading the movement.
What was very clear was how social media, through Facebook and Twitter, had changed the way in which leaders could be held to account, revolutions organized, and countries governed. The pace of change was too fast for Mubarak. However, while this new form of social media galvanized a people, a BBC article I read on the issue http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16704543 states that it has also created a power vaccuum as the young revoluionaries lack a figure with the charisma and know-how to take their issues on in the new fragile emerging democracy.
Before I blog....
It is with some trepidation that I embark upon this blogging exercise with the Y11 Language and Literature students from FDR. It sees me undertaking a transition from being a face-to-face presence as someone who guides students' thinking in the classroom to being an ever-present digital reality whose words will be read and scrutinized by anyone who wishes to follow me. As we take the step to creating online publishable profiles it is both exciting and intimidating to think that there is now a real audience and that in the electronic age what we write will leave a digital footprint for all-time.
So, the question is, why take that risk? Well, certainly since my time as a student and for many, many generations before, students have been asked to undertake spurious writing tasks which will never really see the light of day. Be it an imagined diary entry from a character in a novel; a persuasive letter to the town's mayor; or a travel brochure for any given literary setting (I told you they were spurious!), students could at best hope for some critical feedback from their teacher, or, more often than not, receive a mark out of ten and the piece is then forgotten about. In a best case scenario, the persuasive letter may actually get sent, or the best poem may get published in the school magazine, but that means that only the top percent of a class actually receive the rewards that come with being a bonified, no-questions-asked, published author!
With this exercise, everyone gets the chance to have their entries read and reviewed. You'll have to think carefully about the content of your work as everyone can see it but that also means that you will be able to benefit from (hopefully) stimulating comments from your peers. At the very least it will get you guys writing. Whenever I have been lucky enough to listen to an author speak, or have read an article about writing, one of the most common comments is that getting started is the hardest thing. In the most positive scenarios, I really hope that your blog expands to be a domain you take complete ownership over and that expands organically beyond what is asked from you in the classroom.
I am looking forward to taking this journey with you so let's get blogging...!
It is with some trepidation that I embark upon this blogging exercise with the Y11 Language and Literature students from FDR. It sees me undertaking a transition from being a face-to-face presence as someone who guides students' thinking in the classroom to being an ever-present digital reality whose words will be read and scrutinized by anyone who wishes to follow me. As we take the step to creating online publishable profiles it is both exciting and intimidating to think that there is now a real audience and that in the electronic age what we write will leave a digital footprint for all-time.
So, the question is, why take that risk? Well, certainly since my time as a student and for many, many generations before, students have been asked to undertake spurious writing tasks which will never really see the light of day. Be it an imagined diary entry from a character in a novel; a persuasive letter to the town's mayor; or a travel brochure for any given literary setting (I told you they were spurious!), students could at best hope for some critical feedback from their teacher, or, more often than not, receive a mark out of ten and the piece is then forgotten about. In a best case scenario, the persuasive letter may actually get sent, or the best poem may get published in the school magazine, but that means that only the top percent of a class actually receive the rewards that come with being a bonified, no-questions-asked, published author!
With this exercise, everyone gets the chance to have their entries read and reviewed. You'll have to think carefully about the content of your work as everyone can see it but that also means that you will be able to benefit from (hopefully) stimulating comments from your peers. At the very least it will get you guys writing. Whenever I have been lucky enough to listen to an author speak, or have read an article about writing, one of the most common comments is that getting started is the hardest thing. In the most positive scenarios, I really hope that your blog expands to be a domain you take complete ownership over and that expands organically beyond what is asked from you in the classroom.
I am looking forward to taking this journey with you so let's get blogging...!
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