aaa-+Sam+Erhart-+My+Civic+Hero

Barack Obama By: Samuel Erhart

** From an Unknown to President in One Year ** media type="youtube" key="WkjnbMPWjRw" height="315" width="420" align="center"

President Barack Obama is my civic hero for his innovative use of social media in his successful 2008-election bid. I chose Mr. Obama because of his story– going from a nationally unknown freshman Senator to the President of the United States of America in the span of a few months. In the primary he defeated Hilary Clinton and John Edwards well-known Democrats, and in the national election he defeated John McCain (a well-known Republican Senator from Arizona). As David Plouffe, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager said his innovation, “[was that] technology was core to [their] campaign from Day One and it only grew in importance… (Mageby 2011). Mr. Obama’s campaign was the first to successfully use Youtube, video games and social networking sites to raise money and organize supporters (Mageby 2011). The Obama campaign was the most “sophisticated organizing apparatus of any presidential campaign in history.” (Stirland 2008) Almost four million people donated to the Obama campaign; that’s more than double the contributions received by any candidate in the past (Mageby 2011). This proves how Barack Obama was more than just a charismatic candidate, but an innovator, with great insight to the power and efficiency of social media.

** My.BarackObama.com **

 The backbone of Mr. Obama’s operation was his online command center– my.BarackObama.com. Joe Rospars the Chief Digital Strategist for Obama for America said, “If you made phone calls using the my.BarackObama sound system or you made a donation or you sent a letter to the editor or joined a grassroots volunteer group at each step you are prompted to not just tell someone but to upload your whole address book and tell everyone you know.” This one website was a first of its kind, a social networking site designed for politics. From the website people could: Find Groups; by searching “soccer moms” or “students” people could find groups of likeminded individuals that they could connect with and talk to about Mr. Obama and his policies. (BarackObamadotcom, 2008) Fundraise; either directly or by pledging to raise money through their own networking. These personal acquaintance networks are hugely important to campaigns, individuals can raise upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars through these networks. (Herrnson, 2005, Brown, Powell & Wilcox, 1995) Make Phone Calls; the website can generate phone numbers of potential Obama voters that users can pledge to call. See Voter Registries; people can pledge on the site to go to the addresses of people in the voter registry who are very likely to vote for Obama, these volunteers are given resources to help guide their conversation. Then they report back on the website how the meetings went. (BarackObamadotcom, 2008) Create and find events; the site works as a giant calendar where anyone can post events that other users can see

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** “//Is he playing Brick Breaker//?" **

Popular comedian Dane Cook joked about Mr. Obama’s Tech suaveness, commenting about how he’s always on his blackberry. He later goes on to say, “[Obama] does like Youtube updates, Right? And that could be cool; you log into your Myspace in the middle of the night and you’re like, “Oh fuck Obama’s on!” And his audience roared with laughter because it was true! Since early in his campaign Mr. Obama constantly reached out and updated his Internet followers through Youtube and other social media websites–familiarizing them with his brand and his message.

Joe Trippi a Democratic Media strategist said, “the campaign’s official stuff they created for Youtube was watched for 14.5 million hours.” He continued saying, “To buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million.” (Mageby 2011). That $14.5 million does not include the time spent watching spinoffs and non-associated video hits such as will.i.am’s musical rendition of the Yes We Can speech, or the infamous Obama Girl; these two videos alone had well over 40 million views combined. In total there were 2.3 billion views of videos that mentioned Obama or McCain.

** A New Age **

The Internet is continually becoming a more central part to our lives. The President Elect Mr. Barak Obama made certain that his campaign would not ignore this fact, and as a result he has redefined the way campaigns will be run in the future. I believe this is extremely promising innovation; Obama has shown politicians how to use the Internet to organize. He has shown them how to help people become involved and stay involved. Through increasing political participation Barack Obama has proven once more, that he is more than just a charismatic candidate–he is an innovator.

References

BarackObamadotcom (Producer). (2008). //mybo tour//. [Youtube Video]. Retrieved from []

Brown, C. W. J., Powell, L. W., & Wilcox, C. (1995). //Serious Money Fundraising and Contributing in Presidential Nomination Campaigns//. New York: Press Syndicate of the Univiersity of Cambridge.

Herrnson, P. S., Campbell, C., Ezra, M., & Medvic, K. (2005). //Guide to political campaigns in America.// Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Magleby, D. B. (2011). How the 2008 elections were financed. In D. B. Magleby (Ed.), // The Change Election: Money, Mobilization, and Persuasion in the 2008 Federal Elections // Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Stirland, S. L. (2008, October 29). Obama’s secret weapons: Internet, databases and psychology [Web log message]. Retrieved from []