WatchBlog: Political Opinion Blogs

WatchBlog is an online blogging website where people can post their political opinions and commentary into one of the political affiliation categories. The website gives you three political affiliation categories; Democrats and Liberals, Third Party and Independents, and Republicans and Conservatives. This blogging website can be used during election times as a way for people to express their opinions on the candidates and campaign. I created this post to give an example of how people use the internet to read and express information on politics and during a campaign. Do you think this political blogging website plays a negative role in the campaign process or do you think its important to have blogging sites like these?

http://www.watchblog.com/

The Internet's Role in the 2008 Campaign

It is believed that the internet played a significant role in the 2008 presidential campaign. 74% of internet users went online to read or post information on the election. Americans mainly used the internet to see how the race was going and to get involved in political debates regarding the campaign and the candidates. About one in five internet users posted their thoughts on the campaign on an online forum such as a blog or social networking site, 45% of internet users went online to watch a video related to the campaign, and one in three internet users forwarded political content to others. From this information it is obvious to see that in fact, the internet did factor in to the 2008 campaign. People also turned to online news for a large amount of political information; nearly half of online political news consumers visited five or more distinct types of online news sites during the 2008 election cycle. But research has shown that people are beginning to prefer social media sites and blogs where they can publicize their own political views rather than reading news about politics. This could have a negative affect since blogs and social media sites publicize personal political opinions which may be distorted and can provide false information to the public.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/6--The-Internets-Role-in-Campaign-2008.aspx

Internet and Politics

     
        Since the 1990's, the Internet has continued to connect people and politics while keeping updated information on politics, potential candidates and elections. People all over the world now have the ability to follow politics in any country, thanks to the Internet. Not only are facts given on political matter, but people can use social media, websites, and blogs to express their own opinions on different areas in politics. Some critics believe this has created a further divide between people and nations and has played a role in polarizing the political arena. People can create interest groups on the internet where they can share similar politcal ideologies, beliefs, and goals.

        Whether the Internet has increased polarization or provided people with more useful political information, one thing is definite, it has increased voter participation in elections. We don't know the exact reasons as to why someone votes, but we do not that the internet has played a significant role. Websites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging sites have greatly contributed to providing political information by publicizing videos, personal opinions, and information. Some of this information is argued to be misleading and distorted since users can display any information they please. In the past, it was not so easy to gain access to so much political information, interest groups, and opinions as it is today. These internet applications have greatly strengthened people's connections with politics.

http://www.questia.com/library/science-and-technology/computers-and-the-internet/internet-and-politics

Twitter's Political Index Uses Tweets to Gauge Presidential Race

            Twitter has recently decided to take part in the 2012 presidential election with the launch of the new tool called the “Twitter Political Index”. With this tool, people can track the popularity of each candidate. Twitter has even created a separate website to keep up with each candidate and how many ‘popularity votes’ they have based on tweets. They are able to do this by analyzing the tweets that users post about each candidate to tell whether that person is in favor of that candidate. Twitter believes this concept will become very popular among their users. “Dick Costolo, CEO of the social network, said he fully expected Twitter to play a major role in this election.” (Gaudin)

           The website that twitter created especially for their political index can be visited at www.election.twitter.com. Here, the two presidential candidates are shown with a tally number underneath each of their names. Below, there is a line graph showing the recent popularity of each candidate. Twitter is able to accurately measure the popularity of each candidate by taking a daily toll of the tweets made about each candidate and what the tweet is saying about them. When I first heard that twitter had created this, I thought that it was not accurate because I assumed they were only going by hash tags that users put on each candidate.

            Twitter teamed up with a data analysis team at a company called Topsy, an online traffic tracker, to help track down these political tweets. Their job is to examine each tweet made about one of the candidates to figure out if they are in favor for that specific candidate, if so; they put a vote under that candidate’s name. This method may not be completely accurate in getting the feel for popularity between the candidates considering the people who do not have twitter accounts or do not choose to tweet about their political feelings. It does, however, give a good feel for how the twitter community feels about it and is very interesting for people to follow. "One glance at the numbers, and it's easy to see why pundits are already calling 2012 'the Twitter election,' " wrote Adam Sharp, head of government, news and social innovation at Twitter. (Gaudin)

            A twitter blog read “Just as new technologies like radar and satellite joined the thermometer and barometer to give forecasters a more complete picture of the weather, so too can the Index join traditional methods like surveys and focus groups to tell a fuller story of political forecasts. It lends new insight into the feelings of the electorate, but is not intended to replace traditional polling — rather, it reinforces it.” I believe this is a very creative and neat concept that twitter has created. I think it will become popular among twitter users to conveniently visit the website to see how the candidates compare. It will be interesting to see if this political index actually does play a role in the 2012 election.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229880/Twitter_s_Political_Index_uses_tweets_to_gauge_presidential_race