Political campaigns take to the net, mass media takes to

Political campaigns take to the net, mass media takes to the hills - and freedom rings!

In recent political campaigns, we've seen the net used quite effectively as a campaign tool. Politicians now know they can reach millions of people easily by using Internet marketing techniques that have worked so well for the business sector in selling their products and services to Americans. Now politicians are using those same techniques to sell their candidacy and their points of view on the issues of the day.

It started with email campaigns. Obtaining lists from various sources, savvy politicians send unsolicited emails to as many email users as they can, introducing themselves, their issues and positions, while also providing an option for the reader to join the politician's mailing list. If you happened to join Al Gore's mailing list when he was running against George W. Bush, you received email after email from him, written by him, as if you and he were old Harvard buds keeping in touch. While it didn't help him win the election, it did initiate a new way of conducting political campaigns. Other politicians, such as President Obama, have followed Al Gore's example with greater success. Email changed the way political campaigns are conducted, but more was yet to come.

In the recent national election, politicians discovered the power of Internet video, and specifically, YouTube. This site allows anyone to upload video and anyone who has net access to view them. It's like getting on television without the hazard of having a reporter like Katie Couric asking you embarrassing questions, questions that don't let you communicate your positions, that challenge your veracity (that's for your opponent's video to do), questions from the devil's advocate, or the devil himself. With Internet video you stage the event yourself. There's no pretense at being unbiased. That's a mass media technique.

Take note of Michele Bachman and Alan Grayson. Last year they came out of obscurity and onto the world stage of YouTube to become 'viral sensations', as Time magazine called them in an article announcing YouTube's entry into the toolkit of political campaigns. The two were at opposite ends of the health care issue that has since been resolved, but now anyone following politics knows them by sight, and also knows their social and political views. No longer dependent on traditional media to get their messages out, politicians can depend on YouTube to make them and their views available to millions of voters, who can watch and listen to them as often as they like. No reporter is leading you to a conclusion about the candidates and their views. You get to lead yourself.

You only need to consider how our current president was able to fund his campaign through Internet appeals for contributions to recognize the tremendous power the net now plays in political campaigns. This is a radical change to the 'old' way in which Americans have been presented political debate. Up to now, both politicians and voters have relied on the mass media to present the political issues and choices. Their decisions determined which political campaigns would receive attention, when and how often they would be heard, and, to a large extent, what we, the voters, would hear. This amounted to a few people defining reality for the rest of us, a sort of dictatorship of the media.

Their ownership of the means of communication was their power over us. Now, the net has wrested that power from them and placed it in our own hands! Shocking indeed. Now, we can choose for ourselves what, when, and how often we will hear and watch politicians express their views. Thanks to the net, we are freed from having to trust a few media 'elites' to shape our social and political reality. We only need to give both sides a fair hearing to get that balanced view mass media tells us they give us because they say they do. With the net in the hands of the people and freely available to all politicians, we are enabled to set our own destiny. The dictatorship of the mass media has been overthrown. The prospect of free and responsible political campaigns is born. Shine on, Internet, shine on.