This section of chapter 6 talks about technology and how it
relates to politics. “None of the
arguments and examples considered thus far address a stronger, more troubling
claim often in writings about technology and society- the belief that some technologies
are by their very nature political in a specific way.” (Teich 59)
With the presidential election just ending this is a good opportunity
to talk about this subject. Do you think that people in politics use technology
to get ahead of their competition? Explain with some form of examples.
I do think that people in politics use technology to get ahead of their competition. One example of this would be President Obama’s using the capturing of Bin Laden as a means of showing progress that was made during his first term as president. Another would be his assertion that mandated healthcare for everyone in our country would cut down on healthcare costs. I see his imitating this idea from systems that are being used in other countries.
ReplyDeleteI think the Bin Laden capture was just an scape goat for greedy politicians. I think they went over there for oil and they used their power to cover up and make it look good on their end. You see this in many company's that steal from themselves. It's all a cover up to make it look good so people don't look down on them.
DeleteOne prime example of technology being used by president Obama is Facebook. He is the first candidate to use Facebook and other social web sites to get his message out. His use of these sites put him in touch with the young and technologically advanced voters. It showed him as someone who was willing to progress with technology and not run from it.
ReplyDeletePolitics has noticed that it has to keep in touch with the new generation in order to get votes. Facebook is a way to do this and is moving us into a new era of advertising and communication. With Obama being the first presidential candidate to do this, he is paving the road for which other candidates reach out to younger voters.
DeleteI believe it is human nature to use any advantage to beat out your opposition, and politics is no exception. I know we can all remember recent uses even former President Clinton embracing the rock the vote campaign reaching out to younger voters. Even back in 1920's President Warren G. Harding who was a big backer of technology embraced the radio to get his message out there. I feel that society as well as technology at the time have shaped elections and candidates. "If we examine social patterns that comprise the environment of technical systems, we find certain devices and systems almost invariably linked to specific ways of organizing power and authority" (Winner L. p. 62).
ReplyDeleteI most certainly think that political figures use technology to get ahead, This can be shown time and again throughout history. Some examples of this would be FDR's fireside chats in WW2, Winston Churchills radio broadcasts in WW2 to ensure the population, and President Obama's use of Facebook and the media to promote himself. These are some of the most prominent uses of modern technology to promote political figures into leadership and establish themselves to the public eye.
ReplyDeleteI love that you used modern examples as well as classical ones. It's interesting to look at FDR and Churchill utilizing the technology of their time to give themselves political power.
DeleteI see the most political influence involvement will be from technological organizations who give money to politicians. Politicians can use social media as a way to advertise and sell themselves, but on another level, if a technological business backs them financially they expect something in return. I think this is the most dangerous element of political technology as it is usually not seen by the general public and is kept secret. Politics also has a significant influence on the development of technologies." ...the atom bomb is an inherently political artifact". (Teich 56). The government has the power to implement almost anything they can rationalize and get support for.
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it technologies can always, by their very nature, be used in ways that give advantage to those who choose to exploit them.
ReplyDeletePolitical use of modern technologies such as social media, targeted marketing, etc. is simply a case of these interests using what they see as the tool available that offers the best advantage to further their cause.
Tom S.
The person who has control over media outlets and systems will have power to influence society. As you said, exploitation is a powerful tool in politics and with control over media tools, they will be able to have a significant impact on the masses
DeleteI think you both are right in this case. It comes down to the people using the technology. If there weren't so many greedy people abusing the these right's there wouldn't be many problems.
DeleteOf course TV ads are ran all the time by both sides. This election however, I noticed Facebook pages and direct text messages, as well as Twitter being utilized. I think it was primarily Liberals who promoted this way, but of course I don't have statistics on the matter. This is just my observation. In the future, I think all political parties will fully realize the huge potential for free advertising that social media sites offer.
ReplyDeleteI read during the election that the amount of twitter and facebook traffic was record breaking! That's crazy those media outlets are that big...do you think future elections will only get bigger as far as traffic on those types of media hubs go?
DeleteI think that using technology in your political campaign can be a very powerful tool to have in your corner. For example during this last presidential election both my Twitter and Facebook feeds were filled with Barack Obama campaign ads. Obama used this to his advantage targeting young audiences through their social media websites. Using technology such as social media sites shows that you are ready to look to the future. Choosing to ignore these things will not make them go away so it would be in the candidates favor to take advantage of what is already there.
ReplyDeleteThere were so many ways campaigning reached me whether it was through facebook, twitter, email, television, etc. Politicians raise as much money as they can to promote their campaigns on every form of technology to reach people of all ages. I agree Obama reached out to the youth specifically to move "Forward" and did it mostly through the social medias.
DeleteI remember that in 2012 Barack Obama (and his campaign) was making good use of social media, including sites where you would not see his opponents. I remember seeing him doing a Reddit AMA, and putting things on his tumblr that were not just inspirational, or persuasive, but also just humorous and showed his human side. I saw people getting responses on their twitter accounts as well.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, word came out that the voting machines were owned by a company owned by Romney's son, if I recall correctly. There was discussion that they might use the technology to their advantage.
I think a big example of this is social media. Social media is one of the "new media" forms and it relates, and is used by, the young and the hip. Politicians want to seem like they are hip and connect with the masses, especially the youth so they have utilized social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, etc.). The flip side to this is that social media is not as much a tool for politics as just the fastest way to get information out there. You no longer need a press conference and a newsroom full of reporters to get a story out. All you need is a phone and working thumbs.
ReplyDeleteFacebook and Twitter was a huge social media tool for the election... Instagram is a new media form...do you think it will get as big as Facebook and Twitter for use of media?
DeleteInstant communication is a good and bad thing. It helps people to connect instantly but also puts a level of urgency on communication. There is very little reason to wait now due to the fluency and speed of communications.
DeleteI think that for the purposes of politics, these social media technologies will have (and have already had) a democratizing force on media. We will no longer have to rely on the Network and Cable news media for all of the facts.
DeleteI absolutely think that politicians use technology to get ahead of their competition. All the advertisement we see on TV are used to promote a person or undermine their opponent.
ReplyDeleteSome may argue that another use of technology was all of the equipment used by the President and U.S. military to find and kill Bin Laden. This provided the President a "leg-up" and boost to his approval rating prior to election season.
Yes, they defiantly use technology to get ahead, just look at the Watergate scandal. Nixon’s team used their recording devices to record the opposing candidate’s main points. They were trying to get an illegal edge against the candidate. “In the first instance, we noticed ways in which specific features in design or arrangement of a device or system could provide a convenient means of establishing patterns of power and authority in a given setting.” (Pg. 65) He arranged a device into the candidates office and gained power and authority from it.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you brought up the Watergate scandal. I hadn't thought back that far in history (I know, it really wasn't that long ago) and I certainly wouldn't have though about how they used voice recorders to blow the whole thing apart. Very clever post! Thanks!
DeleteRemember too how Nixon's 5 o'clock shadow ruined voter perception of his appearance/performance at that one debate?
DeleteI absolutely believe that people in politics use technologies as a source of ways to get ahead of their competition. The family I babysit for was being bombarded with phone calls from people campaigning for both sides during this last election. On YouTube when you would try to watch a video, you would first have to suffer through a 30 second advertisement all about Obama or Romney.
ReplyDeleteI was very frustrated when trying to listen to music on slacker.com (internet radio) during the run-up to the election. I would be listening to music by artists I like (some of which who actually play at Obama benefits), and a Republican commercial would play over it with no way to mute or stop it!
DeleteMy parents live in Ohio, and also complained of incessant phone calls. It really was not a problem here in NJ.
We still have a landline phone and I also remember the incessant phone calls. I know they do this to encourage you to vote for a certain candidate, but I think it has the opposite effect. I have to say that I will not miss the t.v. ads either. In particular the one where Romney is singing the National Anthem.
DeletePresident Obama, and the democratic party in general, were far more successful in this past election than the republicans were at utilizing technology for their advantage. It's fairly obvious that the republican party is out of touch with technology and the younger generations using it, and it cost them big. The democrats were using better algorithms and canvassing to predict the outcome in each district and focus their efforts where they were needed most. They reached out for donations over the mobile market, and they made appearances on Reddit and other online forums to gain support and campaign electronically.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely technology was used in this and the last election. It may even be a large part of what got President Obama elected. The best example that I have seen is their use of data mining. The Obama campaign team has been collecting data on all sorts of things over the years. They used this data to know where to focus the campaign and how to go about getting the votes they wanted.
ReplyDeleteSocial media. The easiest and fastest way to communicate with a nation of interested youth is to show up where they hang out most - Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. I had a unique privilege in 2012 in serving as the campaign manager and director of communications for a state wide campaign here in Ohio. Our campaign ran with only $4000.00 in outputs, refusing to take contributions because of the bias that comes with collecting money in a judicial race. In total our opener spent nearly $2 million. We won by over 160,000 voted. How? Social media! In being able to constantly and continually engage individuals where they are comfortable, politicians can greatly use technology to their advantage.
ReplyDeletePoliticians do everything humanly possible to get ahead of the competition so of course they use technology to do so. Abraham Lincoln was the first presidential candidate to distribute is campaign portrait all over the country which back then was a new technology. Bill Clinton appeared on MTV to appeal to the younger generation. Now, President Obama used social media to reach out to all kinds of people on the internet. Politicians have been using technology to get ahead of an opponent for as long as there have been politics.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I almost used this as my subject for paper 1. YES - - Obama's team in both campaigns improved on the tactical canvassing and likely-vote tallying used by Lincoln 150 years earlier. Where Lincoln targeted precincts with the technologies of his day: one speech at a time; one letter at a time writing to landholders; one newspaper article at a time - understanding the local hot buttons and party-leaning tendencies... - Obama did these same things but using the technologies of our day. No presidential campaign had ever used social media to the extent and with the success as Obama's team did. No one had ever used database information to electronically micro-categorize the voter base precinct by precinct as extensively as Obama's campaign did.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of what you believe about the parties' beliefs and platforms, now that the Republicans have twice been run over by this data-driven, direct message delivery Democrat political machine, it will be very interesting to see how they adapt/ advance their own use of data and information in the coming elections. I'm interested to see if their approach will be to merely catch up to what the Democrats did or if they make a technological leap and exceed what was done by Democrats in the last election
As many have said in past posts it was definitely used to gain an upper hand on voters for Obama.
ReplyDeleteI personally did vote for Obama. However that doesn't define who I am. As I have different beliefs and believe that he was the best for the job at the time with who he had to compete with.
That being said, a big plus I noticed on Facebook is that Obama or whoever runs his Facebook page does it in to get the public on his side. Every issue that comes up I see at least three different pictures a day about it and why we should support it.
Also with that being said it keeps people from seeing what other politicians want to do and what good they have if you don't "Like" their page. Which recently I've thought of unliking Obamas page simply because of the recent gun ban campaign he's trying to get going. And how misleading they are. However, it allows for a large counter argument to come out if you see what someone says and you don't agree with.
I think there's positive and negatives. But it definitely effected the outcome of the election.
The use of technologies such as twitter and Facebook are extremely powerful tools for politicians. Obama used these technologies much more efficient that Romney and I have seen a few polls that said that this may have won the election for Obama. With the youth vote becoming more important technology to reach them will become more important. I have also seen talk of transferring voting to an online based platform. Maybe one day we will be voting from our desks at work on our smart phones.
ReplyDelete