week 10: Internet & politics

This week in class, we watched several videos of Obama's political campaign and listened to in-class presentations which showed how candidates went on the web to promote themselves and their campaign through the uses of videos and even Facebook pages and Twitter updates. I, for one, feel that the Internet has become so pervasive that any political candidate who wishes to succeed does have to make use of the Internet.

In an article on political campaigns in Kovoso, public relations experts have termed the Internet the "latest fashion in political campaigning", and say that for the US elections, the Internet “was not only a propaganda tool anymore. It became a grass roots instrument. It gained more value, it helps mobilize people". Members of the parliament in Kovoso also believe in the power of the Internet, with a lot of them having Facebook profiles containing speeches, agendas, and even family photos. Memli Krasniqi, who ran for a seat on the Parliament two years ago, explains that the Internet helped him a lot especially because he was reaching out to young voters as well.

This leads back to the topic of why today's youth are so apathetic towards politics. There could be many reasons for this. Maybe they feel that their ideas and votes do not matter, or maybe they just have no interest. I admit that I do not pay much attention to politics, though I wish I did. I believe that it is important for youth to understand and be engaged in politics, but despite my belief, this is one area which just does not interest me.

This is where the power of the Internet comes in, because the Internet is something most youths of today know about and are interested in, and if they are able to learn about politics through the Internet, they might be more positive towards it.