Ups and Downs in using the Internet for Political Campaigning

In America's 2006 election, political campaigning was revolutionised and taken to a while new level. Campaigns have developed sophisticated Internet tools to enhance their communication to their target audience, targeting young and web-savvy voters. Also, it made fundraising more effective as donating was more convenient and accessible.
However, as with every new relolutionary phenomenom, there are pros and cons to it.

Pros -

1. Being interactive to the target audience.

Via social media, discussion forums and blogs, citizens can be reached and their opinions heard. This ensures that citizens feel like they are involved with the whole voting process, and that they actually matter.

2. Being engaging with multimedia.

Youtube has provided a way where political campaign videos can be accessed anywhere, anytime. Can't make the speech? Don't worry, access it on the internet from the comfort of your own home. This is convenient, and videos also make sure the speech is engaging, compared to the past where citizens had to read a wall of text of speech to figure out what they missed.


Cons -

1. This strategy might not work for every country/culture.

Not everyone in the world has access to the internet still. There is a digital divide that exists, and this strategy would obviously only be effective in countries where the internet is readily available to the population. Additionally, the citizens must also be educated on how to use the internet.

2. Senior aged voters might lose out.

By emphasizing the internet in politcal campaigning, some older voters might be missed. Majority of the internet is still frequented by teens and working adults. Hence, some of the older generations might not be educated to know how to access the information they seek on the internet.