Politics has not always been seen as the avant garde of the technical revolution but this is increasingly changing in the run up to the 2008 US presidential candidate race. In times gone past, with less on-demand information being available to the mass audience, candidates courted as many companies and unions in their campaign for votes. The visits to General Motors and other industrial powerhouses for question and answer sessions can be viewed as testament to this outdated form of attracting voters.
Today this medium of canvassing is facing a renaissance; nearly all of the candidates for next year’s presidential election have attended the Google headquarters for conferences. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly it shows Google’s importance as a modern commercial force, as one of the worlds leading search engines it holds a vast domestic and global audience. Secondly it marks the recognition of modern politicians that attracting the support of the technology industries is a primary concern and essential for electoral success.
Technological policies are now vote winners, hence this years candidates have ensured such policies are at the top of their agendas. Senators John Edwards and Barack Obama have promoted this creed wholeheartedly. They have included the expansion of the broadband network and the creation of more accessible, transparent government machinery as key principles in their campaign promises. Their attempts to court the mass audience that hold technological issues as primary principles is yet another example of the importance of the modern computer world in politics.Added to this the internet revolution has enabled politicians to post debates and policy proposals on video websites such as YouTube. The popularity of such videos is debatable, mainly due to their lengthy nature; steps however are being taken to reduce the size of clips and make them issue specific. This will hopefully reduce apathy by appealing to the shortened attention spans of the modern generation.
Whatever cynics might say about politicians appealing to voters through technological issues, it is clear that today’s voter holds these issues at heart. With political participation dwindling, this is a necessary step to reintroduce the disaffected electorate to the representative system that ensures democracy is upheld.
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