David A. Dulio

New Media and Political Marketing in the United States: 2012 and Beyond

Technology is an ever-evolving aspect of political campaigns in the United States. Even before the days when sophisticated survey research or television advertising burst on the scene, campaigners were seeking ways to campaign more efficiently and effectively. The Internet has provided a wealth of opportunities for candidates and their campaigns to use technology in creative and innovative ways. The 2008 U.S. presidential campaign clearly illustrated this. But the question becomes: What is next? Where does new media go from here, and, more importantly for scholars, what kind of research questions will be central when studying these new uses of technology? This article begins with a discussion of where new media, and the study of it, go in 2012 and beyond. We briefly take a look back at the 2008 election in which campaigns made great strides in the use of new media, breaking new ground by using tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other online video sharing sites and many others in ways that had not been seen before. We also look ahead and discuss what we expect in the 2012 U.S. elections and beyond. We do this from the perspective of campaigns—how candidates and their advisors as well as voters will use new media—and from the perspective of scholars: What are the directions for future research in these areas?

An experiment of campaign effects during the YouTube election

The 2008 US presidential election was called the ‘YouTube Election’. However, scholars know little about how the internet influences attitudes toward politics. To address this, we conduct an experiment to test the effects of exposure to the YouTube channel, ‘YouChoose’08’, on young adults during the 2008 US presidential election. We find that those exposed to YouChoose’08 exhibit more cynicism toward the US government, yet also had a heightened sense that they influence the political system. Exposure to YouChoose’08 had no influence on attitudes toward candidates or internet sources.

The Web 2.0 Election: Does the Online Medium Matter?

The 2008 U.S. presidential election saw the first significant integration of Web 2.0 technologies; however, scholars know little about how Web 2.0 sources influence political attitudes. To address this, the authors test the effects of exposure to various Web 2.0 sources during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. They find that young adults exposed to television network sites and candidate Web sites consider them more trustworthy and high-quality than YouChoose ‘08 and Facebook. Moreover, YouChoose ‘08 viewers exhibit more government cynicism, whereas those exposed to candidate Facebook pages have a heightened sense that they influence the political system. Last, the authors find that YouChoose ‘08 and Facebook viewers were more likely to vote on Election Day.

527 Committees and the Political Party Network

We investigate the links between 527s and other political organizations through the employment histories of 527 staff. We find that 527s are highly central to modern political party networks and are in positions to facilitate coordination within a party and to employ key party personnel. Furthermore, we find important differences between the networks charted out by the two major parties. The Republican Party, the majority party during the period under study, had a more hierarchical network than the Democratic Party did.

527 Committees, Formal Parties, and Party Adaptation

Abstract Political parties are not static organizations; they continually adapt to changes to the political, electoral, and legal environments. In this paper we argue that so-called 527 committees are another form of party adaptation. We investigate questions about their role in elections, using a dataset consisting of the personnel backgrounds of the largest 527s in the 2004 and 2006 election cycles. We examine the staffing of these groups and their ties to the formal party structures. We find that 527 organizations with stronger personnel links to formal party organizations have more connections to other 527s. The results suggest that 527s are not independent actors disrupting the party system, but rather well-placed participants in the party networks that helped parties adapt to a changing electoral context.

Running on Iraq or Running from Iraq? Conditional Issue Ownership in the 2006 Midterm Elections:

The authors examine the role of Iraq as a campaign issue in the 2006 midterm elections, analyzing more than 400 television advertisements produced by ninety-four candidates in forty-seven competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives. Generally, the authors find that the issue of the war was not as central an element of candidate appeals as the conventional wisdom and media storyline leading up to Election Day implied. On the issue of Iraq, as well as other issues central to 2006, the authors find evidence that challengers pursued different issue strategies than either incumbents or open-seat candidates of the same party.

Lady Luck? Women Political Consultants in U.S. Congressional Campaigns

Recent years have witnessed considerable growth in the political consulting profession (Panagopoulos 2006). In this article, the authors analyze female political consultants and their participation in the burgeoning political consulting industry. The authors assess the role women play as advisors in congressional campaigns. Specifically, they focus on how widely women and their consulting firms participate as professional advisors to candidates in federal elections and what factors help to determine whether female-partnered firms are hired by candidates.