Technology's Inevitable Role in Political Campaigns

The digital divide and participation gaps argued in Guidry’s analysis go hand-in-hand, existing because the other exists. Because gaining information through the Internet and completing assignments on the computer are essential to most work seen today, those who don’t have access to these technologies will naturally fall behind the others. The people who have fallen behind and are unable to contribute to the conversation create what we call a participation gap.  It will be impossible to gauge peoples’ levels of involvement until lack of participation can no longer be blamed on lacking the technological resources needed to participate.

What I found interesting about Guidry’s study was his finding that people “who come from backgrounds where they had less access to the Internet use and view it differently compared to those with significant or unlimited access.” In my article “Mobile Politics and the General Election,” research found that although 88 percent of registered voters said they had cell phones, only 27 percent reported that they have used their phones in this election campaign to keep up with news related to the election. While I think that this finding can partly be attributed to media’s awareness of the digital divide, and their making other traditional methods of participating in the election available, I think that the finding is mostly a result of Guildry’s assessment on how people use the technology they have access to. In the realm of things a computer and smart phone are capable of doing, using these technologies to participate in the election is only a one aspect. Only those who are comfortable using these technologies AND have interest in following the campaign will take advantage of them during the campaign.

Within the topic of technology use during political campaigns, I think it will take longer for the general population to report higher percentage of usage then in areas like gaming, music streaming or video chat. Not only will people have to first have access to technology and be comfortable enough using the apps and services giving information about the campaign, but people will have to care about politics enough to seek out the services that provide applications in this area of discussion.

 Political efficacy in our country is another discussion in itself. But once the trend of using applications, twitter and other technological resources during the election catches on, it will prove as an incredibly useful tool in connecting the public with the candidates. As I follow this election, I have found Twitter to be extremely useful in hearing prominent peoples’ opinions on what is going on. During the debates, tweets from news anchors, comedians, the candidates themselves and everyone in between come streaming in with their live opinions on what was just said or done. Another statistic I could relate to in the Pew Research was that, like myself, 35 percent of smart phone owners use their phones to look up whether something they just heard about a candidate or the campaign in general was true. Easy access to this kind of information will help keep candidates honest, and ensure that the most accurate information is being presented to the public.