The Internet in the campaign to race into the White House

The first "shots" of the 2008 White House campaign have "exploded" on the Internet 'front.' This is a new feature in the 2008 presidential election, when candidates besides old-fashioned media are equipped with an extraordinarily effective 'weapon', the Internet.

From blogs, virtual social networks or online video sharing sites to virtual worlds like Second Life, all have been thoroughly utilized by politicians in their campaign strategy. With these tools, it can be affirmed, never ' virtual ' space has such practical value in the hot race in American politics.

Over the weekend, former US presidential lady Hillary Clinton was the first presidential candidate to announce the campaign through a video uploaded to the Internet. From this Monday, Hillary began receiving " chat " with the country's voters. At the same time, the Democratic Party's " rising star ", Senator Barack Obama uploaded a video that said he officially entered the roadmap towards the White House.

Unsurprisingly, the Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate was defeated in 2004. John Edwards used the New Orleans setting again after the storm to set the stage for the 2008 presidential video kick-off.

A woman is watching the election message on Senator Barack Obama's video on his Presidential Exploratory Committee website in Washington, January 16, 2007.( Source AFP ).

Meanwhile, on Second Life's website, the virtual world of about 2 million netizens, politicians also reportedly will hold a press conference and interview with virtual reporters.

Commenting on the situation, Mr. Joe Trippi, who ran the presidential election campaign of candidate Howard Dean Democratic Party and also a pioneer in using the Internet to raise funds and gather voters, said : 'The Web is playing an increasingly important role in the 2008 presidential race, that role is so big, for the first time it will really change the outcome of the election'.

According to Trippi, with that trend, troublesome incidents like that happened to the Virginia senator, Republican presidential candidate George Allen will re-emerge in the 2008 campaign. this.

Trippi's idea was to mention Sir Allen's scandal when he was stolen from a scene of an opponent's campaign campaigner 'macaca' (brown monkey), a word full of ethnic humiliation. When that scandalous video was uploaded to YouTube's largest online video sharing site (with more than 20 million visitors), the vote in favor of George Allen slipped.

Trippi commented: 'The Web is getting more and more powerful when the US population is online .

According to a recent survey of the Pew Project on Internet and American Life, the number of Americans who view the Internet as the main source of election campaigns during the past November has doubled compared to the annual election. 2002.

The Pew project leader, Mr. Lee Rainie, said that the role of the Internet will be even greater when the 2008 election campaign is close and candidates tend to convey the campaign message online.

Mr. Rainie said: ' In 2008, we are expected to have a record number of Internet users and rely on the Internet for political news and political exchanges. More and more people are using broadband connections, have network access skills and have a more comfortable access to blogs and video websites . '

According to Julie Germany, deputy director of the Institute of Internet Research and Political Democracy, the reason why the rivals 'eagerly' to participate in the online campaign is also to prove the ability to understand public knowledge. technology and 'staying awake' with the latest technologies.

However, Germany said that the strong attraction of the Internet is true but does not mean the other modes of election are forgotten, she said: ' An effective campaign in 2008 will have to use all Different modes of communication, information technology, events and even direct dialogue with voters. Therefore, technology is not everything .

Do Duong