YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States

The proliferation of online campaign content has brought an end to an era of broadcast media dominance over US national politics and has resulted in the drastic reconstruction of the traditional fundraising machinations of American politics. Since the mid-1990s, there have been growing discussions on Internet activism and how new media has impacted participatory democracy and social justice in the United States. The increased usage of the Internet in political campaigning has also impacted some of the foundational ways that politics has historically been conducted in the United States. This paper analyzes a framework posited by Andrew Chadwick which conceptualizes the ways in e-democracy is transformative for political engagement. Further, this paper argues that during the 2008 Presidential campaign president- elect Barack Obama attained unprecedented success through the utilization of the internet as a primary vehicle for his political campaign. Obama’s innovative approaches to US politicking have led to one of the most transformative eras in US political history and catapulted him to an overwhelming victory for President of the United States.