Campaigning In The Twenty First Century

In view of the 2016 US election season, the second edition of this book analyzes the way political campaigns have been traditionally run and the extraordinary changes that have occurred since 2012. Dennis W. Johnson looks at the most sophisticated techniques of modern campaigning—micro-targeting, online fundraising, digital communication, the new media—and examines what has changed, how those changes have dramatically transformed campaigning, and what has remained fundamentally the same despite new technologies and communications. Campaigns are becoming more open and free-wheeling, with greater involvement of activists (especially through social media) and average voters alike. At the same time, they have become more professionalized, and the author has experience managing and marketing the process. Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century illustrates the daunting challenges for candidates and professional consultants as they try to get their messages out to voters. Ironically, the more open and robust campaigns become, the greater is the need for seasoned, flexible, and imaginative professional consultants. New to the Second Edition Includes coverage of the 2012 and 2014 elections, looking ahead to 2016. Updates coverage of campaign finance since the landmark Citizens United Supreme Court decision. Adds to the discussion of demographic and technological changes in elections since 2012.

So much has changed during the past decade in political campaigning that we can almost say "it's a whole new ball game." This book analyzes the way campaigns were traditionally run and the extraordinary changes that have occurred in the last decade. Dennis W. Johnson looks at the most sophisticated techniques of modern campaigning—micro-targeting, online fundraising, digital communication, the new media—and examines what has changed, how those changes have dramatically transformed campaigning, and what has remained fundamentally the same despite new technologies and communications. Campaigns are becoming more open and free-wheeling, with greater involvement of activists and average voters alike. But they can also become more chaotic and difficult to control. Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century presents daunting challenges for candidates and professional consultants as they try to get their messages out to voters. Ironically, the more open and robust campaigns become, the greater is the need for seasoned, flexible and imaginative professional consultants.

In view of the 2016 US election season, the second edition of this book analyzes the way political campaigns have been traditionally run and the extraordinary changes that have occurred since 2012. Dennis W. Johnson looks at the most sophisticated techniques of modern campaigning—micro-targeting, online fundraising, digital communication, the new media—and examines what has changed, how those changes have dramatically transformed campaigning, and what has remained fundamentally the same despite new technologies and communications. Campaigns are becoming more open and free-wheeling, with greater involvement of activists (especially through social media) and average voters alike. At the same time, they have become more professionalized, and the author has experience managing and marketing the process. Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century illustrates the daunting challenges for candidates and professional consultants as they try to get their messages out to voters. Ironically, the more open and robust campaigns become, the greater is the need for seasoned, flexible, and imaginative professional consultants. New to the Second Edition Includes coverage of the 2012 and 2014 elections, looking ahead to 2016. Updates coverage of campaign finance since the landmark Citizens United Supreme Court decision. Adds to the discussion of demographic and technological changes in elections since 2012.

Campaigns are central to the practice of modern democracy and integral to political participation in the twenty-first century. In Winning Power, Tom Flanagan draws on decades of experience teaching political science and managing political campaigns to inform readers about what goes on behind the scenes. While the goal of political campaigning - using persuasion to build a winning coalition - remains constant, the means of achieving that goal are always changing. Flanagan dissects the effects of recent changes in financial regulation and grassroots fundraising, the advent of the "permanent campaign," as well as the increase in negative advertising. He pulls these themes together to show how tactics are employed at specific points in a campaign by providing a firsthand account of his management of the Wildrose Party campaign in Alberta's 2012 provincial election. Lifting the veil of campaign secrecy, he provides a candid account of the successes and mistakes the newly formed party made in an election that nearly toppled the four-decade-long dynasty of Alberta's Progressive Conservatives. Modeling its campaign on the 2006 campaign that brought Stephen Harper to 24 Sussex Drive, Wildrose combined grassroots fundraising, an innovative platform that reached out to its electoral coalition, a carefully scripted leader’s tour, as well as negative and positive advertising in the race towards leadership. Success for the party seemed within reach until breakdowns in message discipline in the campaign’s final week caused the Wildrose tide to ebb. Citing diverse sources such as game theory, evolutionary psychology, and Aristotelian rhetoric, Flanagan explores the timeless aspects of campaigning and emphasizes new strategies of coalition-building. For future campaigners, Winning Power provides textbook illustrations of what does and doesn't work.

This book is at once both a commentary on recent political history and a guide to effective political practice. A must read for politics watchers, activists, and students of politics.

In the United States and much of the world there is a palpable depression about the prospect of overcoming the downward spiral created by the tyranny of wealth and privilege and establishing a truly democratic and sustainable society. It threatens to become self-fulfilling. In this trailblazing new book, award-winning author Robert W. McChesney argues that the weight of the present is blinding people to the changing nature and the tremendous possibilities of the historical moment we inhabit. In Blowing the Roof off the Twenty-First Century, he uses a sophisticated political economic analysis to delineate the recent trajectory of capitalism and its ongoing degeneration. In exciting new research McChesney reveals how notions of democratic media are becoming central to activists around the world seeking to establish post-capitalist democracies. Blowing the Roof off the Twenty-First Century also takes a fresh look at recent progressive political campaigns in the United States. While conveying complex ideas in a lively and accessible manner, McChesney demonstrates a very different and far superior world is not only necessary, but possible.

Essay aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich Medien / Kommunikation - Medien und Politik, Pol. Kommunikation, Universität Leipzig, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The presidential election campaign of Barack Obama was declared as the first Internet- Campaign and in the American media there was talk of a transformation of the traditional campaigning. Hillary Clinton announced her presidential candidature in january 2008 not at a press conference but on the internet. “The 2008 campaign will be the first truly 21st Century presidential race.” wrote Arianna Huffington at The Huffington Post on August 02 in 2007. It is the same in politics as it is in every other part of our society: The internet becomes more and more important. Even the reasons are the same, the internet provides numerous considerable advantages which must not be wasted. Modern politicians from many countries have realized this and try to use the internet for their activities. The main aspect which makes the internet the number one medium of our society is its function as a communication platform. The amount of data and information available on the internet grows every day. Today, people use the internet not just to find information but to create and publish information themselves. Besides that, today the internet provides possibilities to publish videos, photos and even your own private thoughts and more and more people use that. In a way the internet has become more and more personal and it is like a huge bulletin board for everyone's own ideas. That is the advantage for modern politics, the internet provides the opportunity to communicate with people in a more personal way (than for example TV would do). There are two very good examples for people who have used all that with great success. Howard Dean ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, nevertheless he is considered to be a pioneer of campaigning on the internet and especially political fundraising via the Internet. However, a perfect example is the election campaign of Barack Obama, whose online campaign applied a new standard. Nobody can deny that the internet is connected to nearly every part of modern society. Since more and more people use the internet frequently and a company like Google becomes more and more powerful, the internet has to play an important role in politics. By discussing the advantages of the internet as a communication platform, the advantages of the internet for an election campaign, and the examples of Howard Dean and Barack Obama this paper will prove that the internet is the key to win a presidential election campaign these days.