Page and a Half

As the 2012 Presidential Election came to a close Barack Obama made one final post to his many social outlets. These are the outlets that according to some analysts won him his second term in the White House. The days of pleasing newspaper columnists and news broadcasters are gone. Of course the popular vote and Electoral College are what show the final decision come Election Day however in the months leading up to the big day, Americans have moved from looking at just the different polls to also checking in on the most current social media statistics.
With the Election ending just weeks ago, it is tough to say to what extent social media had an effect on the outcome of the election however we can conclude that the growth of social media in the last four years changed the way Americans vote in the election. After examining many of the social media statistics from the last year you can conclude that social media can in fact help predict the winner of the election.
Since the beginning of American history it has taken a lot to win the office of President of the United States however as time continues to pass and technology continues to grow there are now a larger variety of variables that contribute to the election of a President. In the 1970’s television was introduced into elections providing the candidates with a similar way to communicate with the voters and now in 2012 that task was made even similar with the usage of social media (Smith 1).
According to a case study performed by the Dragon Fly Effect online website Obama was able to win the election because of many tactics used by his campaign however the most significant of these tactics was Obama’s call to action and his clear and focused mission. “Every action in the Obama campaign was geared toward getting people to vote. The sole purpose of online activity was to create offline activity” (Smith 1). This was one of the main differences in the Obama and Romney social media campaigns, Romney spent more time negatively effecting Obama than he did recruiting voters for himself (Bykowicz 1). Along with his call to action Obama also made sure he came up with a clear and focused vision that he used with every post. These three words that Obama outlined time and time again were Hope, Change, and Action (Smith 1). All these words were used to force the voter to believe that he was the answer. These words were all used in the 2008 election as well, while this connecting of the dots might have sent some voters packing it also helped to bring many voters that have supported Obama throughout the last four year back to the polls in favor of him.

The use of history and discussing the 1970 election i think will give you a very strong argument for this paper because TV obviously changed elections from that point on and now social media will most likely do the same. Also discussing the difference in how Obama and Romney used social media will be very strong for you. Well done to this point!

Looks good thus far, this is an interesting topic because I think it social media and data intake by the Obama ground game ultimately gave the campaign its edge in the Election, take a look at this link I posted.

[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

Cool beans so far with your paper. I feel that your argument about the effect of media in the election is more than valid. For most people, what they see is what they get-the media's a monster. Your allusion to patterns in history when bringing up the 1970 election was a good choice. I agree that television and how candidates are presented carries a significant amount of weight in a presidential election. Comparing and contrasting Obama v.s. Romney advertising (target audience,slogans, visited cities etc.) may clue readers in as to how the election was won. Nice work hombre.

I really like that you brought up previous history in this post, and present too. This seems to interest you and you know what you are talking about. My only concern is that you may not have the most interesting topic so just make sure that you have juicy information to keep the reader alert and interested in what he/she is reading.

Adam, honestly I wouldn't worry about reader interest in this project. The presidential election (especially this last one) is something that most Americans are interested in. So go with this idea and definitely run with the idea and keep up the good work.