Internet Transparency and Political Figures

Thinking more about the question posed by Alexi in class:


"So long as information is publicly available, political actors have to behave as if someone in the public is paying attention.” Do you think this is a true statement regarding political figures and why?

Looking at it from the point of view of politicians having to watch what they say and do; at the Web 2.0 Summit: Web and Politics panel session, Joe Trippi, most noted for being the campaign manager for presidential candidate Howard Dean, talks about how we are in a state of transition. The Internet, in its nature, is forcing everything to become transparent because of the mass quantities of information available and the ease of posting material online. Because we are getting used to this 24/7 access to information and d.i.y. media, of course we are going to be shocked when a political figure says something seemingly crass like Obama's statement at a fundraiser in San Francisco:



or Bill Clinton being caught off-guard by citizen-journalist Mayhill Fowler who blogs for the Huffington Post. Audio and the full article can be found here. However, Trippi believes that after this transition, we will get used to seeing politicians and other important figures as real people. In fact, that was one of the main images Obama portrayed of himself during his campaign and succeeded.

Looking at the question from the point of view of the main stream media not giving air time to candidates such as Ron Paul or Ralph Nader; in the same Web and Politics panel session, Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor in chief of the Huffington Post, talks about how the Internet won the election for Obama. People are turning to the Internet for information regarding politics, more now than ever before (see the Pew research regarding the 2008 presidential campaign and Internet use). The main stream media is playing a less substantial role in determining who is a viable candidate. In this last campaign, Hillary Clinton was thought to be the shoe-in for the Democrat nominee until the Internet (well, and Oprah) catapulted Obama into the main stream. This means that people can run for public office with less money, less main stream media backing, or even major party backing and still have a chance at winning (examples include Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, Dean's successful run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2005, and Jesse Ventura's success in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998).

Huffington goes on to say that the two party system of Democrat and Republican is breaking down and that we are now able to make more independent decisions. Obama is connected to regular citizens via the Internet in a way in which no President has ever been before. He is able to mobilize people to contact their representatives in order to push his agenda through. People are able to get information from all sides of an issue, and make informed decisions, not based on party lines, but on facts. I think it will be very interesting to see how this idea of transparency plays out throughout Obama's first four years and if the amount of information widely available does begin to break down party lines.

Here's the Web and Politics video, it's about 50 minutes long, but very interesting. It features a panel with Joe Trippi, Arianna Huffington, and Gavin Newsome, the mayor of San Fransisco.