...exception to the movement, going down in history as the social media election. The Obama campaign was a revolution dedicated to the utilization of social media to connect directly to the American public; their means of communication trigged a change that forever transformed the face of political campaigning. With the ability to communicate with supporters, they fully understood the potency of using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Through social media, they were able to mobilize and encourage supporters’ contribution in the campaign trial, with sites such as meetup.com. Social media also played a part in their fundraising, strategically using social networking sites, the main campaign website MyBarackObama.com, e-mails, text messages, etc. to receive donations. Last but not least, they were able to fully take advantage of the traffic flow to sites such as YouTube and Google to advertise their campaign. Facebook, known as one of the most dominate social networking sites of today’s society with nearly 600 million users. According to ‘Me Media’ by Cassidy(2006,pp.50–59) In 2006 “ Facebook was used at over 2,000 United States colleges and was the seventh most popular site on the World Wide Web with respect to total page views”. It was no coincidence that one Obama’s leading strategist was the Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, whom at the time was 24 years old. The campaign spent approximately 467,000 dollars on Facebook advertisements targeted at the younger...
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...of war, America persists a new civil rights movement. This movement is known as Black Lives Matter. The new crusade embellishes the social injustices and oppressions faced by the black community, specifically police brutality. The Black Lives Matter movement started in 2013 when African-American teen, Trayvon Martin, a victim of police brutality, was shot to death. The initiation of such movement are prevalent throughout history. For instance, the American Civil Rights movement from 1954-1968 was a large step in the black community’s political and civil rights, and, possibly the largest step of all, the induction of the first African American president, Barack Obama. This amazing moment in American history would not be made possible without Obama’s determination, perseverance and unparalleled campaign tactics. One of Obama’s more well known campaigns directed by Davis Guggenheim, “A Mother’s Promise”, draws potential voters into Obama’s campaign using many rhetorical devices within...
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...Introduction: The use of IT and social media was the differentiating factor in the US politics, which catapulted Barack Obama ahead of Mitt Romney and has secured Obama’s second term as the President of the United States. For a long time, traditional social media has been the medium of communication of ideas in politics. Dating back to the 1950s, shrewdly assembled team of social media experts would have designed and crafted political campaigns that appealed and rallied the emotional side of supporters. Most of the occasions, contesting candidates would have carefully selected controversial policies that the majority were against, to garner support by invoking them to think that dethroning the current office would be “changing for the better”. Social Media experts would then exaggerate these feelings of unrest and protest in the undecided voters by publishing contents that citizens feel that are controversial. The reigning party would also, with the help of traditional social media, attempt to strengthen their foothold in the office by reinforcing the pathetic few policies that they have implemented during their term. Traditional social media has indeed played a pivotal role in all political elections all around the globe. However, with the ubiquity of smartphones and personal computers, coupled with a massive surge of online social platforms, the pivotal change of politics seem to lie in the hands of the party who knows how to play the game of IT. There have been numerous...
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...When Barack Obama stood before a cheering crowd in his home state Illinois and announced his candidacy, no believed that this guy had any chance of winning the nomination. Majority of Americans did not believe that the country was actually ready for an African American president with a promise of changing the course of politics in Washington. The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama grew up in Hawaii. Leaving the state to attend college, he earned degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama's father left the family when Obama was two and, after further studies at Harvard University, returned to Kenya, where he died in an automobile accident nineteen years later. After his parents divorced, Obama's mother married another foreign student at the University of Hawaii, Lolo Soetoro of Indonesia. From age six through ten, Obama lived with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia, where he attended Catholic and Muslim schools. "I was raised as an Indonesian child and a Hawaiian child and as a black child and as a white child," Obama later recalled. "And so what I benefited from is a multiplicity of cultures that all fed me."Concerned for his education, Obama's mother sent him back to Hawaii to live with her parents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, and to attend Hawaii's prestigious Punahou School from fifth grade through graduation from high school. While Obama was in school, she divorced Soetoro, returned to Hawaii...
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...Wednesday put Barack Obama’s name in nomination for reelection as president with an impassioned plea that Americans renew Obama’s contract for four more years. For those voters who have yet to decide whether to let Obama keep the keys to the White House or send him packing, here’s a primer in political prognostication: past is prologue; and personality drives behavior. Past is prologue The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. No speech, no campaign promise will fundamentally alter the general tenor of the Obama presidency in a second term. If you dislike Obama’s first-term agenda or leadership style as president, there’s little reason to cast a vote for Obama in hope of change. For the nonpartisan or independent voter, the great challenge is to anticipate how the candidate will govern. That task is simplified with an incumbent because the candidate’s track record telegraphs his likely path. However, the future is always uncertain. Little did we know when we sized up George W. Bush’s fitness for office in 2000 that history would throw us a curveball a year later in the form of Sept. 11. This is where political psychology earns its keep. Personality drives behavior Personality refers to the stable patterns of a person’s motives, thoughts and actions over time and across a broad range of situations. Accurate personality assessment allows us to anticipate a leader’s response to a broad range of contingencies – including those not currently on the political radar. ...
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...Երևանի Վ. Բրյուսովի անվան Պետաան Լեզվահասարակագիտական Համալսարան Political neologisms in the American Press (based on the articles on B. Obama's presidency) Danielyan Hovhannes CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………2 2. CHAPTER I General Notes on Political Neologisms……………………………………………..4 3. CHAPTER II Neologisms Connected with B. Obama's Presidency……………………………...9 4. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………….15 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..17 1 Introduction The current graduation paper is devoted to the detailed study of the neologisms in the American press. The latter is observed via examining the cases of neologisms brought forward by B. Obama. In this paper an attempt was made to throw light upon many words and phrases that are used in modern American political lexicon, as well as to examine some political neologisms that help to cover the 2008 Presidental Election Campaign. The graduation paper consists of an introduction, two chapters, conclusion...
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...The Political Power Of Social Media In most of the inhabited land, before the 12th Century A.D, political power resided with the King/Monarch. Power was exerted through local feudal, and collection of taxes each year. In 1215 A.D, the Magna Carta was signed by the King of England, giving away some of those powers to the aristocracy. This initiative was replicated in Europe till the 18th Century. The American Revolution of 1775 and the French Revolution of 1789 were products of this period of enlightenment (of Europe mostly) in modern history known as the ‘Renaissance’. As a result of these revolutions and the wars preceding them, political power was transferred to the representatives of the people, i.e. the system of parliamentary democracy. After the demise of imperialism (or at least the ‘older/traditional’ form of it) in the 20th Century, democracy has been the preferred political system in most countries around the world. There is a new kid on the block though. In 2007, the US Presidential campaign for Barack Obama utilized and benefitted tremendously from the massive number of people using social media outlets such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Obama’s presidential campaign raised a record-breaking $745 million. Apart from charisma and prowess in public speaking, Barack Obama and his campaign reaped the reward for engaging people on social media. The following graph demonstrates a clear contrast in the policies of the two contestants (McCain and Obama) during the presidential...
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...Political Micro-Targeting What Decision Support Systems Did for Barack Obama On the day he took the oath of office, President Barack Obama spoke a word rarely heard in inaugural addresses— data— referencing indicators of economic and other crises. His use of the word is perhaps not so surprising. Capturing and analyzing data were crucial to Obama’s rise to power. Throughout his historic campaign he not only used the Internet for networking and fund-raising, but he also relied on decision support systems to identify potential swing voters. Obama’s team carefully monitored contested states and congressional districts, where as few as 2,000 voters could prove decisive—a tiny fraction of the voting public. Both presidential candidates hired technology wizards to help sift through mountains of consumer and demographic details to recognize these important voters. Ten “Tribes” Spotlight Analysis, a Democratic consultancy, used political micro-targeting to analyze neighborhood details, family sizes, and spending patterns to categorize every person of voting age—all 175 million—into 10 “values” tribes. Individual tribe members do not necessarily share the same race, religion, or income bracket, but they have common mind-sets about political issues: God, community, responsibility, and opportunity. Spotlight Analysis predicted the influence of a particular morally guided (but not necessarily religious) tribe of some 14 million voters, dubbed Barn Raisers. Barn Raisers are of many races...
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...When will we see Change? A Critical look at Barack Obama and the democratic party. Charles Kerber POLS 202 9AM American Government Livingston This paper will take a critical look at the history of the democratic party, its most recent 2012 election, its current presidential candidate Barack Obama, and the latest platform. While the paper may read as being highly critical of President Obama, it should be caveated by the fact that this is an extremely trying time in the history of the United States, and the government is under considerable pressures from outside terrorism threats and international relations, to severe recession and domestic economic concerns. Nevertheless, one must look critically at President Obama, and answer has he really given us “change we can believe in”? Biography & history The Democratic party went through a number of iterations before it became the current democratic party. The party began as the anti federalists under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Thomas Jefferson a former secretary of state under George Washington's administration who had resigned to protest the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton. These two rivals would become the basis of the first two political parties of the United States. Alexander Hamilton favored the constitution, the creation of a national bank and repayment of the revolutionary war debt with federal funds. Under this philosophy they would name themselves Federalists, for their leaders support of ratifying the constitution...
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...Propaganda, Media, and the Making of a President August 27, 2010 COM/220 Propaganda, Media, and the Making of a President August 27, 2010 COM/220 Propaganda, Media, and the Making of a President Dr. Joseph Goebbels Dr. Joseph Goebbels The use of propaganda is as popular today for swaying public opinion as it was from 1933 to 1945 in war ravaged Germany. If Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels were alive today, he would be proud to see his propaganda machine being utilized by the U.S. Government to manipulate the masses and used by political parties to elect presidents. From mass print to the “tenth great power” the internet, the persons in control manipulate the masses and systematically destroy our freedoms to truthful information. World War II Propaganda Poster World War II Propaganda Poster In 1938 Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, filled the airwaves with propaganda that led to absolute control of the mass media to the Nazi Party and its Propaganda machine. It was about control, if you control what the masses hear and see, then you control the masses. Goebbels referred to the radio as the “Eighth Great Power”. Through mass exploitation of the media, and control of incoming and outgoing information, propaganda stands as the most effective form of control over swaying public opinion. “Propaganda has been practiced since earliest times, but modern mass media has made it much easier to appeal to wide domestic and foreign audiences” (Hutchinson...
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... Obama encourages staff to 'stay on offense' WASHINGTON — In June, during one of the best stretches of his presidency, Barack Obama strode through a West Wing hallway exclaiming: "Offense! Stay on offense!" It was a rallying cry for a White House that suddenly seemed to find its footing in the final quarter of Obama's tenure. An Asia-Pacific trade agreement was moving forward, as were the diplomatic opening with Cuba and work on an historic nuclear accord with Iran. The Supreme Court upheld a key tenet of the president's long-embattled health care law and legalized gay marriage nationwide. Even in the depths of tragedy following a church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, the president struck an emotional chord with his stirring eulogy for the victims. "I said at the beginning of this year that interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter - and we are only halfway through," Obama said during his annual year-end news conference. But the seventh year of Obama's presidency also challenged anew his cautious and restrained approach to international crises, particularly in the Middle East. Attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, heightened fears of terror on American soil and Obama's attempts to reassure Americans fell flat. And a seemingly endless string of mass shootings elsewhere in the country exposed the sharp limits of Obama's power to implement the gun control measures he speaks of with passion. Obama now stares down 11 months before his successor...
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...BARACK OBAMA'S SOUTH CAROLINA SPEECH Introduction In this paper, I shall analyze US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's South Carolina victory speech from a particular pragmatic perspective. In particular, I shall explore the idea that this speech is constituted by many voices (in other words, it displays polyphony, to use an idea due to Bakhtin 1981, 1986) and that the audience is part of this speech event, adding and contributing to its text in a collaborative way (in particular, in constructing meaning). As many are aware (including the journalists who report day by day on Barack Obama's achievements), Obama uses the technique of 'personification' (The Economist, Dec 13th, 2007). When he voices an idea, he does not just expose it as if it came from himself, but gets another person (fictitious or, plausibly, real) to voice it. Since in an electoral speech, he cannot reasonably get people on stage to voice his ideas, he personifies ideas by narrating what people told him. His stories are his way of personifying his ideas. The discourse strategy he uses serves to reverse the direction of influence from the people in control to the people controlled (see van Dijk 2003). Duranti (2006b) writes that The language of politics has been presented and studied in terms of its ability to persuade an audience (of peers, subjects, and superiors) to go along with the speaker's view of the world and his or her proposal (Perrot 2000). In much of this literature, the successful political...
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...Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4th, 1961 in Honolulu Hawaii to Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. Dunham, originally from Kansas and Obama, from Kenya met at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and eventually married on February 2nd, 1961. Barack moved to Massachusetts to obtain a PhD at Harvard. Consequently, Dunham and Obama divorced in March 1964. Eventually, he went back to Kenya, and Barack didn’t have a relationship with him. In 1965, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, a student from Indonesia, and the following year moved with Obama to Jakarta, Indonesia. Since Dunham was afraid for Obama’s safety and education, he was sent back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. He graduated from Punahou Academy with academic honors in 1979. Unfortunately, Obama’s father died on November 24th, 1982 in a car accident in Nairobi....
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...Evaluation of President Obama's First Year and a Half as POTUS" Introduction Barrack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20th, 2009. He is the first African American to take office and with his presidency he promised to make changes to America that would liberate the American people from crisis into a bright new beginning. In his Inauguration speech, he claimed to mend the financial crisis by stimulating jobs and laying a “new foundation for growth” (Naughton, “Inauguration speech”). He promised to rebuild the Nation’s foundations such as roads, bridges, electric grids, and digital lines, to revive the prosperity and importance of science, to increase the care and lower the cost of health care, to mend the threat of global warming, to enact peace with Afghanistan, to withdraw from Iraq, and to transform the educational system to meet the conditions of a new era (Naughton, “Inauguration speech”). Throughout his first year as president Obama has enacted many policies and regulations such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and Health Care Bill. However, has Obama stayed true to his original promises stated throughout his campaigns, in his Inauguration speech, as well as his first State of Union speech. Has Obamba’s first year been a success or a failure? This essay will explore the history of Obama’s ascend to presidency, his success and failures, and an overall evaluation of Obama’s first year in office. ...
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...Barack Obama Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States —becoming the first African American to serve in that office —on January 20, 2009. The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama grew up in Hawaii. Leaving the state to attend college, he earned degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, where he met and married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992. Their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha) were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996 and served there for eight years. In 2004, he was elected by a record majority to the U.S. Senate from Illinois and, in February 2007, announced his candidacy for President. After winning a closely-fought contest against New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Obama handily defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for President, in the general election. When President Obama took office, he faced very significant challenges. The economy was officially in a recession, and the outgoing administration of George W. Bush had begun to implement a controversial "bail-out" package to try to help struggling financial institutions. In foreign affairs, the United States still had troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and warfare had broken out between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, illustrating the...
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