FP – Annotated Bib.

Annotated Bibliography – Final

1. Best, S, & Krueger, B. (2005). Analyzing the representativeness of internet political participation. Political Behavior, 27(2), 183-216 .

In recent years social media and the internet have made online political activism as easy as ever. This is a study on how political participation varies amongst people online and offline. The study also explores how an online user’s opinions may support or distort that of the general population.  We are mostly concerned with whether people are active online.

2. Hanson, Ralph.  (2008). Living in a media world: A weblog of current news on journalism & mass communication issues. Politics in Review. Link: http://ralphehanson.com/blog/archive_08_10.html#102308_politics

I really liked this information because not only is it useful for our project, but it was also collected by one of my former professors. Prof. Ralph Hanson keeps his blog, “Living in a Media World,” to coincide with his textbook on media in the world today, and in October of 2008 he blogged heavily about media coverage of the campaigns.  He provides links to sites that critiqued McCain’s promotional appearances and other candidate’s negative campaign ads, as well as other information about new media sources that could affect the public’s opinion before voting.

3. Harris, John F. (2006). New media a weapon in new world of politics. The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/

John Harris started out covering politics in Virginia and the nation for the Washington Post, and spent time doing work on the 2008 campaign trail as the Editor-in-Chief of The Politico and politico.com. His article states that new media has “created a new brand of politics in which nearly any revelation in the news becomes a weapon or shield in the daily partisan wars” As such, former President Bill Clinton is quoted in the article as saying that many of his fellow Democrats have not handled the attacks afforded by new media well, and therefore, lost support by its hand. We will use this article to hypothesize which party will have a greater presence and activeness on facebook.

4. Jenkins, Henry. (2008). How we help spread political messages. Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Offcial Weblog of Henry Jenkins, http://henryjenkins.org

Henry Jenkins an author, professor, and the Director of the MIT Comparitive Media Studies.  He has written nine books and maintains a weblog about new media. His October 31, 2008 post emphasizes the importance of the “spreadability” of politics in new media. Political messages may have a greater effect when they evoke something in readers or viewers that motivates them to send the messages to friends. Chiefly among those motivations mentioned was a feeling of nostalgia conveyed in the political message. Our research found that the substance of our observed posts was mostly concerning something that was not much of a political issue, but more a reactions to Obama’s speech overtaking the airing of the Peanut’s Christmas special.

5. Melican, D. B., & Dixon, T. L. (2008). News on the net: Credibility, selective exposure, and racial prejudice. Communication Research, 35(2), 151-168.

This study questions whether internet use could perpetuate racism and affect credibility of nontraditional news sources based on psychological theories on exposure and perceptions. In particular, the authors believe that people with a certain political or racial perspective are “inclined to seek out those sites that have information support their personal views and filter out sites with opposing views.”  Results of their online survey combined with ratings on a scale of modern racism led the authors to believe that people’s views could skew the credibility of information they receive (or, rather, seek out) online.  We believe that this theory could be tested with political fan pages on facebook. The pages with more activity are likely to have more supporters on facebook. Users will exhibit varying levels of investment by performing certain activities on the fanpage ranging from ‘liking’ something to actually posting.  The full article was available for a class discussion through our professor, but Dixons, one of the author’s abstract, is free online at http://crx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/2/151.

6. Smith, A., Schlozman, K. L., Verba, S., & Brady, H. (2009). Internet and Civic Engagement Overview and Summary. Pew Internet and American Life Project.

This study sought to see if new forms of civic engagement through social networking sites or otherwise posted material online was encroaching on the dominance of high income individuals’ leading position in civic engagement. Their telephone surveys of over 2000, 18 or older adults found that high income people’s political activity was still the leader; and this supports our conclusion that the younger demographic that facebook users are in, is still predominantly not as politically active online as one may think.

7. Smith, Justin. (2009) Fastest growing demographic on facebook: women over 55. Inside Facebook: Tracking Facebook and the Facebook Platform for Developers and Marketers. http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/02/fastest-growing-demographic-on-facebook-women-over-55/

Insider Facebook is a site that publishes statistics on Facebook concerning trends for marketers. Their February 2009 post suggested that although the demographic of Facebook users is still 43% 18-25 year-olds (college-age individuals), the fastest growing demographic of users are women age 55 or older.  This information shows that the habits of the college demographic are still dominant on Facebook, but it is changing to include an older generation.  The implications of these statistics for our project means that although Facebook now represents the actions of consumer-driven college-age students, it may increasingly reflect the actions of an older demographic in the future.  We may assume this as older individuals are increasingly joining the site and because today’s college-age students will soon become part of the older demographic.

8. Stolle, D., Hooghe, M., & Micheletti, M. (2005). Politics in the supermarket: political consumerism as a form of political participation. International Political Science Review, 26(3), 245-269.

This article is a study on political consumerism and it’s effect on political participation. Social media is a new form of political activism that shares a lot of character with political consumerism. We will see whether facebook users’ political participation is more consuming or contributing based on whether they post their own topics, or merely respond to that which is posted on the site.

9. Talbot, David.  (2008).  How obama really did it:  The social-networking strategy that took an obscure senator to the doors of the White House.  Technology Review.  1-10.

This piece looks at the tools used by Obama’s team as he ran for the presidency in 2008.  It does an in-depth analysis of www.my-barackobama.com, the social networking site that generated publicity and informed millions during the campaign.  It also compares Obama’s campaign with Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, which was the first to really make use of new forms of social media. Will such an emphasis on having an online presence make the Democratic party more active on facebook?

10. Vavrus, M.D. (2002). Postfeminist news: political women in media culture. NY: State University of New York Press.  1-30.

In this selection, the author looks not at the way politicians use new media to reach their audiences, but at the way the new media portrays politicians, particularly women.  Often, people don’t get their idea of a politician or political issue straight from someone who is running for office.  It’s important to see how the media portrays these women politicians because that affects the way people view them come voting time.  It is also important to see how politicians are using new media to portray other politicians in general.