Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

writing day

I have a paper due tomorrow for my Electoral Campaign Communications class, so, of course, I’m continuing my frantic procrastination. I’ve had sort of a fuzzy idea all semester of what I want to write about, and I’ve finally begun to focus my thoughts into a semi-coherent argument. My main concern is ensuring that my final product is an honestly critical/analytical piece, rather than a mere summary of the existing literature already available.

In the 2004 presidential campaign season, major-party presidential candidates have employed the Internet to an unprecedented degree to communicate their campaign messages. However, despite the Internet’s potential as a means to reach out to undecided or easily swayed voters, the most effective functions of candidate Web sites continue to be 1) soliciting and processing donations online; 2) strengthening and reinforcing existing voter support; 3) mobilizing volunteer efforts; and 4) disseminating campaign messages to the mass media. This paper will focus specifically on the online efforts of the John Kerry and Howard Dean presidential campaigns, with occasional mentions of third-party groups, such as the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org.