New Media And The U.s. Presidential Election Politics

As an extremely important country in the international political arena, each and every action taken by the United States touches a nerve with the rest of the world. Since its words and actions on international issues are driven by its national interests and domestic politics, analyzing the domestic politics of the United States will help us better understand the rationale behind its international behaviors, thus making timely and effective responses. The analysis of the U.S.domestic politics definitely includes theories and practices in politics of the U.S.presidential election, such as campaign finance, behaviors of voters and candidates, as well as roles of religion and media.Mass media, as one of the influential factors in the U.S.presidential campaign, has experienced tremendous changes over the past one decade. With the rapid progress in digital,network and mobile communication technologies, the new generation media including Internet and its related products, cell phone and digital television has made its debut and been gradually accepted by the public as part of their life. Moreover, the new media begins to play an increasingly important role in the political field. People, with original doubt, are now positive in part towards the role of new media and actively involved in the research in this field. The U.S. presidential campaign in 2008 is undoubtedly a live case. What impresses us most in this election is not only the fact that it was an unprecedented election campaign between a black, an old man and a woman,but also the fact the President-elect Barack Obama introduced "grassroots politics" across the nation by making effective use of the new media. This election fully demonstrates advantages of the new media in comparison with the conventional media.This dissertation, based on empirical research, elaborates on the huge influence of the new media on campaign finance, candidate marketing, voters'behaviors and related areas of the electoral system.Meanwhile, this dissertation also explores the possible negative role of the new media in the electoral politics.