New Media Technologies

E-mail

E-mail (short for electronic mail) allows two-way communication over the Internet by exchanging electronic messages between a sender and a receiver. E-mail penetration in the United States is almost ubiquitous, and e-mail popularity around the world is growing as well. One of the advantages of using e-mail is that it is a quick and inexpensive method to reach a large group of people in matter of seconds. Political parties and candidates can now obtain detailed databases with voter characteristics and e-mail addresses from marketing companies. Using such databases gives candidates running for office a real advantage by allowing them to “fine tune” their e-mail messages with more precision. Politicians can microtarget potential voters with personalized messages using e-mail data coupled with basic demographic and psychographic user characteristics. E-mail technology can also be used, of course, for interpersonal discussion of political issues: in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, for example, 35% of Internet users reported that they used e-mail to discuss political candidates and issues.

Blogging

Blogging is another new use of the Internet that impacts political communication. Blogs (short for Web logs) are online diaries—online forums with chronologically threaded messages—that have mushroomed on the World Wide Web in recent years. Blogs can be created using free software (e.g., eBlogger) and thus allow citizens with Internet access to share their ideas online. Blogs can focus on various topics, including controversial public policy issues. As of 2006, only 11% of blogs focused on politics, however. Still, any citizen interested in a political issue can create a blog and post their views to a global audience. While blogs may lack credibility, the main advantage blogs bring is a less formal, intimate tone; therefore, they can serve as a tool for politicians running for office to create the best public image and communicate directly with voters in the blogosphere. U.S. Representative Ray Cox of Minnesota was one of the first major politicians to start a blog.

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