The Obamachine: Technopolitics 2.0

Abstract

ABSTRACT The proliferation of online campaign content has brought an end to an era of broadcast media dominance over U.S. national politics and has resulted in the drastic reconstruction of the traditional fundraising mechanisms of American politics. Since the mid-1990s, there have been growing discussions on Internet activism and how new media has impacted participatory democracy and social justice in the United States. The increased usage of the Internet in political campaigning has also impacted some of the foundational ways that politics has historically been conducted in the United States. This article analyzes a framework posited by Andrew Chadwick, which conceptualizes the ways in which e-democracy is transformative for political engagement. Further, this article argues that during the 2008 presidential campaign, president-elect Barack Obama attained unprecedented success through the utilization of the Internet as a primary vehicle for his political campaign. Obama's innovative approach to U.S. politicking has led to one of the most transformative eras in U.S. political history and is an extraordinary example of a new, online, political machine—the Obamachine.