Thank you all for your comments. To sum up, blogging in politics is used to be closer to common people and keep them informed, to socialise, to raise money, to unite electorate. Anything else? Have we missed anything?

Of blogs and men

“People don’t want PR, people want something that’s real”

“Blogs are now a mainstream vehicle for organization to reach their buyers”

- David Meerman Scott, The New rules of marketing and PR: How To use new releases, blogs, podcasting. Viral marketing & online media reach buyers directly, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007 

All the above is true of the blogs and networks in question– the only difference is that they “market” the image of the President and the “buyers” are the prospective voters. 

“A blog should build trust, awareness, interest”
- Robert Scoble, Shel Israel, Naked Conversation: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006

I think, this was the general purpose of creating such extensive network of blogs, social web sites, twitter/flickr profiles and other of that ilk. It successfully destandardized the image of the president, brought something new to it and “personalized the institution” (check the number of followers, subscribers and friends in relevant sites).

However, a grain of salt:

“In the future, man will apparently be confined to the role of recording device” 
-Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, quoted from Alvin Tofler’s Future Shock, A Bantam book , 1970

The abundance of visual material instigating the “rapid turnover of images and image structure in our brains” (Future Shock, 1970), reminded me of Tofler’s argument about overchoice:

Ironically, the people of the future may suffer not from the absence of choice but from a paralyzing surfeit of it. They may turn out to be victims of that peculiarly super-industrial dilemma: overchoice (Future Shock, 1970)

Can we talk about the “paralyzing surfeit” of information and images people get through such? Food for thought.
 
I think it is safe to say we are no longer just “exposed” to the web-images and such. We LIVE in this imagery (Doubt that? Check how often you get on-line, count the hours you spend there and, the most painful subject, how many times you log in you profile on facebook, vkontakte and similar). The web is no longer something people use “recreationally” or for work – it is an integrant part of our lives. It is an entity that develops and changes at unimaginable rate. 

Bearing this in mind, “conquering” this space is a crucial step for any PR company, any media group etc. That is exactly why creating this extensive Obama's social network was so successful in many respects. It created the exposure of masses of people to a whole new database and visual images. 


Image from Flickr, mashup of a famous image by Shepard Fairey.

Obama's Social Networking

http://www.barackobama.com/learn/about_ofa.php
http://www.myspace.com/barackobama
http://www.youtube.com/barackobama
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom
http://twitter.com/barackobama
http://eventful.com/performers/barack-obama-/P0-001-000000162-8
http://www.blackplanet.com/barack_Obama/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama

Compare and Contrast Task

Look through the social netwoking system created by Barack Obama. What for, from your point of view, were these social sites launched?
Barack Obama’s Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/barackobama
Barack Obama’s blog
my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/ObamaHQ
Barack Obama’s site

Presidential Elections and IT

These are some sites on IT in Politics, they will help you to search the web
http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournalusa/1008.html
http://blogs.america.gov/obama/
http://techpresident.com/ FORUM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-elections-2008
http://techpresident.com/youtube-stats-header

Search Task. The Evolution of Presidential Campaign on TV and the Internet

The mass media have been termed "the fourth branch of government." Not only must a candidate for election to a major office pass a threshhold of media approval to be deemed a serious contender, but it has been said that the media's favorite often wins. A lot of democratic ideals are helped by what the media do.
Explore the Evolution of Presidential Campaign from 1939 up to now on TV. http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/program/
Make up the webliography on the Evolution of Presidential Campaign on TV.
Make up the webliography on the Evolution of Presidential Campaign on the Internet.

Very interesting comments from everybody. But how did it happen that Ilya and Dasha picked up the same organization? Be ready to present your research results next Wed.