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Violet is hopeful for change : social media and Barack Obama's 2008 U.S. Presidential Election Campaign

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Violet is hopeful for change : social media and Barack Obama's 2008 U.S. Presidential Election Campaign

Godsall, David (2010) Violet is hopeful for change : social media and Barack Obama's 2008 U.S. Presidential Election Campaign. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the use of social media technologies like Facebook by Barack Obama's Presidential campaign and its supporters in the 2008 U.S. General Election. By investigating the social and technological forces driving ongoing changes in the modes of communication used by campaigns and supporters, I argue that the 2008 Presidential campaign was the first major American electoral event in which social media, as I define them, were a significant factor. I also examine the specific , structural and rhetorical properties of the campaign's communications strategy in order to determine what efforts to promote the flow of its messages into and throughout social mediascapes the campaign may have made. My primary research is composed of interviews with young Obama supporters volunteering with the campaign in New Hampshire in the final week of the election period. I conclude from this research that a potentially transformative pattern of communicating with the campaign and with peers characterizes the habits of political expression displayed and described by these young people. Using Facebook, my interview subjectes integrated political signifiers appropriated from the campaign's messaging and branding into their own identities, creating potentially powerful and pervasive new flows of influence within their online communitie.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Communication Studies
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Godsall, David
Pagination:iv, 119 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M.A.
Program:Communication Studies
Date:2010
Thesis Supervisor(s):Shade, L
Identification Number:LE 3 C66C66M 2010 G63
ID Code:979295
Deposited By: Concordia University Library
Deposited On:09 Dec 2014 17:56
Last Modified:13 Jul 2020 20:12
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