Bay City Tribune

This is the second in a four-part series on the impact of the Internet and social networking sites on todays world.

Over the past five years the Internet has changed the face of politics in America.

From online fund-raising to social networking petitions, online activities aimed at gathering citizens together for political causes have changed the game and it is anything but politics as usual.

Internet fund-raising played an integral part in a national election for the first time in 2004.

The campaigns let people know where to find them online, and the donors came running. It was a reversal of the normal methods associated with raising any kind of campaign money in the past.

Phone calls and direct mail had taken a back seat to all web based methods. Most of the new donors were unsolicited and the Kerry Campaign was raising three million dollars a day online.

JibJab.com featured modern animated political cartoons, debates and TV spots could be watched on demand over the Web, and a new age in politics was dawning.

By 2007 Ron Paul was instituting an online fund-raising campaign for his presidential run directed specifically at small donors and incorporating viral advertising with social networking sites.

He called his quick fire, grass roots effort a money bomb, referring to the expected amount of cash within a brief, fixed period of time.

The fund-raising event, held on Nov. 5, 2007, raised a total of 4.5 million dollars, and set the record at that time for the largest political Internet fund-raising in a single day.

He was one of the first politicians to gain notoriety for his expansive online efforts to reach supporters.

His Facebook and Myspace pages gained hundreds of thousands of fans and supporters and organized a virtual march within the online game World of Warcraft.

The Obama campaign of 2008 brought about an Internet fund-raising and campaign communication effort the likes of which the world had never seen.

Obama raised one billion dollars over the course of his presidential run, the bulk of which was raised over the Internet.

His campaign stopped at nothing in their efforts to use technology to its full advantage.

His email list contained 13 million addresses and he launched his own social networking site that pulled in 2 million users.

These sites helped them connect with Americans and enabled them track their own success with real time tracking numbers on page hits, fans, donations and polls.

Supporters planned online and offline activities. YouTube hits and online volunteer groups helped spread his message to every corner of the country while campaign staffers watched the numbers roll in.

But the political effects of the Internet dont start and stop with campaigns.

Social networking sites, group discussion forums and web streaming news sites have allowed Americans to become plugged in to the daily work of government, keeping a watchful eye on officials and legislation.

Citizens can become involved in politics every day by either helping gather support for an issue, or by organizing opposition.

Digital petitions in support of new legislation circulate on Facebook every day.

No longer are the doors of congress closed, but they are more wide open then they have ever been.

When bills and deals are kept behind closed doors, Americans demand answers.

The speed and reach of the Internet allows far fewer excuses when government transparency fails. In the government "of the people, for the people," the people want information.

Some members of congress use this new avenue of communication to their advantage, connecting with their constituency on a daily basis.

John Culberson, the U.S. Congressman representing Texas' seventh district, tweets daily to his 12,706 followers on Twitter and posts videos.

On Sept. 9, he posted statistics of letters and phone calls that he had received from his constituency regarding the current healthcare reform bill.

On Aug. 20 he tweeted, "I'm in a meeting at Facebook discussing new ways to communicate with you!"

But America is not the only nation affected by the new mass media.

The recent protests in Iran were organized and broadcast through electronic media.

After the Iranian government began limiting the freedom of traditional news journalists, the Iranian people began to relate what was happening to the world over the Internet.

Facebook, Myspace and YouTube became a virtual battleground and a medium for protestors to drum up support and communicate amongst themselves.

Citizens were armed with weapons of global communication and they could not be silenced.