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8/8/2019 Adam Nisbet - Characterizing the Uses and Gratifications for Online Political Participation
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Characterizing the Uses and Gratifications of Online Communications for PoliticalParticipation and Civic Engagement
2010-17-05
Adam C. Nisbet
CCTP-803
Georgetown University
A case study on the creators of DC for Obama
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION2. BACKGROUND3. PROBLEM
4. IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH5. QUESTIONS6. METHODOLOGY7. INTERVIEW8. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS9. SUSTAINABILITY10. CONCLUSION11. REFERENCES
1. INTRODUCTION:
Discerning the media effects of online messaging on an individuals likelihood to
participate in the political process has been the subject of much debate in recent years,
and many theorists have asked to what extent the Internet truly plays a role in a citizens
relation to political activity and civic engagement. Joe Trippi has said the Internet is the
most democratizing innovation weve ever seen, more so even than the printing press
(2005, 235)(Hindman, 2). However, other scholars such as Hindman have provided
technical data that supports the notion of a Googlearchy of political content online, a
pyramidal-type link structure that shows little evidence of the Internet progressing
political dialog to the lofty academic ideal of increased democratic deliberation
(Hindman, 38).
Scholars have been pulling for information regarding what influences audience
members decisions when choosing media based on uses and gratifications since the
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1940s (Katz, 509). Whether it is discerning a passive audience from an active
audience or examining an audience members needs, desires, and expectations in
receiving a certain type of media, the uses and gratifications model, at least, provides a
framework to evaluate specific decisions made toward political communication strategy.
However, much of the recent research on uses and gratifications concerning Internet
uses intends to measure the amount or quality of political information collected through
online sites and lacks detection of modes that intend to increase actual political
participation, whether online or offline. While Internet political uses may have evolved
during the 2008 election it has been documented since the 2000 election that onlinenews consumption continues to be far from a dominant factor in campaign
communication (Farnsworth, Owen, 1). This evidence has led many political scientists
to question the efficacy of the Internet to produce advances for democratic
communication and the spread of political information.
Could there be the possibility that some important communication modes have
been overlooked in popular scholarship? Several scholars have been doing research
on Internet participation outside the modes of social media, instead focusing on the
coordination and building of an online movement. Dave Karpfs research focuses on
the immense power harnessed by a well managed email list such as with Moveon.org,
which has become the single largest interest group in America (Karpf, 2).
M oveOns e-mail based action appeals moved well beyond the e-petition
the organization had been founded around. Through exhaustive message-testing
and the development of several innovative campaign tools, M oveOn developed a
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capacity for generating millions in small-dollar contributions, launching online and
offline oppositional tactics to the latest Bush Administration efforts, and
continually building a larger and larger list of occasional-to-frequent leftwing
political participants (Karpf, 11).
There is no doubt that the management of an online membership list is one of the
key factors that help build a strong political movement online but can that same
communication structure yield real-life political participation such as canvassing or even
possibly provide increases in civic engagement?
This study seeks to find what potential effects exist when analyzing an online
coordinated political movement and if those effects are only limited in scope. Although
the content creation and online activity may be from only a few opinion leaders, they do
influence others surrounding them within the network, online and in real life, which
allows them to be effective participants. Through means such as online social trust
these enablers may be able to create network connections and social incentives which
may not have occurred in previous elections. This study will seek to characterize a new
media users political socialization by analyzing evidence presented in an interview with
a content creator and campaign organizer during the 2008 campaign and see whether
political participation could be carried over to participation in post-election civic
engagement. If an organization were able to sustain participation after a partisan
election then the mode of communication may provide answers to what we have sought
as the primary source for signs of political engagement through online means.
2. BACKGROUND:
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DCforObama is a political organization formed in early 2007 in Washington, D.C.
with the goal of supporting Barack Obamas presidential campaign through volunteer
activities in primary states across the nation and as well as throughout the general
election. Many of the participants were first time volunteers in the political process,
while many were young or in college, the age range was very broad and the group was
incredibly diverse. During the period from October 2007 to November 2008 the author
observed this organization and their communication implementation. Adam L. Barr is
the founder of D.C. for Obama and the primary strategist behind this online movements
communication plan.
3. PROBLEM:
Based on technical data related to Internet search queries and link structure
some theorists have made predictions that political dialog and political engagement
online is minimal with limited benefits for political deliberation online. Many argue that
high profile bloggers and content creators only represent a new breed of media elites
and that the Internet lacks the capacity to bring new advancements to political
socialization. Many of these studies lack attention to single issue websites, established
purely for the purpose of a grass-roots network or even a high profile campaign. Much
of the political activity coordinated online was not done through media websites or blog
sites but rather through sites such as my.bo.com or dcforobama.com.
4. IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH:
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This project will explore the possible media effects which may originate within the
realms of social trust established by the content creators and their perceived self-
efficacy. By characterizing the content creators motivations through interviews we may
be able to better understand the reach of their political involvement and their effects on
voting efficacy, effects on becoming involved in the political process, and ability to
sustain engagement, after election into civic life and community volunteering. To study
the effects, it is easiest to study the usages and behaviors of the group that adapted
and promulgated this activity through the ground breaking election of Barack Obama.
While many scholars are still puzzled about what happened during the 2008
election, this study will analyze the political uses of social media by this generation for
the purposes of political communication and campaign coordination. Participants are an
engaged audience in this type of communication and because of virtual engagement
may establish communal trust.
5. QUESTIONS:
A few of the questions that were addressed in the interview with Adam Barr
included: Does there appear to be distinct evidence for the political socialization of
young people through new media? Are there further opportunities? What values does it
propose? Has there been a measurable drop off of DCforObama supporters since the
election or has the momentum carried over into civic engagement? Does the use of new
media involvement provide only short term benefits to the Democratic process? Who
are the content creators? What gratifications does it present for the audience?
6. METHODOLOGY:
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This study will seek to compile an account of this electoral groups socialization
into politics through Internet participation. Interview Adam L. Barr founder of DC for
Obama and the main content creator and promoter of this movement will discuss his
involvement and his strategy for developing communication tools for a very effective
grassroots campaign. Adam will also describe changes, good or bad, to his support
group/organization after the election when the political organization was converted into
a civic engagement organization know as Organizing for America. Mr. Barr's program
has been working to improve a specific elementary school in Washington, DC; the
Tubman School. This study will examine his experience with using new media as a wayto bring people into the fold for political activity and later for civic engagement.
7. INTERVIEW
The origins of the DCforObama group happened shortly after the announcement
on Feb. 17; Obama said go online, get involved. Adam Barr followed this advice and
became involved; he had been the administrator on several listserves in the past but
never with anything political. He decided this would be a great step to become involved
in the political process and help a candidate he believed in. He felt that he understood
the dos and donts of listserve management. He said he believed the role of admin
was to moderate rather than to send numerous messages or communication modes.
His communication program was highly effective and successful by the numbers alone,
but there is certainly something here that can give hints on the formulations of a political
movement online. After one month they had grown to only 300 members, but it was
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still very early with nearly a year to go till the election. Early decisions in the
structuration of the communication model would provide enormous returns later on.
The first goal of the group was to recruit and build up a membership list. By thistime Adam Barr was the administer for the entire group by the end of Feb. 2007 at
which point he had been in communication with several of the consultants from Blue
State Digital, the firm that built Facebook, who had begun working for the Obama team.
Barr stated that at no time did he work for the campaign, or within close coordination
with the campaign, and that the DCforObama campaign was an entirely organic citizen
established movement. As we will see documented here, DCforObama may be an
entirely new form of campaigning mixed with citizen involvement. Among other things
the utility of the web and social media platforms gave this organization an advanced
ability to connect with people in close proximity, within DC. Could we be seeing the
advent of the open-source campaign, where citizens actually own and control part of
the campaign? A group of individuals, within close proximity, described by the title
DCforObama as opposed to a state-wide organization that may span 100s of miles,
this group was effective, although they had the clear advantage of being from such a
politically concentrated area such as Washington, D.C.
W hen considering the audiences motivations and desires, their goals in
participating, its easy to see that it is because they liked Obama, they went to
the website and did a few possible things either read content, watched videos,
made a contribution, or possibly searched for ways to volunteer this was the
launch hub for the majority of members and the second form being through
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personal referrals or forwarded emails. Our model was based on organic growth,
word-of-mouth, buzz, and personal referrals we focused on being simple, web-
savvy, and had to do very little recruitment work at all we just let the list build
itself (Barr). In the early stages, we were only online for a few months until we
had to establish real life meetings to coordinate events, establish long-term goals
of the group, and a communication program. W e quickly absorbed other groups
that were smaller than ours, and our primary goal was to form a movement not
just an email list or a discussion board, but to get people involved in real-life
participation (Barr).
The group was also entirely autonomous to the campaign and did all of their own
fundraising for trips and events. Therefore, this group was actually running their own
campaign parallel but entirely separate from the Obama organization; Barr stated that
the Obama team would not share email addresses with their group, so they relied on all
their own systems and functionalities to retain information.
With every event the group would become larger and would establish a greater
sense of communal trust and effectiveness. At first, fundraisers were not that rewarding
but over time they began to gain the trust of the community and could show that their
proceeds would make a huge impact through this viable political organization. The
organizations first bus trip was to South Carolina, and these consecutive trips would be
the primary events that built excitement for involvement and direct increases in
membership. After the first bus trip the groups total membership jumped up to 900 and
this helped the group raise more funds and pay for other bus trips. It is important to
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note also, that their entire fundraising solicitation program was administered online as
well with an online check system.
They would fund 4 buses for their next trip and while Barr said the most difficulttask was being able to consider how many people would actually attend when they
RSVPd for the bus trip and who would actually show up, their membership jumped to
1300 members soon after. Barr stated that the success of this communication strategy
was that it didnt actually rely too heavily on an anchor website but built satellite hubs on
nearly every social media website they could find including Twitter, Meetup, My.bo,
Facebook, Myspace, and nearly any other they could find. They found that discussion
in these areas was not productive and that people would rather receive a direct email
with simple yet explicit instructions on how to get involved. In this manner, the email
listserve became the most effective mode for establishing an effective communication
program.
By this time the email list had gotten so large the administration of the messages
and communications became more advanced to try to better anticipate the number of
individuals who would show up for events and be involved. Obviously, by offering free
bus trips to individuals who wanted to have an impact as a volunteer in the campaign
and travel to battleground primary states there was tons of enthusiasm for participation.
By the time the Ohio primary had come around DCforObama was able to send 5 buses
at a time for a weekend to Columbus, Ohio, and by the end of that primary had knocked
on nearly 100,000 doors in support for Obama. Each time DCforObama held a bus trip
event they would have twice as many people sign up for the next trip and half of those
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numbers were new members. The way in which this organization grew displays a
certain amount of buzz propulsion considering that members who enjoyed their
experience would forward the membership emails to friends to join on the next bus trip.
8. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS:
When membership grew DCforObama began using methods of gauging the
likelihood of participation such as SurveyMonkey.com. From the beginning of
establishing the communication plan the group admins found that Facebook was not all
that useful for many reasons. First, they found that Facebook distanced their messagefrom the audience because many people have different settings and different usage
modes for that application making it difficult to reach your audience quickly and
effectively with precise information. Second, they found that there was very little
discussion taking place on Facebook as far as discussion boards and un-moderated
forums. Barr mentioned that people first go to the main campaign site first for Barack
Obama, then to the My.Bo.com portal, users would visit this site and then sign up to
volunteer or make a donation and never return often waiting for the campaign to
contact them but traditionally this would be a slow process. DCforObama recognized
this and was quick to respond to volunteer requests by activating members with instant
communication which met the needs of the volunteers to become further involved and
effective. Barr stated that Obamas website was utilized very effectively in driving traffic
because the site was constantly providing new content which would cause repeat visits
to the site. However, Barr said that the stand-alone site, such as DCforObama.com, is
only the activator and after the audience member has visited the site the organization
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must take steps to activate and engage them. He stated that growing a movement
online is very comparable to the motivations and goals of driving traffic, and web savvy
administrators understand that messages must be simple and clear, and that you
cannot provide too much communication or your message system will become
ineffective.
When asked if he thought his strategy was different than traditional modes of web
campaigning Barrs answer was yes. Barr added that this multi-platform strategy
obviously could not have existed in the 2004 election. He noted that he was surprised
that discussion never took off on Facebook, which would support Hindmans argument
that there is little opportunity for political discourse online. But Barr understood that
activating citizens into the process you have to get emails directly into their inboxes and
you need to have volunteer profile information such as addresses, phone numbers, and
affiliations. Basically, Facebook was not a tool that could be used to primarily organize
a political organization, and DCforObama was out to form a movement broader than
one social media platform.
Once the election season had swung into full gear and Obama was the clear
nominee the list nearly doubled in a few short days from 3000 to 4500 and then
7000 members. There were over 900 new members in M arch alone (Barr).
By this time, Barr knew that the organization had achieved the movement status
and that it was necessary to provide clear goals for the group to try to meet an
expanding sense of obligation to the membership. At each point he would provide solid
numbers of what they wanted to achieve weather it were fundraising goals or numbers
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of houses to be contacted. This was a benchmark moment for this independently ran
organization because they were now outperforming the Obama campaign offices in
Virginia, DC, and parts of Maryland. All of these achievements happened with little to
no contact with the Obama campaign for advice or direction. Barr also stated that he
believe nearly half of the participants in DCforObamas events had never participated in
the political process before as far as volunteering and canvassing for a candidate. That
is a clear indicator that Internet use was essential to increasing numbers of citizens
involved in the political process.
9. SUSTAINABILITY:
In short, the achievements of the DCforObama organization are phenomenal
when it comes to organizing a citizens movement through online communication,
however, to measure the effectiveness it may be asked if that level of participation could
be sustained after an election. Levels of political participation certainly vacillate
depending on the election season and when there is a presidential election there is
usually much more attention and involvement. What is very noteworthy about the
DCforObama communications program is that it was soon converted into a civic
engagement program, with the same type of infrastructure, used to aid a public school
in Washington, D.C. Barr stated that he did not simply convert the membership list from
DCforObama but instead asked for members involvement. By applying the same
infrastructure from DCforObama to the Tubman elementary school project and doing
the same type of canvassing and volunteer recruitment, Barr was able to take a
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primarily Internet formed group from a campaign movement to civic engagement
movement.
This transition provides a fascinating view inside the goals and motivations of applying an Internet communications program to get people further involved in their
community. Barr knew that if the service project was important enough to the members
they would be in and he believed that momentum from the campaign certainly boosted
his membership for the civic engagement program which has been kept entirely
separate from any political leanings. He has implemented the same canvassing
strategy to gain volunteers and donations for improvement of the Tubman elementary
school and he said that half of the membership roster in the civic group came from
DCforObama and the other half are new members. This community service project,
built on the same communication infrastructure and strategy as DCforObama, now has
over 900 online members involved. The service projects that they have brought to the
school include arts education, reading initiatives, green initiatives, tutoring services, site
clean-up, school supplies, and much more. This strategy also uses a broad range of
events to stimulate communal trust and activate the online membership.
10. CONCLUSION
Therefore, it seems that the primary mode for activating individuals into the
political process, as participants, through online means is through direct contact with a
clear message sent through email. Once a participant has signed up the campaign
has gained a new recruit and must provide information to quickly activate that individual
into real-life participation. It seems that in this fashion volunteers prefer a quick and
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concise message about how to become involved and what steps to take, the easier for
the participant the more effective the message will be. This coincides with a theory that
Katz and Blumlers present of an audience digesting media in a passive manner, as if
they want to become involved but dont want to have to do the research to book the trip
themselves (Katz et al, 510). In many cases, the best that a volunteer can do it seems
is show up.
Internet technology, such as new media, can only build a bridge between the
campaign and the participant and provide ease of use to further facilitate the needs of
the campaign. It is illegitimate to believe new media could create its own outcomes for increased political dialog online or greater diversity in ideas inasmuch, a
democratization of political content. However, the Internet is effective as a tool for
increasing political participation when used across different platforms to cull
membership information to create direct contact with likely participants; most likely
through email. By documenting the strategic decisions made by DCforObama and
profiling their mode of communication operations we may better understand if this is a
true democratic movement carried out entirely online.
While scholars such as Hindman lambaste the Internet as a tool for the
advancement of democratic dialog this study attempted to analyze the uses and
gratifications, why people used new media or the Internet to receive political
communications, and if they feel it has had a long-term effect on their political
engagement. Although political discussion and even search queries for political related
news stories are only a small fraction of Internet use there is something vastly important
about what is taking place there and about how political information is being spread. It
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seems that buzz and word-of-mouth referrals are just as important for online recruitment
and this evidence leads us back to the relevance of online social trust, or virtual trust
(Gibson, 6). It appears that an effective communication strategy to increase political
participation in a movement through online media would not only be to recruit an
enormous membership list but to be able to activate that membership towards clear
goals in real-life participatory events. To do so, a campaign organizer must understand
the needs and desires of their participants to receive simple and direct email messages
that lead to quick activation into the political process, satisfying the individuals
motivations to become involved in a communal collaboration involving social trust.
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