The recent race to the White House has been the hot topic of
conversation, and not just in America. People from all over the world
have been gripped by the battle between the current president and his
rival for the top job in US politics, Mitt Romney. Although both
candidates spent a great deal of time travelling around the US, giving
speeches to their voters, it is the internet that has acted as the means
of communication to the American (and World) audience. We decided to
look at how it was used for the most recent election and how
improvements in technology have influenced presidential campaigns in the
past.
1924: Davis vs Coolidge
President
Harding first introduced the idea of speaking to the public on the
radio in 1921 but it was not until the 1924 presidential election that
it was really utilised. By this time millions of Americans had receiving
sets in their living rooms and they were all expecting to hear what the
candidates had to say. Such a huge importance was placed on this new
technology that Coolidge and Davis were actually made to sit in a glass
booth on-stage, in-front of 16,000 people, and told to avoid their usual
pacing back and forth, to ensure that the microphone would pick up
everything they said.
Across the country schools were closed so
that students could listen and people huddled around radios in
department stores and at home. Sales of receiving sets hit a record high
and 'Nation' magazine printed that "1924 would be looked back on as the
radio year". For the first time the American voters were able to listen
in on a presidential election, thanks to this new technology.
1960: Nixon vs Kennedy
The
first ever televised presidential debate was broadcast on Sep 26th 1960
and it was an event that changed the face of US politics forever. At
that time Kennedy was a relatively unknown senator that had the odds
stacked against him. The debate lasted one hour and by the end of it the
majority of those who listened in on the radio were confident of
Nixon's victory. However, the 88% of Americans who watched it on TV were
witness to a completely different picture - one of Nixon looking frail
and weak from a recent operation, as well as sweating and looking very
nervous. In contrast, Kennedy looked calm, confident and strong and
there was no doubt that, for those who had seen it with their own eyes,
he had won. Kennedy would later reference the importance of this
technology by saying "it was the TV more than anything else that turned
the tide.
2012: Obama vs Romney
The photograph of President
Obama hugging his wife has become the most re-tweeted post in the
history of Twitter and this is a fitting nod to the huge part that this
website has had to play in the recent US Election. The fact that it was
posted before Obama even took to the stage to thank his supporters in
person illustrates how important this social media platform was to his
campaign. At one point on the election night, users tweeted at a rate of
327,452 per minute.
