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2012: The first Digital Election

In the wake of Springer and Carson’s book, Pioneers of Digital, Springer was invited in 2012 by US journal Forbes to reappraise the findings published in his chapter on Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, which had exposed the ideas, processes and approaches behind mybarakobama.com’s construction.

Springer was required by Forbes to track the multiple media platforms Democrats and Republicans utilised in the lead-up to the 2012 US Presidential Elections. This involved analysis of text, narrative approaches and types of communications engagement through social networks over a period of four months (to November 2012). Springer compared the volume of activity by both major parties to the nature of their engagement.

The analysis highlighted for the first time how constant beta (‘always on’) party-voter communications were characterised in different ways for both parties, as the campaigns took on different approaches through real-time engagement. Springer reasoned that, contrary to popular assumptions, both parties required a nimble and fluid approach to blogger comments and circumstances rather than driving a pre-planned strategy. Unlike the 2008 campaign, Springer observed that there was less evidence of parties utilising user-generated content.

The essay was distilled into a short direct essay to capitalise on the demand for informed opinion in the weeks leading up to voting day. It was viewed over 2000 times and shared 400 times through social networks directly from Forbes’ site (prior to syndication) and it was cited over 20 times in the three weeks following the date of its US publication - the day before the Presidential election.