2008 and Online Social Networking

A new study coming out of the Bentley College political science department looks at the use of online social networks (OSN) in the 2008 presidential campaign. The full study is going to be presented at the upcoming annual conference of the American Political Science Association, but by looking at the press release from Bentley it is not a very in-depth study. It seems to just look at very simple frequencies and does not apply these to any solid theoretical foundation. As an example, the study compares Facebook and MySpace friends to poll standings and web traffic and finds:

"First, the Paul, and to a lesser extent, Obama, examples show that a dominant online presence does not necessarily convert to a commensurate standing in offline polls or campaign contributions. Similarly, a weak online presence relative to other challengers need not preclude reaching the top of the polls, as Giuliani's numbers show" (para. 4).

This is a little too ambiguous of a finding for my comfort level.

They do successfully examine the various presidential candidate's OSN profiles and start making a list of characteristics of this new genre of communication.

*biographical information
*issue position information
*excerpts or clips from speeches, appearances, press coverage
*campaign photographs or videos
*comment blogs posted by visitors
(para. 10)

And they note some characteristics of OSN communication by presidential candidates, which are different from normal online communication (ie. candidate website).

*personal interests and activities, favorite music, movies, and books
*campaign events: Mike Huckabee is the one exception who announces them
*solicitations for campaign contributions: Sam Brownback and Kucinich are the two exceptions, generating $200 and $6, respectively through Facebook.
(para. 11)

I believe the 2nd and 3rd points of difference are referring to the lack of solicitations and campaign event info on candidate's OSN profiles. I think the press release is worded a little awkwardly.

Also of note, I am currently in the design process of 2 studies looking at the effects of OSN's on the 2008 presidential campaign. These are being co-author with Dr. Young Mie Kim, Assistant Professor of Communication at The Ohio State University. I will try to update the blog as these pieces of research go forward.