A panel discussion at Purdue examined how social media is transforming the presidential campaign.
Executives from Twitter, Google and C-SPAN highlighted the event, which took comments and questions via social media.
Google is documenting the digital campaign trail at a dedicated website. Jonathan Perelman is global lead in industry relations for the company. He says there’s a stark difference between 2008 and this year’s race when it comes to social media.
"More than 600 politicians have a YouTube channel. There are so many ways to get your message out that you want to curate as a politician, but then on the other side, your detractors, but even more importantly, the average citizen can be heard. It's really changed the game in so many ways."
Perelman thinks voters are able to hold candidates accountable with a two-way conversation via social media.
C-SPAN Co-President Susan Swain says social media is helping some presidential candidates continue their campaigns. She moderated a discussion Thursday night at Purdue on social media’s impact on the 2012 election.
Swain says the platform has allowed candidates with limited resources to connect with people.
"At least in the early part of the process, to be able to go directly to people, encourage people's participation, get them out to sites where candidates, and also bring donations in has allowed minor candidates to have some traction. Isn't that good? It keeps the contest alive, keeps people engaged, rather than having sort of an annointed few go through the system."
As far as the overall impact of social media on the presidential campaign, Swain thinks that’s still unfolding. She says we won’t know until after the election if the engagement with voters translates into votes at the polls.
Adam Sharp is the government lead for Twitter who spoke at the event. He says it used to be a candidate’s message at a morning event wouldn’t be publicized until the evening news or next morning’s paper, but not anymore.
"That is a tremendous resource for the campaign managers, to be able to instantly measure that reaction and adjust the plan for the rest of the day based on that. But it can also be a little scary for campaign managers, because it means they don't have the power to steer or re-message that as the day goes on."
Sharp says the volume of politics-related messages on Twitter has grown over the past four years. He says January’s State of the Union speech generated 800-thousand tweets during the event.
The panel discussion was sponsored by “Project Impact,” which is an initiative that brings election issues-related events to Purdue. The next event is about jobs and economy Thursday, April 5 at 6p.m. in Loeb Playhouse at Purdue.