How I Followed Tuesday’s Election

November 6, 2008 at 8:51 pm · Filed under Social Media and tagged: Barack Obama, citizen journalism, cnn, Election 2008, Five Thirty Eight, November 4, political sphere, President elect, Twitter, twitter vote report, Video Your Vote

November 4th marked an historic election. Regardless of political affiliations, millions of Americans and viewers around the world tuned in to see Barack Obama become the President elect. However, election night was also intriguing for reasons other than politics. 

Although I kept my TV tuned to CNN all evening, I also followed election activity and results online. Below are a few tools that I used, but I would love to hear what others followed as well:

Five Thirty Eight

Five Thirty Eight illustrated “citizen journalism” at its finest. By providing insights and statistics, FTE allowed viewers to follow the data as well as make sense of it. Its three-person operation made presidential, senatorial, and house predictions throughout the day and into the evening. 

Video Your Vote

Video Your Vote allowed users to share their voting experiences with the world via personal videos. VYV featured an interactive map indicating where videos had been uploaded and what they pertained to, such as “Voter Intimidation,” “Notable Voter,” “Polling Place Problems,” etc. This access to actual voter experiences created a sense of transparency to the election, knowing that real
people everywhere were experiencing the same things I had.  

Twitter Vote Report

Much like VYV, Twitter Vote Report encouraged Twitter users to tweet their experiences with specific hashtags, such as “#wait:120 meaning that the wait time is 120 minutes.” These tags were then aggregated and mapped, showing users what voting experiences were like in real-time. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, this election utilized social media in a way that was never done before. Therefore, tools such as these come as no surprise. It is exciting and overwhelming to consider the depth to which media can proceed-especially with politics as a catalyst. 

What role do you see social media playing in the political sphere, as this country moves forward?

UPDATE: Per the comments below, check out Change.gov to see how Obama is already implementing technology into his administration.

Comments (2)