Internet shakes up US election

San Francisco - Videos shared on YouTube and blogs scrutinising candidates are part of an Internet-age revolution shaking up the US presidential election and sweeping in a new political era.

"Voter-generated content" is credited with helping Senator Barack Obama secure the Democratic presidential nomination.

It is also said to be transforming the essence of US political campaigns and shifting power from party leaders and major media outlets to citizens with camera-enabled mobile phones or simple blogging tools.

"You're watching the battle between politics of the 20th Century and politics of the 21st Century," said Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum devoted to exploring how technology is changing politics.

Political power

"The battle of old-school or top-down political organising and the one that believes in bottom-up. You are seeing a fundamental power shift; the internet allows people to organide themselves."

Obama's announcement that he will rely on individual donors instead of public campaign funding is cited as proof of the internet's political power.

More than 1.5 million people have donated cash to his effort.

"That shatters all records and has a lot to do with people being mobilised online, and mostly in the blogosphere," said Mother Jones magazine reporter Josh Harkinson, who tracks "digital democracy" and blogging.

"Weighing in, sharing your political views and donating money are much easier online than ever before."

Blogs keep people engaged and those who feel connected to campaigns are inclined to give money to influence outcomes, Harkinson said.

The rise of blogging and voter-posted videos also holds danger for candidates, whose every comment and move can be captured and shared online by anyone with a camera phone and basic Internet skills.

Gone are cozy relationships that might result in reporters giving candidates chances to retract or clarify embarrassing or controversial remarks.

Role of bloggers

"Bloggers have pressure on them to be controversial and dibfferent," said Kevin Wallsten, a California university political science professor writing a book on the role blogging plays in presidential politics.

"The new thing for candidates is you have to be on your game all the time. You can have a Macaca Moment or a Bittergate."

Bittergate refers to a controversy Obama was mired in after he referred to small town Pennsylvania residents as "bitter" people who "cling to guns and religion" during a private fundraising event in San Francisco.

A Huffington Post blogger posted the quote on the internet.

Clinton's campaign took a hit when the same blogger posted audio recording of her ex-president husband, Bill Clinton, calling a magazine reporter a "scumbag" for writing an unflattering story about him.

US senator George Allen lost a re-election bid in 2006 after a video of him using the pejorative term "macaca" to refer to a man of Indian descent was posted on the internet.

"Obama is to web video as John F Kennedy was to television," Harkinson said. "It really is that big of a revolution."

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his party have yet to show they are adapting to internet-age politics as deftly as Obama.

- AFP