Conference Proceedings Youtube and the 2008 Election Cycle
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United The ourJ nal of Information Technology and Politics States Annual Conference 4-2009 Conference Proceedings YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/jitpc2009 Part of the Communication Commons, Computer Sciences Commons, and the Political Science Commons YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle, "Conference Proceedings" (2009). YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States. 1. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/jitpc2009/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The ourJ nal of Information Technology and Politics Annual Conference at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An interdisciplinary conference hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst April 16-17, 2009 Conference Proceedings 1st Annual Journal of Information Technology & Politics Conference “YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States” University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA April 16 – 17, 2009 Conference Chairs Stuart W. Shulman University of Massachusetts Amherst Michael A. Xenos Louisiana State University Sponsors National Science Foundation Research Leadership in Action Program Department of Political Science Department of Computer Science Center for Public Policy and Administration Panopto TubeKit Qualitative Data Analysis Program Communication Department National Center for Digital Government Science, Technology and Society Initiative Journal of Information Technology & Politics College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Conference website http://www.umass.edu/polsci/youtube/ Conference papers, slides, and videos http://youtubeandthe2008election.jitp2.net/ YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the US 1 Program Committee Sam Abrams, Harvard University Micah Altman, Harvard University Karine Barzilai-Nahon, University of Washington Lance Bennett, University of Washington Ryan Biava, University of Wisconsin Bob Boynton, University of Iowa John Brigham, University of Massachusetts Amherst Tom Carlson, Åbo Akademi University Andrew Chadwick, Royal Holloway University of London Greg Elmer, Ryerson University Kirsten Foot, University of Washington Jane Fountain, University of Massachusetts Amherst Jeff Guliati, Bentley College Mike Hais, Co-author, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics Matthew Hale, Seton Hall University Justin Holmes, University of Minnesota Helen Margetts, Oxford Internet Institute Mike Margolis, University of Cincinnati Andrew McCallum, University of Massachusetts Amherst John McNutt, University of Delaware Ines Mergel, Syracuse University Andrew Philpot, University of Southern California-Information Sciences Institute Antoinette Pole, Montclair State University Stephen Purpura, Cornell University Lee Rainie, Pew Internet & American Life Project Ken Rogerson, Duke University Jeffrey Seifert, Congressional Research Service Mack Shelley, Iowa State University Charlie Schweik, University of Massachusetts Amherst Chirag Shah, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill John Wilkerson, University of Washington Christine Williams, Bentley College Morley Winograd, University of Southern California Quan Zhou, University of Wisconsin-Stout Michael Zink, University of Massachusetts Amherst YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the US 2 Letter from the Conference Chairs Welcome to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst and the 1st Annual Journal of Information Technology & Politics conference, “YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States.” We hope the next two days will inspire you to think critically about the role of new media in political campaigns and will encourage the formation of new and exciting research collaborations. Specifically, we intend for the conference to act as the first step toward creating an active, interdisciplinary research community in this area. To that end, we invite you to join the conference Crowdvine site at http://youtube08election.crowdvine.com/ . This social network will remain active after the conference and, we hope, will allow you to further explore the research presented here. The Program Committee has worked diligently over the past year to put together a truly exciting program that brings together both social and computer scientists. We believe this interdisciplinary approach is what makes the conference so valuable and is what will make it a model for future workshops, symposia, and conferences. The conference is generously supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (SES-0903886) and from the Research Leadership in Action Program in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement at UMass Amherst. We wish to acknowledge the support of Andy Barto and the Department of Computer Science, John Hird and the Department of Political Science, and M.V. Lee Badgett and the Center for Public Policy and Administration at UMass Amherst for their generous support, as well as Panopto, the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, TubeKit, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst, the Qualitative Data Analysis Program, the National Center for Digital Government, the Communication Department at UMass Amherst, and the Science, Technology and Society Initiative for their sponsorship. As always, any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors. Again, welcome to UMass, and enjoy the conference! Sincerely, Stuart Shulman Michael Xenos Conference Co-chair Conference Co-chair YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the US 3 YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the US 4 Table of Contents Keynote Abstracts Digital Methods .............................................................................................................................. 7 Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam Digital Traces: An Exploratorium for Understanding & Enabling Social Networks ..................... 9 Noshir Contractor, Northwestern University Research Papers Going Viral – The Dynamics of Attention ................................................................................... 11 Bob Boynton, University of Iowa “Yes We Can”: How Online Viewership, Blog Discussion, Campaign Statements and Mainstream Media Coverage Produced a Viral Video Phenomenon .................................... 39 Kevin Wallsten, California State University, Long Beach A New Opportunity for Democratic Engagement: The CNN-YouTube Presidential Candidate Debates..................................................................................................... 63 LaChrystal Ricke, Eastern New Mexico University Macaca Moments Reconsidered… YouTube Effects or Netroots Effects?.................................. 83 David Karpf, University of Pennsylvania Supporting Research Data Collection from YouTube with TubeKit .......................................... 109 Chirag Shah, University of North Carolina Congressional Candidates’ Use of YouTube in 2008: Its Frequency and Rationale................. 127 Christine Williams & Jeff Gulati, Bentley College The Sidetracked 2008 YouTube Senate Campaign .................................................................... 143 Robert J. Klotz, University of Southern Maine YouTube and Facebook: Online Video “Friends” Social Networking...................................... 159 Scott P. Robertson, University of Hawaii; Ravi K. Vatrapu, Copenhagen Business School;Richard Medina, University of Hawaii John McCain gets BarackRoll’d: Authorship, Culture, and Community on YouTube.............. 177 Hillary Savoie, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Poster Summaries The Obamachine: Techno-politics 2.0........................................................................................ 189 Cheris A. Stallings-Carpenter, Walden University Exploring YouTube, Civic Engagement and Perceptions About the Role of the Internet in Civic Engagement Among College Students ...................................................... 191 Matthew J. Kushin, Washington State University YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the US 5 “I’m In!”: Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Democratic Primary Campaign on YouTube ....................... 193 Amber Davisson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Reaching the young and uninvolved: YouTube as a tool to reach first-time voters.................. 195 Robin Blom, Michigan State University YouTube Politics: YouChoose and Leadership Rhetoric During the 2008 Election.................. 197 Scott H. Church, University of Nebraska-Lincoln The Use of Video in Candidates' Web Sites and E-Mail............................................................ 199 Ute Pannen, Carl von Ossietzky University YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the US 6 Digital Methods Richard Rogers Chair in New Media & Digital Culture University of Amsterdam Director, Govcom.org Abstract Digital studies on culture may be distinguished from cultural studies of the digital at least in terms of method. The lecture takes up the question of the distinctiveness of ‘digital methods’ for researching Internet cultures. It asks, initially, should the methods of study change, however slightly or wholesale, given the specificity of the