New Media Approaches to Presidential Campaigning: Barack
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NEW MEDIA APPROACHES TO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING: BARACK OBAMA’S CENTRALIZED CONTROL AND RON PAUL’S SPONTANEOUS ORGANIZATION IN 2008 AND 2012 by Hui Jung Chen APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ___________________________________________ Kim Knight, Chair ___________________________________________ Shilyh Warren ___________________________________________ Angela Lee ___________________________________________ Dean Terry Copyright 2017 Hui Jung Chen All Rights Reserved Dedicated to the Champion of the Constitution. NEW MEDIA APPROACHES TO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING: BARACK OBAMA’S CENTRALIZED CONTROL AND RON PAUL’S SPONTANEOUS ORGANIZATION IN 2008 AND 2012 by HUI JUNG CHEN, BA, MA DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HUMANITIES – AESTHETIC STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS AUGUST 2017 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My dissertation began with an idea inspired by the past and motivated by the future. Writing it has been a wonderful challenge and rewarding process, and I am grateful for the guidance and support I have received. So begins the many thank yous… To my committee chair, Kim Knight: Thank you for your patience and guidance through this process. Your constructive criticism and our conversations have only made my scholarship stronger. To my committee members, Shilyh Warren, Angela Lee, and Dean Terry: Thank you for taking on a candidate who never once sat in your class as a student. I appreciate your willingness to serve on my committee. To my past instructors: Thank you for playing an integral role my educational journey and positively influencing my desire and passion for learning. To my classmates: We were a support group by chance and became friends by choice. It has been a pleasure learning together in the classroom setting, growing together as TAs, and becoming better versions of ourselves with our pursuit in academia. To the patriots in the great state of Texas, many of whom I call friends, and those across the nation who believe in a better future and are fighting for liberty: Thank you for motivating me with your consistency, tenacity, and veracity. To my colleagues, Matt, Desiree, Jordan, and Chris: Thank you for understanding the delicate balance of work and school in my life for the past few years. v To Adam, Corey, David, Joe, Kevin, Sal, and Stewart: Thank you for watching old debates with me. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. To Tim: Thank you for your interest in my writing. Your thoughtful comments helped me work though some writing blocks. To Shane: Thank you for your companionship through this entire process. Your support was often shown in unconventional ways, but I am thankful for it all. To my sisters: Thank you for being my cheerleaders in life. I am lucky to have you two as my sisters, and I know y’all feel just as blessed to have me as yours. Where will we eat to celebrate? To my father: Thank you for constantly checking on my academic progress, for instilling in me the importance of a good education, and for encouraging me to always do my best. Progress not perfection. To my mother: Thank you for being my example of what hard work, passion, and persistence can accomplish. You have always supported me in my academic pursuits. You have offered me insight during times of uncertainty and encouragement during times of frustration. Thank you for always believing in me. May 2017 vi NEW MEDIA APPROACHES TO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING: BARAK OBAMA’S CENTRALIZED CONTROL AND RON PAUL’S SPONTANEOUS ORGANIZATION IN 2008 AND 2012 Hui Jung Chen, PhD The University of Texas at Dallas, 2017 Supervising Professor: Kim Knight Media and politics are a developing ecology of mutual evolution in presidential campaigns. Political media and mediated politics play an ever-increasing role in the dissemination and discussion of social and political information. They impact the way we perceive politics, approach culture and society, and understand and interact with the world. The relationship between media and politics is an evolution that can be traced through time with the use of developing media technologies of traditional media in past presidential campaign strategies to new media strategies in present practices. In the last few decades, two media shifts have marked key moments in the growing influence of media and presidential electoral politics—the use of television in presidential debates in the 1960s and the incorporation of Internet capabilities in the 2000s. This dissertation examines the form and context of media and politics, focusing on Barack Obama and Ron Paul in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. The two candidates were covered differently by mainstream media which affected their new media campaign strategies—Obama from a centralized control approach and Paul using spontaneous organization. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………………vi Abstract ……..…………………………………………………………………………………..viii Chapter One: Introduction ………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter Two: Traditional Media and New Media ……………………………….……………...15 Chapter Three: The Federal Communications Commission, The Fourth Estate, and The Fifth Estate …..…………………………………....39 Chapter Four: Traditional Media and the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Campaigns of Barack Obama and Ron Paul …………………………………………………....73 Chapter Five: New Media and the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Campaigns of Barack Obama and Ron Paul …………………………………………………..113 Chapter Six: The Future of Media and Politics ………………………………………………..177 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………...204 Biographical Sketch ..…………………………………………………………………………..241 Curriculum Vitae viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION “Change won't come from the top; Change will come from mobilized grassroots.” — Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance “Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” — Ron Paul, The Revolution: A Manifesto There is truth to the cliché statement that media are political and politics are mediated. According to media scholar John Hartley, the emergence of ideas in mediated networks is no longer a matter of interest to media and cultural scholars alone. An increasing number of economists are seeking to study how new values emerge through innovation,1 and political economy scholars, who are fundamentally concerned with questions of power, are increasingly interested in how media institutions play a pivotal role in the organization of images and discourse.2 Media, by which I mean forms and methods of mass communication, play an ever- increasing role in the dissemination and discussion of social and political information. As we are constantly bombarded with political media and mediated politics—messages that are carefully crafted, selected, and distributed for our consumption—they impact the way we perceive politics, approach culture and society, and understand and interact with the world. 1 Hartley, John, Digital Futures for Cultural and Media Studies, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 3. 2 Havens, Timothy, Amanda D. Lotz, and Serra Tinic, “Critical Media Industry Studies: A Research Approach,” Communication, Culture & Critique 2, no. 2 (2009): 238. 1 Every four years, Americans are entrusted with electing the President of the United States. During this process, media managers,3 or those in positions as gatekeepers4 of information, hold an influential role in informing voters and affecting elections. The relationship between media and politics is an evolution that can be traced through time with the use of developing media technologies in past presidential campaign strategies. In the last few decades, two media shifts have marked key moments in the growing influence of media and presidential electoral politics. The first shift occurred in the 1960s when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon took to television for the first nationally aired presidential debate. Adding a moving visual, pictorial element to the previous static print and audial radio media forms, television helped to increase the potential of media use in informing voters on political candidates. It allowed Americans to see how presidential candidates conducted themselves in front of audiences and how they responded under pressure. Scholars and historians agree that the popularization of television and its visual power assisted a young, handsome candidate in winning the White House. The second shift was the move to digital and online capabilities in the 2000s, when presidential candidates started using the Internet to create websites to supplement their ground-game campaign strategies. Incorporating the new medium at the beginning of the 21st century demonstrated the importance of political campaign expansion and the adaptation of new media strategies with old political practices. The intersection of new 3 Media managers is a term and concept coined by Herbert I. Schiller as those who manage media through ownership and influence. The concept will be further explored in the FCC Chapter. 4 Gatekeeping is controlling what content emerges from the newsroom and enters into public circulation. The role of journalists and reporters, who serve as managers of media, have an occupational duty of determining what information is worth viewing and making such information available to the public. 2 media and politics peaked in 2008 with the election of the first “Internet President” Barack Obama. His campaign utilized online strategies, took advantage of Internet community building, and harnessed