Exercise 3.3

Joshua Steele

October 31, 2012

English 115

Professor Macklin

How Technology Has Changed The Political Landscape

1. An important claim: Since the late 1990s, successful political candidates have utilized the Internet to their advantage, with President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign being one of the most prominent examples.
2. An opposing claim: People are less reliant on traditional sources of political information, such as newspapers, leaflets, “snail mail,” and posters.  The decreased reliance on newspapers has forced newspapers to cut back on coverage, go out of business, or require readers to pay when reading the newspaper online. The decreased reliance on traditional mail has given the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) a severe budget deficit that threatens the closure of hundreds of post offices, many of them in isolated rural areas that lack efficient Internet service.
3. The problem with these claims: According to the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC), the budget deficit at the USPS is partially caused by the fact that Congress has been using the postal service as an ATM for over a decade, which is contributing to the agency’s budget deficit (NALC).
4. My claim: Successful political campaigns, such as Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, have utilized the Internet to their advantage. Obama’s campaign allowed volunteers to work at home, calling voters through an online database. Before the Internet and cell phones, volunteers had to go to a local campaign office and pour through stacks of lists while making phone calls on a landline.  With regards to the USPS, I do acknowledge the fact that the usage of traditional mail is decreasing. In addition, I would like to learn more about the NALC’s arguments.
5. What scholars would say about my claim: Scholars would say that technology has changed the way that political campaigns operate, while eliminating longstanding methods of operation that some people would view with nostalgia.


















Works Cited
1. “How Technology Changed American Politics in the Internet Age.” MediaShift. PBS, April 6, 2010. Web. October 31, 2012.
2. National Association of Letter Carriers. National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO. Web. October 31, 2012.