Online Political Advertising in the Modern Political Competition (A Comparative Analysis of the 2008 And 2016 U. S. Presidential Campaigns)

Abstract

The article suggests an empirical analysis of online political advertising in the modern political struggle. Nowadays, due to the ongoing informatization of political processes, online technologies are used alongside with traditional media (TV, radio, etc.) for disseminating political advertisements. The development of online political advertising is tracked through time since the mid-1990s, when webtechnologies began to be applied in politics, up to today. The author conducts a comparative analysis of the 2008 and 2016 U.S. presidential campaigns to reveal the effectiveness and feasibility of online technologies in the political struggle. The analysis yielded the following results. First, the candidates of the two presidential races took into account both the positive and negative experience of the participants of the preceding election campaigns to elaborate their own marketing strategies. Second, concurrent use of traditional and online means of political advertising can contribute to the effectiveness of an election campaign. Third, an emphasis on online technologies increases a candidate’s chance to win the elections. Fourth, use of social networks and adaptation of existing genres of political advertising to the cyberspace appear to be promising ways of a candidate’s self-presentation.