The World Wide Web and Local Media and the 1996 Presidential Election

Abstract

The advent of technology is reshaping the landscape of political campaigns. Cable television, satellite uplinks, cellular telephones, facsimile machines, and related communications and software applications offer ever more sophisticated ways of reaching voters. With each passing month, the advertisements in Campaigns and Elections, the trade journal of consultants and political professionals, are filled with more applications of this new information and media technology. Simply collecting and keeping track of the advertisements of a rival during a campaign is now a large part of the work of a campaign. Where candidates once coveted relationships with voters in their districts, they now purchase lists of these same voters on CD-ROM and data files on the World Wide Web as a part of the new campaign technologies.