iPolitics: A bed of roses?

As author Gary Selnow said in his book titled 'Electronic Whistle-Stops: The Impact of the Internet on American Politics', "Efficient and inexpensive, the Internet is becoming vastly popular among American voters -- and that’s good news for candidates. If it continues to grow as predicted, the Internet will soon stand alongside the conventional media and become an indispensable tool in political communication."

As employed effectively by US President Obama, using the internet as a campaign tool has it's advantages. However, just like a double edged sword, can this new trend cause more harm than good? In this entry, let us look at three ways how using the internet in politics may be detrimental to the politician's campaign.

The digital divide
Even though the internet is now an integral part of our life, some voters may not use the internet. Some, who live in rural ares with poor infrastructure or who do not own computers, will not even have access to the internet. This may mean that majority of the online voters is disproportionately represented by a younger, more affluent, and tech-savvy crowd.

Internet users don't visit candidate's websites
You can have the best program on television, but if nobody is going to tune in to your channel, how will anyone know? In this same light, many who go online may not visit the candidate's websites. These candidates spend large amounts of funds for their websites, but if they do not give people a reason to visit, then what difference does it make?

It all boils down to costs
With the advancements in technology, setting up a website is cheap and easy, but maintaining and updating them is not. Regular updates require man-hours. Digitizing pictures and videos require expensive software and hardware. Interacting with voters through online correspondences is tedious. Therefore, getting the website up is the simple part, but making it attractive enough to entice visitors is a whole new ballgame.

In conclusion, using the internet for political campaigning may not be all good. From an article in Channel News Asia, it is interesting to note that Singapore will allow internet campaigning in their next general election. Do you think it will work the candidates as well as it worked for President Obama?