Local Television, the World Wide Web, and the 2000 Presidential Election

Abstract

Digital cable modems, wireless Internet service providers (ISPs), digital subscriber line (DSL) services, fiber optics systems, and Internet access through a growing number of direct satellite television providers have transformed the way that millions of Americans receive the latest news and information about political campaigns. Multilingual video, text, and audio files on candidate Web sites, dial-up Internet services provided through the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee, electronic mail updates of policy announcements, Web site rebuttals to the statements made during the nationally televised presidential debates, full-color printable flyers and bumper stickers for laser printing, and other forms of interactive software and multimedia were just a few of the new developments in the 2000 presidential race. This article addresses the changing multimedia technologies—including the use of local television markets and the new uses of the World Wide Web—in the 2000 presidential election.

The Electoral College, Mobilization, and Turnout in the 2000 Presidential Election

“…12 Finally, we should note that campaign strat- egies are dynamic in the sense that there is a constant reevaluation and reordering of the importance of each state as Election Day nears (Shaw, 2004). This reality, however, does not discredit a simple dichotomous classification of states for the 2000 election because adjustments in resource allocation as the campaign progressed were almost wholly confined to the states already designated battlegrounds (see Novotny, 2002). 13…”

“…13. According to Novotny (2002), days before the election "the Gore campaign became focused on what became known to staff in the inner circles of the campaign as the Trifecta: the states of Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania" (p. 64).…”