Tweeting Your Way to the White House: Social Media and the 2012 Campaign

Sponsored by the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Graduate School of Journalism, the Media Studies Program, and the School of Information

Panelists:

• David All, Founder, David All Group
• Daniel Kreiss, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina
• Theo Yedinsky, President of Social Stream

Social media has changed the landscape of American politics. Candidates are using more sophisticated social media strategies and voters are communicating more actively among themselves. By one measure, between April and August this year almost 600,000 videos mentioning Obama or Romney had been posted on YouTube, quadruple the number posted during the same period in the 2008 election. But does more information—and a Twitter-speed news cycle—contribute to more considered opinions or simply more noise? How does the model of crowd-sourced political dialogue shape campaign agendas and communication strategies? Do new technologies help us talk across party lines, or do they contribute to more polarization?

Join us for a discussion with distinguished experts in politics and social media. A reception and exhibit of election-related apps will follow the presentation.