DLD Internet Politics Study released

Obama has already achieved something extraordinary with his election campaign: Like no other President before him, he has managed to mobilize and inspire the American people to get involved in politics.

The internet has changed the rules of politics. Looking back at the presidential campaign in the US, the internet provided a major political news source for Americans. Referring to PEW Research, nearly a quarter of Americans said that they recieved regular information about the campaign over the internet.

"Barack Obama can surely be called the first internet president. It is now exciting to see how this effect will influence the election campaign in Germany", says Marcel Reichart, co-founder of the DLD Conference and author of the Internet Politics Study. Obama has redefined the way an election campaign is run: Never before has the internet exerted such a dominant and crucial influence, and spurred so much creative activity.

The DLD study reviews the presidential elections in the US and subsequently analyses the German political parties with regard to their activities in the social web. Moreover the study compares the German and the American social web market, raising the question: Is Germany ready for a internet driven election campaign in the national election year 2009?

Please find here the complete study including entertaining video elements or download as a PDF version.

At this point, we would also like to recommend watching the Internet Politics Session at DLD09 on Monday, 26th January 2009, 9 am. If you are not attending DLD09, you can still view conference sessions on our DLD video plattform.

There is also a German version available. For further information, please check Focus Online or the Atlantic Community.