The Great Debate
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© Joe Casad, Editor in Chief
The history of high tech in politics writes another chapter this season, with Twitter taking on new importance. Barack Obama pioneered the use of Twitter as a campaign vehicle in his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, carefully coordinating his tweets to complement a comprehensive strategy of voter outreach.
This time, candidate Donald Trump appears to be using Twitter even more than Obama did. In fact, one could argue that Twitter is Trump's primary mode of communication – every day a few more Trump tweets appear in the news headlines.
Dear Linux Magazine Reader,
The history of high tech in politics writes another chapter this season, with Twitter taking on new importance. Barack Obama pioneered the use of Twitter as a campaign vehicle in his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, carefully coordinating his tweets to complement a comprehensive strategy of voter outreach.
This time, candidate Donald Trump appears to be using Twitter even more than Obama did. In fact, one could argue that Twitter is Trump's primary mode of communication – every day a few more Trump tweets appear in the news headlines. With all those tweets, you might be thinking that Trump spends even more time and energy studying and coordinating what he says, but judging from the content of some of his messages, he doesn't appear to be passing the contents by any kind of professional politician or handler. He really seems to be tweeting whatever happens into his head. Is this a missed opportunity for more careful coordination? Maybe not. Twitter thrives on high velocity. Trump just keeps the tweets coming, and therefore, keeps himself constantly in the news. Even if he tweets something that no experienced political manager would ever let him say, it doesn't matter, because, before anyone can even start a controversy over it, he has already moved on and tweeted something else.
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