Politics

As a communication student I take interest in watch and reading political news. A key skill for any politician is the ability to communicate with the media whether in print, online, onscreen, or on air. Though “Convergence Culture” did not discuss Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, this would be a good example of how to effectively use convergence media. Not only did Obama rely heavily on grassroots organizers, he also utilized the power of mainstream media. He used social networking to communicate with younger voters and did television interviews for older ones. As “Convergence Media” pointed out the downfall of Howard Dean was his misunderstanding of the power of mainstream media outlets. I agree with the book that mainstream media still has much power in our society. For instance television still sets the agenda for politics and it is also the media that many people trust. Another element of news networks is repeated material that also reinforces messages, so getting a clip in the news can provide many free hours of free advertising.