Few days ago one of my friends sent me an email titled “New Presidential Candidate…Someone We know!” I was so excited to learn more about the content of this email because I knew that it will be strongly related to my “Digital Democracy” class. I typed in my instructor’s name of this course “Kathy Gill” and here what I have got.
http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=46832&altf=Lbuiz1&altl=Hjmm
Actually, I wasn’t so shocked since I am very familiar with the nature of the web; many people use digital technologies to produce practical jokes, but what amazed me the most was the possibility of creating false campaigns which will mislead the online crowd. I will point out two aspects of this alleged campaign, the technical and the ethical side.
On the technical side, I believe adopting videos to promote campaigns is a very smart approach since we are flooded with online videos that compete with each other. While watching the video, I noticed saying “to elect the virtual unknown to the highest office of the country”, I believe that this statement could be very true, and candidates can get the attention they want if they adequately employed the online tools. This video simply illustrates how social media and online coverage can boost candidates when saying “It began on a popular online chat site…”, and “literally thousands of people were chatting and texting in to support this random person…”
On the moral side, this can easily mislead the online population especially if it was done to serve the purpose of manipulation_ this video is a practical joke only. Many politicians have reservations regarding the Web because it has created a fertile ground for fraud.
