Using technology, building democracy: digital campaigning and the construction of citizenship

This volume provides an account of the emergence of campaign practices in the 2010 mid-terms that reflect what it means to be a citizen in a digital era. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with political consultants across the country, and analysis of campaign texts and the processes of their creation (from websites to social media posts and text messages), the book investigates the solidification of digital strategies in the post-2008 boom in election technology, and uses these emerging trends as lenses to investigate questions that are foundational to the study of politics and citizenship

This volume provides an account of the emergence of campaign practices in the 2010 mid-terms that reflect what it means to be a citizen in a digital era. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with political consultants across the country, and analysis of campaign texts and the processes of their creation (from websites to social media posts and text messages), the book investigates the solidification of digital strategies in the post-2008 boom in election technology, and uses these emerging trends as lenses to investigate questions that are foundational to the study of politics and citizenship.

Introduction : Constructing Citizens -- Incremental Innovation -- Constructing Skeptical Citizens -- Digital Circulation in Networked Publics -- Digital Retail Politics and Interpersonal Messaging in Social Media -- Confounding Control -- Conclusion : Constructions of Citizenship Moving Forward